Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs’ Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development, introduced the “Housing for All Veterans Act” (S.4560) on July 10. The NLIHC-endorsed legislation would make housing assistance universally available to all low-income veterans. If enacted, the bill would help bring an end to veteran homelessness and pave the way to universal rental assistance for all households in need.
The Housing for All Veterans Act would:
- Guarantee access to a housing voucher for all veterans in need. The availability of these vouchers would not be limited by annual discretionary funding levels. The vouchers would be phased in over five years.
- Help public housing authorities electronically verify veteran status and lease units.
- Protect veteran households from source-of-income discrimination.
- Maximize access to vouchers by excluding veteran disability benefits from income eligibility calculations.
- Support veterans with active-duty service, the National Guard, and reserve forces.
“I applaud Senator Tina Smith for introducing the Housing for All Veterans Act to make housing assistance universally available to all low-income veterans who have bravely served our nation,” said NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel in a press release. “I urge Congress to quickly enact this legislation to help end veteran homelessness once and for all and make an important step towards ensuring universal rental assistance for all households in need.”
President Biden included a proposal to guarantee universal rental assistance for all extremely low-income veterans and youth aging out of foster care in his fiscal year 2025 budget request – a step towards universal rental assistance for all households in need (see Memo, 3/11). Expanding rental assistance to make it universally available to all eligible households is a top priority of NLIHC’s HoUSed campaign.
A summary of the “Housing for All Veterans Act” is available at: https://tinyurl.com/yrrsxept
Read the bill text at: https://tinyurl.com/j3465sas
Read the press release at: https://tinyurl.com/yc2mt9a9