Department of Veterans Affairs May 9, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) proposes to amend its regulations concerning the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program (SSVF). The proposed changes would clarify, consistent with existing regulations, that grantees must focus on providing permanent housing to eligible veteran families who, without SSVF assistance, would likely become homeless. The proposed clarifications are intended to emphasize the intended goals of SSVF. The proposed rule would expand grantees' authority to provide certain services to all very low-income veteran families, and specifically to those veteran families with significantly lower economic resources, which we would identify as extremely low-income veteran families. The purpose of this expanded authority is to address identified needs based on the administration of SSVF since its inception, and to provide greater incentive to grantees to assist these particularly vulnerable veteran families. Finally, the proposed rule would clarify that certain services are not permissible uses of SSVF funds.