Carbajal and Smucker Introduce Bipartisan Home for the Brave ActBill to Aid Homeless Veterans on Central Coast
Santa Barbara,
November 9, 2017
Santa Barbara – Today, Representative Salud Carbajal (CA-24) and Representative Lloyd Smucker (PA-16) introduced the bipartisan Home for the Brave Act of 2017. H.R. 4322 would exempt disability benefits from counting toward total income when determining eligibility for housing assistance programs through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). “It is wrong to deny veterans access to housing assistance programs for benefits they receive for service-related injury or illness,” said Rep. Carbajal. “I am glad to work across the aisle to assist our homeless veterans on the Central Coast and across the country ahead of Veterans’ Day. They stepped up to defend our national security and Congress must step up for them to fix this egregious penalty against our disabled veterans.” “Our veterans have put their lives at great risk to keep all of us safe back home. To return home and be priced out of housing assistance simply because they receive service-related disability benefits is just plain wrong,” said Rep. Smucker. “Our district has made great strides to eliminate veteran homelessness, and I am proud to stand with my constituents in this noble effort. I want to thank Rep. Carbajal for his work on behalf of our nation’s veterans and their families and look forward to working together to get this legislation passed.” Background Financial benefits for service-connected disabilities are currently counted as income when determining eligibility for housing assistance programs through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). As a result, many veterans are determined ineligible for these housing programs because their disability benefits are placing them at a higher income level. Other agencies, including the International Revenue Service (IRS), does not consider veterans benefits for service-connected disabilities income. Roughly 25% of the estimated 39,000 homeless veterans in the United States live in California. Read the full text of the Home for the Brave Act of 2017 here.
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