VA Home Modification Grants: HISA, SAH, SHA and TRA

These are the easy-to-miss angles — the early-eligibility rules and quiet ways veteran families leave help on the table. Each one is explained in full below.

The VA does not have one home modification program. It has several, run by different parts of the VA, with very different dollar amounts and very different eligibility rules. Families often hear about only one of them and assume that is all there is.

The Home Improvements and Structural Alterations grant, usually called HISA, is run by the Veterans Health Administration through your local VA medical center's Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service. It is the smaller, more widely available grant, and it is the one most older veterans getting care at home end up using.

Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) and Special Home Adaptation (SHA) are run by the Veterans Benefits Administration on the housing side. They are far larger, but they are limited to veterans with certain severe service-connected disabilities. Temporary Residence Adaptation (TRA) is a related option for a veteran who is living temporarily in a family member's home. There is also a fourth, quieter door: the Veteran Readiness and Employment Independent Living track, which can include housing adaptations.

One naming note that trips people up in searches: VA's current website calls the second grant Special Home Adaptation, while some older VA fact sheets call the same program Special Housing Adaptation. Both mean SHA.

These programs are not necessarily either-or. VA's own HISA brochure states that a veteran may receive both a HISA grant and either a Special Home Adaptation grant or a Specially Adapted Housing grant. Ask your VA prosthetics office and, if you are applying for SAH or SHA, your assigned VA representative how the pieces fit together in your situation. A free accredited Veterans Service Organization representative can help you sort this out at no cost.

This guide is written by a home care education team. It is not produced by, affiliated with, or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Only VA can decide eligibility or approve a grant.

HISA pays for medically necessary improvements and structural alterations to a veteran's or service member's primary residence. VA describes the purpose as allowing a person to get in and out of the home, to use essential lavatory and sanitary facilities, and to reach kitchen or bathroom sinks and counters.

In plain terms, this is the money that turns a step-over bathtub into a roll-in shower, builds a permanent wooden or concrete ramp to the front door, widens a bedroom or bathroom doorway for a wheelchair, lowers a sink or counter, and upgrades plumbing or electrical work when medical equipment such as home dialysis is being installed. VA also lists improving entrance paths or driveways in the immediate area of the home.

There is a real list of things HISA will not pay for, and knowing it up front saves families a wasted application. VA's Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service materials exclude exterior decking, spas, hot tubs and Jacuzzi-type tubs, home security systems, walkways to exterior buildings, new construction, routine home maintenance such as a new roof or furnace, and — this one surprises people — removable equipment or appliances such as portable ramps, porch lifts and stair glides.

Local VA medical centers can apply these rules with some variation, and older VA brochures include size caps on items such as driveway widening and decking. Before you commit to a design, ask your local Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service to confirm in writing that the specific work you are planning is covered.

HISA is a lifetime benefit with two tiers, and the amounts are written into federal regulation at 38 CFR 17.3105 rather than being adjusted every year. That is why they do not move with the December 1 cost-of-living increase.

For a veteran who first applies on or after May 5, 2010, the lifetime HISA limit is $6,800 if the request addresses a service-connected disability, a compensable disability treated as if it were service-connected, or a non-service-connected disability when the veteran already has a service-connected disability rated at least 50 percent disabling. For other eligible veterans, the lifetime limit is $2,000. The same $6,800 and $2,000 tiers apply to eligible service members.

Veterans who first applied before May 5, 2010 are held to the older limits of $4,100 and $1,200 respectively. Note that VA's printed HISA brochure still shows those older $4,100 and $1,200 figures, so do not be alarmed if you see them — the current regulation and VA's HISA web page both show $6,800 and $2,000.

We confirmed these figures against 38 CFR 17.3105 and VA's HISA page in August 2026. Because regulations can change, confirm the current amount with your VA prosthetics office before you sign a contract.

Two practical points. First, this is a lifetime pot you can spend in pieces. The regulation says HISA benefits approved by VA for a particular home alteration but unused by the beneficiary remain available for future use. Second, the regulation allows a veteran who moves from the lower benefit category into the higher one to apply for the increased lifetime amount, reduced by whatever HISA money was already used. If your service-connected rating has gone up since your last project, ask about this.

HISA is a medical benefit, so it starts with a VA clinician, not with a form you mail to a regional office. The application package must include a prescription from a VA or fee-basis physician that names the veteran, describes the specific items required, and gives the diagnosis with medical justification for the prescribed improvement.

That medical justification matters more than anything else in the file. VA's own guidance ties approval to medical justification for the service-connected or non-service-connected disability. A vague note saying the veteran has trouble bathing is weaker than a note that explains the fall risk, the transfer limitation and why a roll-in shower is the appropriate answer.

Under 38 CFR 17.3102, HISA benefits are available to a veteran who is eligible for medical services under 38 U.S.C. 1710(a), and to a service member undergoing medical discharge from the Armed Forces for a permanent disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty. In practice that means being connected to VA health care. VA decides eligibility case by case — nothing here guarantees approval.

At many VA medical centers the process now begins when your provider places a HISA consult, and you receive a form asking you to upload photos of the area of the home you want altered. Ask your local Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service how their process works and what your remaining lifetime HISA balance is before you start collecting bids.

You never have to pay anyone to help with this. A County Veterans Service Officer or an accredited VSO representative can help you at no cost.

SAH and SHA are the big housing grants. They exist so that veterans with certain severe service-connected disabilities can live in a barrier-free home — building one, remodeling one, buying one already adapted, or applying the money against the mortgage on an adapted home.

For fiscal year 2026, VA published maximum aggregate amounts of $126,526 for SAH and $25,349 for SHA. Those figures took effect October 1, 2025 and reflect a 3.87 percent increase. VA's own web page rounds the SHA figure to $25,350. If you are planning right up against the cap, confirm the exact number with VA.

These are fiscal year 2026 figures, in effect through September 30, 2026. They do not follow the December 1 cost-of-living increase that changes disability compensation and pension. Congress allows VA to adjust SAH grant amounts each year based on a residential cost-of-construction index, and the change takes effect October 1, at the start of the federal fiscal year. If you are reading this on or after October 1, 2026, new figures will have been published — always confirm the current amount with VA before budgeting.

One rule families routinely get wrong: VA states that if you are eligible for an SAH or SHA grant, you can use money from your grant up to six different times over your lifetime, within the maximum aggregate amount. It is not necessarily a single one-shot payment.

The lists below are VA's plain-language summary of who may qualify. The actual criteria live in 38 U.S.C. 2101 and are more detailed than any summary, and VA — not a website — makes the determination. Do not rule your family out based on a bullet list. Apply, and let a free accredited VSO representative help you.

TRA is for a veteran or service member who qualifies for SAH or SHA but is living temporarily in a home owned by a family member — often an adult child's house after a hospital stay or during recovery.

For fiscal year 2026, VA published a maximum TRA amount of $50,961 for someone eligible under the SAH criteria and $9,099 for someone eligible under the SHA criteria, both effective October 1, 2025. VA's website rounds the second figure to $9,100. Like the SAH and SHA maximums, these are fiscal year figures that can change each October 1 — confirm the current amount with VA.

TRA lets the family member's home be adapted so the veteran can actually live there safely, rather than forcing a choice between an unsafe house and a facility. Because TRA is charged against your SAH or SHA entitlement, ask VA directly how using TRA now would affect a future SAH or SHA grant before you commit, and get the answer in writing if you can.

No, Original Medicare does not pay for permanent home modifications. This is the single biggest misunderstanding families bring to us. Medicare Part B pays for durable medical equipment, and the federal definition of durable medical equipment at 42 CFR 414.202 is narrow: it must withstand repeated use, have an expected life of at least three years for items classified as DME after January 1, 2012, be primarily and customarily used to serve a medical purpose, generally not be useful to someone in the absence of an illness or injury, and be appropriate for use in the home. A walker or a wheelchair fits that definition. A tiled roll-in shower, a widened doorway or a poured concrete ramp does not — those are part of the house, not equipment.

Medicare Advantage plans are a different story. Federal rules let these plans offer supplemental benefits, including special supplemental benefits for the chronically ill that need not be primarily health related, as long as they can reasonably be expected to improve or maintain the enrollee's health or overall function. Some plans have used that flexibility to offer home safety items such as grab bars or bathroom safety devices. This varies enormously by plan, county and year. If your loved one is in an Advantage plan, call the plan directly and ask what the Evidence of Coverage actually says. Do not assume.

California does not have a single statewide grant that pays for home modifications. The California Department of Aging points people toward their local Area Agency on Aging, which it says may also be able to refer families to non-profit groups in the area, and it names Rebuilding Together as one nonprofit that helps older adults make relatively simple home modifications using trained volunteers. Many Southern California cities and counties also run their own housing rehabilitation or minor home repair programs using federal housing block grant money — the amounts and rules are set locally, so ask your city's housing department.

For a veteran, this is exactly why HISA is worth pursuing. It is often the only program that will actually write a check for structural work.

An occupational therapist is trained to look at a home the way your loved one's body has to move through it, and that is precisely the evidence a HISA prescription needs. VA lists home safety and accessibility, and productive aging and aging in place, among the areas its occupational therapists work in, and VA occupational therapy services are provided in outpatient clinics, inpatient settings, Community Living Centers, veterans' homes and communities, and through tele-rehabilitation.

VA has also expanded telehealth occupational therapy, so a therapist can observe a veteran moving through their own home by video — which matters a great deal if getting to the medical center is difficult. Ask your VA team whether a home safety evaluation, in person or by video, is available before you apply.

A good OT assessment turns a general request into a specific, defensible one. Instead of asking for a bathroom remodel, the record shows that the veteran cannot step over a high tub wall, has fallen twice transferring, and needs a zero-threshold shower with a fold-down seat and grab bars at a specified height. That is the kind of medical justification a HISA reviewer can act on.

The same assessment also helps you spend the grant well. HISA has a hard lifetime cap, so an OT's judgment about what actually needs to change — and what does not — protects money you may need for a different room in three years.

Help with VA claims is free, and you should almost never pay for it. VA states plainly that the services an accredited VSO representative provides on your VA benefit claims are always free. County Veterans Service Officers, VSO representatives from organizations like DAV, VFW, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the American Legion, and VA's own staff can all help you at no cost.

Federal regulation backs this up. Under 38 CFR 14.636, recognized organizations, including their accredited representatives when acting as such, are not permitted to receive fees. Accredited attorneys and claims agents may charge fees, but generally only for representation provided after an agency of original jurisdiction has issued notice of an initial decision on the claim — not for helping you file it in the first place.

So be cautious with any business that offers, for a percentage or an up-front fee, to prepare or file a VA claim for you before there is a decision. Ask whether they are VA-accredited, and check for yourself using VA's accredited representative search. If someone pressures you, asks for a share of your back pay, or discourages you from talking to a County Veterans Service Officer, walk away.

For HISA specifically, the person who can move things fastest is usually not a lawyer at all — it is your VA prosthetics office and the clinician who writes the prescription. Start there.