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VA Home Modification Grants: SAH, SHA and What They Actually Cover

By Home For Years Editorial Team · Last updated 2026-10-23

Most families never ask whether a grant applies. They ask what a stairlift costs, get a number, and start working out how to pay it — when for one group of people the answer is that the federal government may pay for the whole adaptation, including the parts nobody budgets for.

The catch is that the eligibility is narrow and specific. This page is about who actually qualifies.

The four grants, and what each is for

Source: [1]. These are the FY 2026 caps, the latest verified at the time of writing — the VA's own page was last updated 18 November 2025 and still carries FY 2026 figures. FY 2027 amounts had not been published. Confirm the current number with VA before you plan around it.

The distinction that matters: SAH and SHA are for a home you own and intend to keep. The TRA versions exist because a veteran may be living temporarily in a family member's house, and that house still needs to work.

Who qualifies for SAH?

Two things must both be true: you own or will own the home, and you have a qualifying service-connected disability [1].

The qualifying disabilities listed by VA are specific [1]:

• Loss, or loss of use, of more than one limb
• Loss or loss of use of a lower leg, with residuals of an organic disease or injury
• Blindness in both eyes, 20/200 acuity or less
• Certain severe burns
• Loss or loss of use of one lower extremity after 11 September 2001, where balance or walking requires braces, crutches, canes or a wheelchair

That last category carries a limit most people do not know about: Congress caps it at 120 veterans and service members per fiscal year [1]. A fiscal year runs 1 October to 30 September. If you qualify but the cap is reached, VA says you may be able to receive the benefit in a future year [1].

Who qualifies for SHA?

The ownership test is looser — you or a family member own or will own the home [1]. That is what makes SHA usable when a veteran moves in with an adult child.

The qualifying disabilities are different [1]:

• Loss or loss of use of both hands
• Certain severe burns
• Certain respiratory or breathing injuries

Note what is not on either list: age, general mobility difficulty, arthritis, or a diagnosis that makes stairs hard. These grants are not a general ageing-in-place benefit. A veteran with bad knees and no qualifying service-connected disability does not qualify for SAH or SHA, whatever the house needs.

You do not have to spend it all at once

This is the most useful administrative detail in the programme.

If you are eligible, you can draw on the grant up to six separate times over your lifetime [1]. You can use as much or as little as you need in a given year, and if you do not use the full amount you can use more in later years [1].

VA may adjust the maximum each year based on construction costs, and you may receive up to the current maximum for the last year you use the grant [1].

Practically: a veteran who installs a ramp this year has not spent the grant. The stairlift or bathroom conversion in three years is still covered.

What can the money be spent on?

VA describes the purpose as buying or changing a home so it meets the veteran's needs — naming ramps and widened doorways as examples [1]. In practice the grants are used for the adaptations that come up on this site: ramps, widened doors, bathroom conversions, stairlifts and residential elevators.

SAH at $126,526 is large enough to cover a residential elevator including the shaft and the electrical work — which is why the grant changes the arithmetic completely for a qualifying veteran. Our home elevator cost guide explains why that project is usually the most expensive in this category.

None of this is discretionary spending money. The grant pays for the adaptation, against a bid, through the VA process.

There is a second, smaller benefit most people miss

VA also runs a Home Improvements and Structural Alterations benefit, separate from the four housing grants, with much lower caps and different eligibility.

We are not publishing a figure for it here. The VA page we could verify does not carry the current HISA amounts, and quoting an outdated number would be worse than quoting none. Ask VA directly for the current HISA cap — it is a different programme from SAH and SHA, and families routinely conflate them.

How do you apply?

The application is VA Form 26-4555, and it can be submitted online, by mail or in person [2].

Before applying, it helps to have: proof of ownership, the disability documentation VA already holds, and a realistic idea of what the adaptation is — because the grant is released against a project, not as a lump sum.

What this does not solve

It is not fast. A grant application, a bid, and construction scheduling are three separate waits. If the need is urgent, the grant will not be the thing that solves it this month.

It does not cover a rental you do not own — except through the TRA versions, which require you to already qualify for SAH or SHA [1].

It does not touch Medicare. Medicare does not pay for home modifications, and a stairlift is not classified as durable medical equipment. The VA route and the Medicare route are entirely separate, and only one of them has money in it for this.

About the numbers. All grant figures are from the VA and are dated to FY 2026. They are maximums, not entitlements — the actual award depends on the approved project. We are not affiliated with VA and cannot advise on an individual claim; the application and any appeal go through VA.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Disability housing grants for Veterans — FY 2026 caps; page last updated 18 November 2025.
2. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, How to apply for a disability housing grant — Form 26-4555.

Disclosure. Both sources are U.S. government publications. No commercial source was used for any figure on this page, and nothing here was paid for.

All sources accessed 2026-10-23. Grant caps are reset each fiscal year — re-check before relying on any figure above.