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VA housing grants: SAH, SHA, TRA, and HISA

For fiscal year 2026, VA lists SAH up to $126,526 and SHA up to $25,350. HISA is a separate lifetime benefit. Eligibility is a VA decision.

Livable Later editorial team · Updated November 2, 2026 · About 7 minutes

As of November 2026, VA's disability housing grants page lists a Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) total maximum of $126,526 for fiscal year 2026 and a Special Home Adaptation (SHA) total maximum of $25,350. The same page lists a smaller Temporary Residence Adaptation (TRA) grant, $50,961 if you qualify on an SAH basis and $9,100 on an SHA basis. Home Improvements and Structural Alterations (HISA) is a separate lifetime medical benefit, described by VA prosthetics materials at $6,800 or $2,000 depending on the disability. None of these figures means you qualify. VA decides that from the rating record. Confirm the year's ceiling and your remaining entitlement before you hire a builder.

SAH and SHA are housing grants tied to specific service-connected conditions. TRA adapts a family member's home where the veteran is living temporarily. HISA is run through the VA health system, not the home-loan program. VA adjusts the housing-grant ceilings with a construction-cost index. The dollar figures in this article are from VA's public pages as of November 2026.

SAH and SHA, in VA's words

VA's disability housing grants page says you may be able to get an SAH grant if you will use the money to buy, build, or change a permanent home you own or will own, and you have a qualifying service-connected disability. The qualifying conditions are a statutory list, not a slogan. As of November 2026, VA's page includes, among other bases, loss or loss of use of more than one limb, certain severe burns, blindness in both eyes with visual acuity of 20/200 or less, and the loss or loss of use of one lower extremity after September 11, 2001, when that loss keeps the person from balancing or walking without braces, crutches, a cane, or a wheelchair. Do not treat that sentence as the whole list. Read the current page. VA states that only 120 veterans and service members each fiscal year can qualify on that one-extremity basis. If the cap is full, later years may still be available. That is a queue, not a reason to invent a different basis.

VA states that if you qualify for an SAH grant, you can get up to $126,526 for fiscal year 2026. That is the total maximum, not a check that arrives because you asked. The grant is tied to the cost of the adaptation and to the statutory rules, including, in VA's historical pamphlets, a relationship to the cost of the adapted house. Use the current page, not an old pamphlet. Older VA pamphlets on the web still quote ceilings from past years, such as figures in the sixty-thousands. Those are obsolete.

SHA is the smaller grant. VA says you may qualify if you or a family member own or will own the home and you have a qualifying service-connected disability. VA's page lists, among those conditions, the loss or loss of use of both hands, certain severe burns, and certain respiratory injuries. Again, the page is the list. VA states the SHA maximum for fiscal year 2026 as $25,350.

You do not have to spend the entire grant in one year. VA says an eligible veteran can use SAH or SHA money up to six times over a lifetime, drawing as much as the project needs, with unused entitlement available later. VA may adjust the total maximum each year. VA's explanation: you may receive up to the current total maximum for the last year you use the grant. A worked example on a VA specially adapted housing handout used a veteran who had used $85,000 in an earlier year and, against a fiscal year 2026 maximum of $126,526, had the difference left, subject to the six-use limit. That example is VA's, and your remaining entitlement is whatever VA's records say, not a subtraction you do on a napkin and then spend.

TRA, for adapting a family member's home where the veteran is living temporarily, is smaller. VA's page, as reviewed the same day, listed up to $50,961 in fiscal year 2026 if you qualify for SAH, and up to $9,100 if you qualify for SHA. TRA is not a second full SAH. Ask how a TRA use counts against the six uses. VA materials say a TRA use counts as one of them. Confirm on your own record.

HISA is a different benefit

HISA pays for medically necessary improvements and structural alterations to a primary residence so a veteran can enter or leave, use essential bathroom facilities, reach a sink, or improve an entrance path, and for certain plumbing or electrical changes needed because medical equipment was installed. VA medical-center descriptions and a VA home-loan handout describe a lifetime benefit of $6,800 when the work addresses a service-connected disability, certain disabilities treated as service-connected, or a non-service-connected disability if the veteran has a service-connected disability rated at least 50 percent (the handout and the medical-center page both say percentages are not combined to reach 50). They describe $2,000 when the disability is not in that group. The work has to be medically justified. Application is through the Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service at the VA medical center, often on VA Form 10-0103. Confirm the form number and the amount still available on your record. Older pamphlets quote lower HISA ceilings from earlier regulations. Do not use them.

The same VA handout lists items HISA will not pay for, including walkways to outbuildings, spas and hot tubs, exterior decking, and new construction. A walk-in tub marketed as a spa will get an argument. A grab bar and a doorway may not. Let the prosthetics service say which is which. HISA can sometimes be used along with SAH or other VA construction help. "Sometimes" is a coordination question for the two VA offices, not a stacking right you should assume.

HISA's ceilings will not buy a full elevator or a large addition. SAH might, for a veteran who qualifies, because the ceiling is larger. Starting with the wrong program wastes months. If you have a service-connected disability that might meet SAH or SHA, ask the housing-grant side. If you need a specific medical modification and you get VA health care, ask prosthetics about HISA. You can ask both. Tell each about the other.

Do not start the demolition

VA housing grants have their own builders' rules, inspections, and, for SAH, a process that should be underway before you are committed to a contractor. Ask VA whether you may sign a contract before approval. Assume you may not until they say you may. The hiring guide still applies to the builder you choose: license, insurance, scope. A CAPS credential does not replace VA's minimum property requirements or the SAH agent's instructions.

If you are also looking at a USDA 504 grant or a state program, disclose it. Public money for the same invoice is a compliance problem. Private funds you add to cover a cost above the VA ceiling are normal, because the grant has a maximum and the house may not.

Questions for VA, in order

  • Which program, if any, does the current rating decision appear to support? Ask them to look, and also read the public list yourself.
  • What is the fiscal year's published maximum, and what is my remaining entitlement and remaining number of uses?
  • Does the 120-person annual limit apply to my basis of eligibility?
  • For HISA, which lifetime amount does prosthetics show, and what will they not pay for?
  • What must happen before I sign with a builder?
  • If I use TRA at a relative's house, how does that count against SAH or SHA?

Non-veterans sometimes read this page hoping the amounts apply to a parent who is not a veteran. They do not. A surviving spouse's eligibility, if any, is a VA question on a specific record, not a general yes. The other payment guide is the page for Medicare, Medicaid, and tax rules that are not veteran-specific.

Sources

  • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Disability housing grants. SAH, SHA, and TRA fiscal year 2026 maximums as of November 2026.
  • VA, Specially Adapted Housing webinar handout, benefits.va.gov, including the fiscal year 2026 worked example and the HISA overview.
  • VA Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service, HISA fact sheet, and VA medical center descriptions of the $6,800 and $2,000 lifetime tiers, as of November 2026. Confirm the amount still available at your medical center. The sheet says the amounts are subject to change.
  • VA Form 10-0103, used to apply for HISA through Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service.
  • National Institute on Aging, Aging in place.