VA Gives $10 Million Grant for Texas Veterans Home

VA Gives $10 Million Grant for Texas Veterans Home

WASHINGTON – Veterans in Texas will have greater access to long-term health care, thanks to a $10 million grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to build a state nursing home in Amarillo.

“This grant honors our commitment to care for the men and women who have served in uniform,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. “Our federal-state partnership will provide a comfortable home for Texas’s veterans in a time of great personal need.”

The $10 million grant will pay up to 65 percent of the cost to construct and equip a 120-bed state nursing home in Amarillo. Overall cost of the project is estimated at $15.8 million.

In fiscal year 2004, the Department of Veterans Affairs spent more than $4.9 billion in Texas to serve 1.6 million state veterans. VA operates 10 major medical centers, with outpatient clinics and Vet Centers in many communities.

Texas also operates state veterans homes in Big Spring, Bonham, Floresville and Temple, with two future sites in El Paso and McAllen. The homes are available to veterans who were discharged or released from active military service for a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty. Residents must have lived in Texas for at least one year immediately prior to application for admission or been a Texas resident at the time of entry into military service, and have honorable discharges.

Further information about Texas’s veteran’s homes is available on the web at glo.state.tx.us/vlb/vethomes/. # # # June 3, 2005