Builders support disabled veterans housing needs

National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) recently called on Congress to simplify paperwork requirements and increase grant limits for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Specially Adapted Housing program to help builders and remodelers better accommodate the housing needs to improve the lives of the nation's disabled veterans.

Testifying before the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Brian Catalde, president of NAHB and a home builder from El Segundo, Calif., expressed support for the Specially Adapted Housing program and offered several suggestions to expand or improve the program to better serve the thousands of severely injured veterans whose homes must be modified in ways that will allow them to live independently.

While the Veterans Housing Opportunity and Benefits Act of 2006 signed into law last year did much to improve the Specially Adapted Housing program, Catalde urged lawmakers to enact the following changes to improve the program's effectiveness: