The HISA grant is the one VA program that pays a contractor to change the house a veteran already lives in. It is not a loan, it is not reimbursed through a disability rating, and it is not the same thing as the large housing grants most search results lead with. It is a lifetime medical benefit administered by the Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service at your local VA medical center, and it is capped at either $6,800 or $2,000 depending on one specific question about your disability.
This page walks the program end to end using only what VA has published: what the money covers, what it explicitly refuses to cover, which of the two caps applies to you, what has to be in the application package, and where HISA sits next to the SAH and SHA grants that people often confuse it with. Where VA has not published a number, we say so and name the pages we checked rather than filling the gap with an estimate.
What the HISA grant actually is
HISA stands for Home Improvements and Structural Alterations. VA describes it as a benefit that provides medically necessary improvements and structural alterations to the primary residence of a veteran or service member. Two words in that sentence do most of the work.
Medically necessary means the project has to be prescribed. A HISA application is not a request for a home improvement budget; it is a prescription written or approved by a VA physician, with a diagnosis attached and a medical justification explaining why this particular alteration is clinically appropriate for this particular person. If the paperwork cannot connect the ramp to the condition, the ramp is not a HISA project.
Primary residence means the home you actually live in. HISA is not a benefit for a rental you own, a vacation property, or a future home. It also does not require you to own the home you live in — renters can use HISA, with one extra document we cover below.
The program runs through VHA, not VBA. That distinction matters more than it sounds: HISA is handled by the Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service at your VA medical center, under VHA Directive 1173.14(1), while the better-known SAH and SHA housing grants are run by the Veterans Benefits Administration on a completely separate track. They have different applications, different offices, different dollar amounts, and different eligibility rules. You can hold both.
Who qualifies for a HISA grant
HISA eligibility is not a single yes-or-no gate. It is a gate that decides which of two dollar amounts you get. VA publishes three routes to the higher $6,800 amount and one catch-all route to the lower $2,000 amount.
| Lifetime amount | Who it applies to |
|---|---|
| $6,800 | A project addressing a service-connected disability |
| $6,800 | A project addressing a compensable disability treated “as if” it is service-connected, where the veteran is entitled to medical services under 38 U.S.C. 1710(a)(2)(c) — for example a disability acquired through treatment or vocational rehabilitation provided by VA |
| $6,800 | A project addressing a non-service-connected disability, if the beneficiary has a service-connected disability rated at least 50 percent |
| $2,000 | A project addressing a disability that does not fall under any of the three rows above |
The third row carries a restriction that trips people up, and VA states it flatly: no combining or combination of disability percentages is allowed. The 50 percent has to sit on a single service-connected disability. A veteran with several ratings that add to 50 percent combined does not clear that bar for the purpose of the higher HISA cap.
Note also what the table does not say. There is no income test. There is no age test. There is no requirement that you own the home. And there is no requirement to be rated 100 percent — a common assumption that the published rules simply do not support.
How much the HISA grant pays
$6,800 and $2,000 are lifetime figures, not annual ones. VA calls it a lifetime benefit for veterans and service members. That single word changes how the benefit should be planned: a veteran who spends $2,400 widening a doorway this year has $4,400 of headroom left for the rest of their life, not a fresh $6,800 next January.
It also means the balance is a real number sitting in a real file. VA’s instruction is to contact your local Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service to determine your available lifetime HISA benefits — which is the only way to find out whether a previous project already drew the account down.
Two practical consequences follow. First, on any project likely to exceed the cap, HISA is a contribution rather than a payment; the remainder is yours or another program’s. Second, sequencing matters. If a bathroom and an entrance both need work and the combined bid exceeds the cap, the choice of which to fund with HISA is effectively permanent.
What the HISA grant covers
VA lists five purposes the benefit exists to serve:
- Allowing entrance to or exit from the primary residence
- Use of essential lavatory and sanitary facilities — VA gives roll-in showers as the example
- Allowing accessibility to kitchen or bathroom sinks or counters, such as lowering counters and sinks
- Improving entrance paths or driveways in the immediate area of the home to facilitate access through construction of permanent ramping
- Improving plumbing or electrical systems made necessary by the installation of home medical equipment
Read as a set, these five describe a narrow and coherent idea: getting into the house, getting into the bathroom, reaching a sink, and powering equipment. Everything HISA funds is a route or a fixture. Nothing on the list is comfort, resale value, or general modernization.
The word permanent in the ramping line is doing quiet work too, and it reappears in the exclusions. HISA pays for construction that becomes part of the house. It does not pay for equipment that could be carried out the door.
What the HISA grant will not pay for
VA publishes the exclusions in two places on the same page — a short list and a longer paragraph. Together they read as follows.
| Excluded | Why it falls outside the program |
|---|---|
| Walkways to exterior buildings | Not access to the primary residence |
| Spa, hot tub, or Jacuzzi — including Jacuzzi-type tubs | Not an essential sanitary facility |
| Exterior decking | Not a route into the home |
| New construction | HISA alters an existing residence |
| Home security systems | Not among the five published purposes |
| Removable equipment or appliances, such as portable ramps | Not a structural alteration |
| Porch lifts and stair glides | Equipment rather than construction |
| Routine repairs that are part of regular home maintenance, such as replacing roofs, furnaces, or air conditioners | Maintenance, not accessibility |
Two of these rows are worth pausing on, because they are the two most common reasons a HISA application is aimed at the wrong thing.
Stair glides and porch lifts are out. A stair lift is the single most-searched accessibility purchase in American homes, and HISA does not fund it — it is equipment, not construction. The same logic that excludes it from HISA also shapes how other programs treat it, which we cover in the same question asked of Medicare.
Jacuzzi-type tubs are out, roll-in showers are in. This is the sharpest line VA draws in the bathroom. A roll-in shower is named as an example of an essential sanitary facility; a spa, hot tub, or Jacuzzi-type tub is named as an exclusion. A walk-in tub sold on therapeutic jet features sits uncomfortably close to that exclusion. We walk the same distinction through a different funder in our page on walk-in tubs.
How much does VA pay for a walk-in shower?
VA does not publish a per-item price for a roll-in shower, a ramp, a widened doorway, or any other HISA project. There is no fee schedule for this benefit the way there is for automobile adaptive equipment. What VA publishes is the ceiling: whatever the shower costs, HISA will contribute up to your remaining lifetime balance of $6,800 or $2,000.
The actual figure on any given project comes from the written itemized estimate of costs for labor, materials, permits, and inspections that you submit with the application. That estimate, not a VA price list, is what the approval is written against. A roll-in shower conversion that comes in under the cap can be funded in full; one that comes in over it is funded to the cap.
So the honest answer to the question is a range with a hard top and no published bottom, and anyone quoting you a specific VA shower allowance is quoting something VA has not published.
How long does it take to get a HISA grant approved?
Not published. VA does not state a processing time, a target turnaround, or a service-level standard for HISA anywhere we could find. We checked the Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service HISA page, the VA disability housing grants page, and the VA Form 10-0103 form page. None of the three carries a timeline. We are not going to invent one.
What VA does publish is the shape of the process, and the shape tells you where time goes. The application cannot start until a VA physician writes or approves the prescription, which means it starts with a clinical appointment. It cannot be submitted until a contractor has produced a written itemized estimate. If you rent, it cannot be submitted until you have a signed and notarized statement from the owner. And after submission, VA notes that an inspection of the site by VA may be warranted.
Four of those five steps depend on someone other than you — a physician, a contractor, possibly a landlord, possibly an inspector. That, rather than any published clock, is what determines how long a HISA application takes. The single most useful thing an applicant can do is get all five package components ready before submitting, so the file is never waiting on a missing photograph.
Your local Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service is the office that can give you a real answer for your facility. VA directs applicants to the Facility Locator to find it, and that is also the office that holds your remaining lifetime balance.
What has to be in the application package
VA specifies a complete HISA application package as five components. A file missing any of them is not a complete application.
| # | Component | What it has to contain |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A prescription written or approved by a VA physician | Your name, address and telephone number; a description of the prescribed project including the area of the home to be altered, the type of modification, all alternatives to it, and items requiring installation; and the diagnosis plus medical justification showing the project is clinically appropriate for your needs |
| 2 | VA Form 10-0103 | Veterans Application for Assistance in Acquiring Home Improvement and Structural Alterations, completed and signed. If you want an advance payment, you request it on this application |
| 3 | Owner authorization — renters only | A signed and notarized statement from the owner authorizing the improvement or structural alteration |
| 4 | A written itemized estimate | Costs for labor, materials, permits, and inspections |
| 5 | A color photograph | The unimproved area, as it stands today |
Component 1 deserves more attention than it usually gets. VA asks the prescribing physician to describe not just the modification but all alternatives to the modification. That is a request to show the prescribed project is the appropriate option, not merely an option — and it is the part of the package a rushed appointment is most likely to leave thin.
The advance payment provision in component 2 is easy to miss and financially significant. If you need the money before the contractor is paid rather than after, that has to be requested on the application itself.
What grants are available for 100 percent disabled veterans?
HISA is the smallest of the VA home modification benefits, and for veterans with severe service-connected disabilities it is usually not the largest one available. The Veterans Benefits Administration runs three housing grants on a separate track, and their FY 2026 maximums dwarf the HISA cap.
| Grant | FY 2026 maximum | What it is for | Who runs it |
|---|---|---|---|
| HISA | $6,800 or $2,000 lifetime | Medically necessary alterations to your primary residence | VHA — Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service |
| Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) | $126,526 | Buying, building, or changing a permanent home you own or will own | VBA |
| Special Home Adaptation (SHA) | $25,350 | Buying, building, or changing a permanent home you or a family member own or will own | VBA |
| Temporary Residence Adaptation (TRA), if SAH-qualified | $50,961 | Changing a family member’s home you are living in temporarily | VBA |
| Temporary Residence Adaptation (TRA), if SHA-qualified | $9,100 | Changing a family member’s home you are living in temporarily | VBA |
The eligibility rules for SAH and SHA are not rating-percentage rules at all — they are specific-condition rules. VA lists SAH qualifying disabilities as the loss or loss of use of more than one limb; the loss or loss of use of a lower leg along with the residuals of an organic disease or injury; blindness in both eyes with 20/200 visual acuity or less; certain severe burns; and the loss or loss of use of one lower extremity after September 11, 2001, that makes it impossible to balance or walk without braces, crutches, canes, or a wheelchair. SHA lists the loss or loss of use of both hands, certain severe burns, and certain respiratory or breathing injuries.
That last SAH route carries a cap Congress set: only 120 veterans and service members per fiscal year can qualify on the basis of losing one extremity after September 11, 2001. VA notes that if you qualify in a year when the 120 limit has been reached, you may be able to receive the benefit in a future year.
SAH and SHA also work differently from HISA in one useful way: VA says an eligible veteran can use money from the grant up to six different times over their lifetime, drawing as much or as little as a given project needs, and that VA may adjust the maximum each year based on construction costs — with the veteran able to receive up to the maximum for the last year in which they use the grant.
So the practical answer for a severely disabled veteran is: check SAH first, SHA second, and treat HISA as the benefit that handles the medically necessary alterations those grants are not being used for. They are not mutually exclusive, and they are not administered by the same people.
Where HISA fits among everything else
HISA is one of a small number of programs in the United States that will actually write a check against a home modification. Most of the others are means-tested, state-administered, or restricted to a narrow list of alterations. We map the full set — including Medicaid waivers, USDA rural repair programs, and state and local funds — in our overview of the sources that do fund home modifications.
If you are not a veteran, or the veteran in your household does not have a qualifying disability, the two most productive next steps are usually the Medicaid route, covered in our page on whether Medicaid pays for home modifications, and a clear-eyed look at what the work actually costs before you go looking for funding, which is the subject of our aging in place cost breakdown.
What we checked
Every figure and every exclusion on this page comes from one of two VA pages, both read directly on August 4, 2026: the Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service page for Home Improvements/Structural Alterations, which VA last updated February 12, 2025, and the VA Disability Housing Grants page, last updated November 18, 2025. The form details come from the VA Form 10-0103 page, which carries a February 2025 form revision date. The governing policy document VA cites for HISA is VHA Directive 1173.14(1).
We looked for a published HISA processing timeline on all three pages and did not find one. Where this page says a number is not published, that is what we mean: VA has not stated it, and we have not estimated it.
Program rules and dollar amounts change, and the SAH, SHA, and TRA maximums are adjusted by fiscal year. Confirm current figures with your local Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service before committing to a project.
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