Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF): housing help

Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) is a program of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It helps veteran families who are homeless or will lose their home within 30 days. A local nonprofit gives you a case manager and, for a limited time, can pay your rent, deposit or moving costs. To be connected with one, call 877-424-3838, any time.

Who qualifies for SSVF?

You need to meet all three of these tests, set by the program's federal rule:

• You are a veteran family. That means a single veteran, or a household whose head or spouse is a veteran. A veteran is someone who served in the active military, naval or air service and was discharged. The rule leaves out only a dishonorable discharge and a discharge by a general court-martial, and it sets no minimum length of service.
• Your income is low enough. The rule's income limit is the most your household can earn. It is the very low limit that HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, publishes each year for your area and household size. HUD bases it on the area median income, the middle income in your area. Since October 1, 2026, VA has let the local nonprofits that run SSVF, called providers, serve veterans earning up to HUD's higher low income limit. Ask the provider which limit it uses.
• You are homeless or about to be. Either you have no permanent home, or you have one and will lose it within the next 30 days without SSVF.

What counts as homeless, and what is prevention?

For SSVF, you are homeless if you sleep in a car, a park or another place not meant for living. You are also homeless if you stay in a shelter or in transitional housing, a temporary home with support services. A family that left permanent housing in the last 90 days to look for a better place, and is now homeless, counts too. For a homeless family, SSVF offers rapid re-housing: the provider helps you move into a permanent home quickly. VA says a job, income, a clean record or sobriety isn't required first.

Homelessness prevention is for a family that still has a home but will become homeless within the next 30 days without SSVF. The provider may pay costs, or it may only talk with your landlord or family, or connect you with other programs.

What does SSVF pay for?

SSVF pays for rent, utilities, deposits, moving costs and other costs of getting housed, within the limits below. Every SSVF provider must also give you a case manager and help you get VA benefits and other public benefits, such as food or income support. It must also connect you with legal help for problems that put your housing at risk. Any money goes straight to your landlord, utility company or other business, never to you as cash. These are the rule's limits:

In some high-cost counties, a provider can also pay up to half of a reasonable rent for up to two years. Ask the provider whether your county qualifies. A family fleeing domestic violence can get help beyond the limits above. A provider may ask you to pay part of your rent while it covers the rest.

SSVF can't pay mortgage costs, credit card or other debts, medical or dental care, medicines, or building repairs.

How do you apply for SSVF?

1. Call 877-424-3838. The National Call Center for Homeless Veterans is free, confidential and open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can also chat online with a VA counselor, or visit a VA medical center and ask for the homeless program.
2. Get connected to a provider. The call center connects you with the SSVF nonprofit that serves your county. VA's SSVF page also lists every funded provider.
3. Show that you qualify. The provider must check your eligibility before it helps you, and again at least every 3 months. Ask what papers it needs, such as your discharge papers, proof of income and a notice from your landlord.
4. Make a plan with your case manager. Before it pays rent, the provider must help you plan how you'll pay rent once SSVF ends, for example by raising your income or getting benefits.
5. Expect a referral. Providers work with their area's coordinated entry system, the local process that matches homeless people with housing programs, so you may be referred to other programs too.

How is SSVF different from HUD-VASH?

SSVF gives short-term help through a nonprofit: a case manager and, for a limited time, money toward rent and moving. HUD-VASH (HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) gives a homeless veteran a VA case manager and a Section 8 voucher, which pays part of the rent while the veteran qualifies. VA refers you to HUD-VASH; you don't apply at the housing authority (the local housing office). SSVF can't pay for a cost that another federal housing program already covers for the same months, so ask your case manager how the two fit together.

What should you do next?

Call 877-424-3838 today, even if you still have a home, and tell them when you will lose it. Then look for housing that puts veterans first. Some lotteries, which are random drawings for apartments, give veterans preference, which moves them up the list. So do some waitlists, which are lines for the next free apartment. A few buildings are only for veterans.

Search listings you can apply for now and read each one's rules for a veterans preference. Use our qualify check to see which listings fit your household's size and income. Join the Section 8 and public housing lists on our waitlists page too; public housing is apartments a housing office owns and rents out. For a longer-term home, see what you qualify for and apply for subsidized housing, where the government pays part of the rent.