Florida State Veterans Homes: Who Gets In, Costs, and How to Apply

At a Florida state veterans home with a VA State home care agreement, VA's payment is payment in full for some veterans' nursing home care. That covers a veteran who needs nursing home care and is rated 70% or more, has a TDIU rating, or needs that care for a service-connected disability.1 The Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs (FDVA) runs nine Florida state veterans homes: eight skilled nursing homes and one assisted living home in Lake City.2

If a doctor or a VA social worker has just told your family to "look at the veterans home," you probably have a dozen questions at once, and most of them are about your parent's safety and your family's money. The good news is that Florida's admission and payment rules are written down in state law. You don't have to work it all out today; start with the home nearest the people who'll visit most.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What a State Veterans Home Is (and Isn't)
• Where Are Florida's State Veterans Homes?
• Who Qualifies for a Florida State Veterans Home?
• Who Gets a Bed First
• What Does a Florida State Veterans Home Cost?
• When VA Pays the Whole Bill
• How to Apply, Step by Step
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

What a State Veterans Home Is (and Isn't)

It helps to know who actually runs the building before you call anyone. State Veterans Homes are owned, operated and managed by state governments, not by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA certifies each home, surveys it every year, and can pay the state toward a veteran's care, but each state sets its own eligibility and admission rules, and VA does not pay for the care of non-veterans.5

In Florida, the homes are run by FDVA. Every FDVA home is licensed by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), inspected every year by both AHCA and VA, and supervised around the clock by registered and licensed nurses.2

Where Are Florida's State Veterans Homes?

FDVA publishes each home's size separately, and the numbers aren't identical. That matters most if your parent has dementia: six of Florida's eight state veterans nursing homes each list room for 60 memory care residents, but the Alwyn C. Cashe home in Orlando lists 32, and the Emory L. Bennett home in Daytona Beach lists no memory care number at all.2

The bed counts, opening years and phone numbers above are FDVA's own, as published on its State Veterans' Homes page.2 A tenth home may be on the way: FDVA reports that a proposed 120-bed Collier County State Veterans' Nursing Home appeared funded on the fiscal 2025 VA State Home Construction Grants Priority List, with groundbreaking scheduled for later in 2026. The Collier County home is not open yet.2

The Lake City home is different from the other eight. The Robert H. Jenkins Jr. Veterans' Domiciliary Home is an assisted living facility that provides housing, personalized supportive services and primary medical care, rather than a skilled nursing home.2 The Florida eligibility and cost rules later in this guide come from the part of Florida law that governs the nursing homes, so if Lake City is the right fit for your family, ask its admissions office how its own rules and charges work.

Who Qualifies for a Florida State Veterans Home?

This is usually the first worry, so here is the rule as Florida law writes it. Under Florida Statutes section 296.36, a person applying to a Florida state veterans nursing home must be a veteran (or have eligible peacetime service), or the spouse or surviving spouse of a veteran, and must meet all five of these conditions:3

1. Need nursing home care.
2. Be a Florida resident at the time of application.
3. Not owe money to FDVA for services from any previous stay at a department facility.
4. Have applied for all financial assistance reasonably available through governmental sources.
5. Have been approved as eligible for care and treatment by VA.

FDVA describes the same bar in plainer terms. The Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs lists these basic admission requirements for all of its state veterans homes: an honorable discharge, Florida residency before admission, and certification by a VA physician that the person needs assisted living or skilled nursing care.3

Two of those conditions trip families up. Condition 4 means the home expects you to have applied for the government help your parent may qualify for before admission, so it's worth asking the admissions coordinator which programs they want to see. And a parent who still lives in another state generally needs to be a Florida resident before applying; the one narrow exception is in the questions below.

Can a spouse come too? Yes, but it isn't guaranteed. FDVA's entry for each of its nine homes says eligible spouses are admitted on a space-available basis.2 If you're hoping to keep your parents together, raise that with the home early rather than assuming two beds.

Who Gets a Bed First

Florida law also sets the order in which eligible people are admitted to a state veterans nursing home. Under Fla. Stat. 296.36(3), priority goes, in this order, to:3

1. An eligible veteran who is a Florida resident.
2. An eligible veteran with a VA-determined service-connected disability, or one discharged for a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, when that disability is the condition that requires nursing home care.
3. An eligible veteran with a non-service-connected disability who can't pay for nursing home care and says so under oath before a notary or another officer authorized to administer an oath.
4. The spouse or surviving spouse of a veteran in those groups.

Put simply, spouses come last in Florida's priority order, which is one more reason to treat a spouse's bed as possible rather than promised. Ask each home you're considering how long its current waiting list is.

What Does a Florida State Veterans Home Cost?

Here's the part families lose sleep over. Florida law doesn't set one statewide price for a state veterans nursing home: it leaves the payment schedule to each home's administrator, with the FDVA director's approval. So the number you need comes from the home itself.4

What the law does say is this. Under Florida Statutes section 296.37, every resident of a Florida state veterans nursing home who receives a pension, compensation or gratuity from the federal government, or income from any other source of more than $160 a month, must contribute toward their care on a schedule set by the home's administrator and approved by the FDVA director. Under Fla. Stat. 296.37, the total of residents' contributions may not exceed the actual cost of operating and maintaining the home.4

Florida law also lets an administrator admit a veteran who has enough money to pay their own way, if there is room, on payment of the full cost of care as the administrator sets it.4 So having savings doesn't shut your parent out, but it can mean paying the home's full rate.

On the federal side, VA can pay the state a daily amount toward an eligible veteran's care. For most veterans, that basic VA per diem is the lesser of one-half of the home's daily cost of care or VA's basic per diem rate for the fiscal year, and by federal law it can never exceed half the cost of the veteran's care.1 That payment goes to the state, not to your family, and VA doesn't pay anything toward the care of a non-veteran, so a spouse's stay in a Florida state veterans home isn't covered by VA's payments.5

One more thing to know before you budget: Medicare is not a long-term answer here. Medicare Part A covers skilled nursing facility care only on a short-term, post-acute basis, not long-term custodial care.6

When VA Pays the Whole Bill

For some families, the cost question has a much better answer. Under federal law (38 U.S.C. 1745), VA must enter into a contract or agreement with each state home to pay for nursing home care for a veteran who needs that care for a service-connected disability, or who has a service-connected disability rated 70 percent or more and needs nursing home care. VA's regulation (38 CFR 51.41) also covers a veteran rated for total disability based on individual unemployability (TDIU) who needs nursing home care.1

For a veteran who needs nursing home care and is rated 70% or more, is rated unemployable (TDIU), or needs that care for a service-connected disability, VA's payment is payment in full for that nursing home care if the Florida state veterans home has a State home care agreement with VA, and under that agreement the home may not charge any individual, insurer or other entity (other than VA) for the nursing home care VA paid for. Ask the home whether it has a State home care agreement with VA.1 VA's payment-in-full rule covers nursing home care, so if the Lake City assisted living home is the right fit, ask the home how a 70% rating affects the charge for that care.1

How to Apply, Step by Step

Applying is mostly paperwork, and you don't have to do it all at once.

Learn More

Find personalized help getting a parent into a Florida state veterans home at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.