Illinois Veterans Homes: Who Qualifies, What It Costs, How to Apply

At an Illinois Veterans' Home, the monthly maintenance charge is set on the income of the veteran and spouse only, so a parent's savings don't count toward it. If you're weighing a nursing home for your dad or your husband and dreading what it will do to the family's nest egg, that one rule from the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs (IDVA) may change the math. Illinois runs five state Veterans' Homes, in Anna, Chicago, LaSalle, Manteno and Quincy, and IDVA says a veteran with a 70% to 100% VA service-connected rating pays no monthly maintenance charge at an Illinois Veterans' Home.1 Federal law ties VA's own payment in full to nursing home care, so confirm the charge for the Anna or Quincy domiciliary program.2

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• Who Runs an Illinois Veterans' Home
• The Five Homes, Side by Side
• Does Your Veteran Qualify?
• Illinois' Waiting List Has No Exceptions
• What an Illinois Veterans' Home Costs the Family
• When VA Pays for the Nursing Care in Full
• Can Mom Move In Too?
• How to Apply, Step by Step
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Who Runs an Illinois Veterans' Home

It helps to know who you'll be dealing with before you pick up the phone. IDVA operates all five Illinois Veterans' Homes. Each one is surveyed, inspected and certified every year by its U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical center of jurisdiction, covering resident rights, quality of care and safety, and each is also inspected and licensed by the Illinois Department of Public Health.1

That makes an Illinois Veterans' Home a State Veterans Home: owned, operated and managed by a state government rather than by VA, which recognizes and certifies the home and then surveys it each year, while the state sets its own admission rules.3 It isn't a VA nursing home. Our guide to VA nursing home care covers the Community Living Centers VA runs itself, and our national guide to State Veterans Homes compares how the program works state by state.

The Five Homes, Side by Side

Distance matters more than families expect, because the home you can reach easily is the one you'll keep visiting. Here's how IDVA describes each Illinois Veterans' Home.1,4

A few details the table can't hold. IDVA calls Quincy Illinois' largest and oldest veterans' home, and in 2025 it opened two new buildings there: a domiciliary with studio and one-bedroom apartments with kitchenettes, and the long-term care building. IDVA calls Anna the smallest home.4 The Illinois Veterans' Home at Chicago welcomed its first residents in January 2022.1

The Manteno campus also holds the Prince Home, which IDVA designed for homeless veterans, with private bedrooms for 15; it's a separate program, not a nursing unit.4

If your parent can still get around and look after himself, only Anna and Quincy offer the Illinois domiciliary program. If dementia is part of the picture, IDVA names memory care at Chicago, LaSalle and Quincy.1,4

Does Your Veteran Qualify?

Illinois' test has several parts, and your parent needs all of them. IDVA says any honorably discharged veteran is entitled to admission to an Illinois Veterans' Home if he or she meets one of these service routes:1

• served at least one day during a period VA recognizes as a war period, or served in a hostile fire environment and received a campaign or expeditionary medal;
• retired for a service-connected disability or injury;
• served 24 months or more of continuous active duty after enlisting after September 7, 1980;
• served as a Reservist or National Guard member called to federal active duty (not training only) and completed the term, or completed 20 years of satisfactory service and qualifies for reserve or active duty retirement benefits; or
• was discharged for hardship, or released early in a reduction of the U.S. Armed Forces.

And, for an Illinois Veterans' Home, the veteran must also:1

• Illinois tie: have entered the service as an Illinois resident, or have lived in Illinois for the one year right before applying; and
• Disability: be disabled by disease, wounds or otherwise, and because of that disability be incapable of earning a living.

If your parent served only in peacetime, don't rule Illinois out. IDVA says peacetime veterans with one year of honorable service may also be eligible for an Illinois Veterans' Home, with other conditions still to be met.1 One wording point to raise early: IDVA's rule says "honorably discharged," which is narrower than the "other than dishonorable" test some states use, so a veteran with a general or other discharge should ask the home's Adjutant directly before applying.

Illinois' Waiting List Has No Exceptions

This part is hard to hear, but it's better to know it now. IDVA says that, beyond a veteran's military service, admission to an Illinois Veterans' Home depends on two more things: whether the home can provide the care your parent's diagnoses and assessed needs require, and whether a bed is open in the category of care he needs.1

When a veteran is accepted but no bed is open, IDVA puts him on that home's waiting list, prioritized first come, first served, and says "absolutely no exceptions are permitted to this policy."1 Ask each Illinois Veterans' Home you're considering how long its list is for the care level your parent needs. Because the list runs first come, first served, applying sooner is the one lever you control.

What an Illinois Veterans' Home Costs the Family

If money is what's keeping you up at night, start here: IDVA says the inability to contribute to the cost of care doesn't prevent admission into an Illinois Veterans' Home.1

Residents of an Illinois Veterans' Home who have a monthly income pay IDVA a monthly maintenance charge toward the total cost of their care. IDVA bases that charge only on the monthly income of the veteran and spouse and doesn't include other assets, so savings or a house aren't what drive it. IDVA says the maximum Illinois Veterans' Home monthly maintenance charge can change each year with Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, and it doesn't publish a dollar figure; for the current charge, IDVA tells families to call the Adjutant's office at any of the homes.1

Two rules move the bill in opposite directions:

• Aid and Attendance adds a charge. An Illinois Veterans' Home resident who qualifies for the VA Aid and Attendance allowance pays an additional Aid and Attendance charge, equal to the allowance, on top of the monthly maintenance charge.1
• A 70% rating removes the maintenance charge. IDVA says a veteran with a 70% to 100% service-connected disability rating from VA doesn't pay the monthly maintenance charge at an Illinois Veterans' Home.1 Federal law ties VA's payment in full to nursing home care, so if your parent is headed for the domiciliary program, get the charge confirmed by the Adjutant.2

Federal money covers part of the cost behind the scenes. Under VA's State Veterans Home per diem, VA pays the state for each eligible veteran in a State home at the lesser of one-half of the daily cost of that veteran's care or the basic per diem rate VA sets each fiscal year, and by federal statute VA's per diem for a veteran can never exceed half the cost of his care.2 VA doesn't pay for the care of non-veterans at a State Veterans Home.3

Medicare won't carry a long stay: Medicare Part A covers skilled nursing facility care only on a short-term, post-acute basis, not long-term custodial care.5 For how VA pension money fits a nursing home budget in Illinois, see our guide to Aid and Attendance for a nursing home in Illinois, and for the wider VA Veterans Pension picture, VA's own pages set out who qualifies.

When VA Pays for the Nursing Care in Full

For some veterans, the honest answer to "what will this cost us?" is that VA picks up the nursing care. Under 38 U.S.C. 1745 and 38 CFR 51.41, VA contracts with a State Veterans Home to pay for nursing home care provided to:2

• a veteran who needs nursing home care for a VA adjudicated service-connected disability;
• a veteran with a service-connected disability rated at 70 percent or more who needs nursing home care; or
• a veteran with a rating of total disability based on individual unemployability (TDIU) who needs nursing home care.

In plain terms, that means the bill for the nursing care stops at VA. For a veteran who needs nursing home care and is in one of these three groups (service-connected need, a 70% or higher rating, or TDIU), VA's payment is payment in full to the State Veterans Home under 38 CFR 51.41, and under a State home care agreement the home can't charge your parent, your parent's insurer or anyone else besides VA for the nursing home care VA paid for.2 Before you count on VA paying in full for a TDIU or service-connected-need veteran, ask the Illinois Veterans' Home's Adjutant to confirm in writing that the home has a VA State home care agreement and will bill VA for your parent's nursing care.

Have your parent's current VA disability compensation rating letter ready when you call, because the rating is what triggers IDVA's maintenance-charge exemption and, for a veteran who needs nursing home care, the federal payment-in-full rule.

Can Mom Move In Too?

Many couples hope to stay together, so ask this before either one applies. IDVA's own Veterans' Homes page isn't consistent on spouses: one passage says the Anna and Quincy homes offer care to qualifying spouses, while another describes care for veterans and their eligible spouses across all five Illinois Veterans' Homes.1 Nationally, VA says some State Veterans Homes may admit non-veteran spouses and others admit only veterans, and VA pays nothing toward a non-veteran's care.3 Ask the specific Illinois home, and get the answer in writing.

How to Apply, Step by Step

You don't have to work this out alone: IDVA says staff at each Illinois Veterans' Home are available to answer admission questions and to help veterans and families make the best choice.1

For help with the VA side of the paperwork, see our guide to VA benefits for senior care in Illinois.

Learn More

Find personalized help choosing and applying to an Illinois 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.