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

A Texas State Veterans Home can cost nothing for a veteran who needs nursing home care and has a 70% or higher service-connected rating, because VA's payment for that care is payment in full.1 The Texas General Land Office says eligible veterans with a 70% or higher service-connected disability may live at a Texas State Veterans Home for free. If a doctor or social worker has told you your dad or your husband needs care around the clock, start there, and know that for other residents the GLO says VA subsidies keep daily out-of-pocket rates at Texas State Veterans Homes well below average. The ten Texas State Veterans Homes are run by the GLO's Veterans Land Board for Texas veterans, their spouses and Gold Star parents.2

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What a Texas State Veterans Home Is
• Where the Ten Texas State Veterans Homes Are
• Who Can Apply to a Texas State Veterans Home?
• What Does a Texas Veterans Home Cost?
• When Is a Texas State Veterans Home Free?
• How to Apply, Step by Step
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

What a Texas State Veterans Home Is

It helps to know what you're looking at before you tour one. A State Veterans Home is owned, operated and managed by a state government, not by the VA, though the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs must formally recognize and certify the home and then surveys it every year to make sure it still meets VA standards.3

In Texas, that state operator is the Texas General Land Office's Veterans Land Board. The GLO describes Texas State Veterans Homes as Texas-owned and regulated by both the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, providing affordable, long-term care for Texas veterans, their spouses and Gold Star parents.2

So a Texas State Veterans Home is not a VA hospital or a VA nursing home. VA helps pay for eligible veterans in State Veterans Homes, but each state sets its own eligibility and admission rules for the State Veterans Homes it runs.3 If you're comparing a Texas State Veterans Home with a VA Community Living Center, our guide to VA nursing home care explains what the VA itself runs and pays for, and our national guide to State Veterans Homes shows how the program works across every state.

Where the Ten Texas State Veterans Homes Are

The Veterans Land Board lists ten Texas State Veterans Homes on its locations page, and every one of them has a Memory Care unit for veterans living with dementia.2

A home you can reach easily is a home you can keep visiting. Because you apply to one specific home, pick the Texas State Veterans Home you can realistically reach before you fill out the form.2

Who Can Apply to a Texas State Veterans Home?

Families often assume only the veteran can move in. In Texas, that's not the case. The VLB's own Application for Admission, updated December 2024, lists four applicant categories: "Veteran", "Spouse", "Surviving Spouse" and "Gold Star Parent". That means a veteran's widow can apply to a Texas State Veterans Home in her own right, even though the GLO's web pages mention only veterans, spouses and Gold Star parents.2

The GLO says admission to Texas State Veterans Homes is governed by three authorities: the Texas Administrative Code, Title 40; the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which looks at an applicant "medically, financially, and military service"; and 38 U.S.C.A 1151.2 On the federal side, VA says eligibility for State Veterans Homes is based on clinical need and setting availability.3

What the form asks you to show:

• Military service: a copy of the veteran's discharge document (DD 214), and the application records the type of discharge.
• Texas residency: the application asks when the applicant became a Texas resident.
• Authority to sign: if you're applying for your parent or spouse, a copy of guardianship documentation or a signed durable medical power of attorney.

The Texas State Veterans Home application records residency and discharge type but does not itself state a minimum for either, so if your family's situation is unusual (a short time in Texas, or a discharge that wasn't honorable), call the home before you assume a yes or a no.2

What Does a Texas Veterans Home Cost?

This is usually the question that keeps families up at night, so here is what the sources actually say. The Texas General Land Office says: "Because the VA subsidizes much of a Veteran’s cost to stay at a VLB Texas State Veterans Home, daily out-of-pocket rates are well below average and include the cost of medications for Veterans."2

That VA subsidy is the federal per diem. Under federal rules, VA pays the State for each eligible veteran in a State home at the lesser of one-half of the daily cost of the veteran's care or the basic per diem rate VA sets each fiscal year, and by statute those per diem payments can never exceed half the cost of the veteran's care.1 VA does not pay for the care of non-veterans in a State Veterans Home, and the cost to the resident varies by state.3

For most families, then, a Texas State Veterans Home is a reduced rate, not a free one. The VLB's Texas State Veterans Home application asks, "If monthly income is not enough to pay applicant’s portion of costs, what other resources are available?", and warns that "RATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME."2 The GLO publishes its room rates as a separate "Cost Breakdown" document; we don't reproduce a rate here because it can change, so ask the home you're applying to for its current daily rate in writing.2

Don't count on Medicare to fill the gap. Medicare Part A covers skilled nursing facility care only on a short-term, post-acute basis, not long-term custodial care. That is why the VA per diem, the veteran's disability rating and the family's own income matter so much in paying for a long stay in a Texas State Veterans Home.4

If the veteran or surviving spouse will pay part of the bill from savings and income, VA Veterans Pension money may help. Our guide to Aid and Attendance for a nursing home in Texas walks through how that monthly pension works alongside nursing home costs, and VA's own Aid and Attendance page has the official details.

When Is a Texas State Veterans Home Free?

For some veterans who need nursing home care, the answer to "what will this cost us?" can be nothing. The Texas General Land Office states, in bold, that "Eligible Veterans with a 70% or higher service-connected disability may live at the home for free."2

That Texas statement rests on a federal rule. Under 38 U.S.C. 1745(a) and 38 CFR 51.41, VA contracts with State homes to pay for nursing home care for these veterans:1

• 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;
• a veteran with a rating of total disability based on individual unemployability (TDIU) who needs nursing home care.

Under 38 CFR 51.41, for a veteran who needs nursing home care and is rated 70% or higher, is rated TDIU, or needs that care for a service-connected disability, VA's payment to a State Veterans Home is payment in full for that nursing home care, and the State Veterans Home may not charge any individual, insurer or other entity besides VA for the care VA paid for.1

Two practical points follow. First, have the veteran's current VA disability compensation rating letter in hand when you apply, because the rating is what triggers the 38 CFR 51.41 payment-in-full rule. Second, if a claim is still pending, a late decision can reach back: under 38 CFR 51.41, a veteran who receives a retroactive service-connected rating that brings the veteran within the payment-in-full rule lets the State Veterans Home request VA payment for nursing home care back to the rating's retroactive effective date or February 2, 2013, whichever is later.1 Ask the home's business office how it handles a pending rating before you sign anything.

How to Apply, Step by Step

The application is paper, and it goes to one home at a time. Here's the order that saves the most back-and-forth.

The GLO explains that applications "are not accepted online due to the personal nature of the information contained in them."2 If you can, deliver it in person: you'll meet the staff, see the Memory Care unit, and get a feel for whether it's right for your parent.

Learn More

Find personalized help choosing and applying to a Texas 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.