VA HISA, SAH and SHA Grants: What Each Covers and How to Apply in San Antonio

The HISA grant and the SAH grant both help pay for accessibility changes to a veteran's home, but they come from different parts of VA and are easy to mix up. The housing grants (SAH, SHA and TRA) come through VA's housing program and are tied to specific service-connected disabilities. HISA comes through VA health care and is tied to medical need. The amounts below are the fiscal year 2026 maximums and lifetime limits VA publishes on the pages cited here, as shown when we checked them in October 2026. VA updates the housing grant maximums each fiscal year, so confirm the current figures with VA before you set a budget.

214 Veteran Solutions is a veteran-owned general contractor in San Antonio. We are not part of VA, and we do not determine eligibility or approve grants. Only VA does.

VA grant amounts at a glance

The housing grant figures come from VA's disability housing grants page and the HISA tiers come from VA's HISA page. Both are linked in the sections below.

The SAH grant and the other housing grants: SHA and TRA

VA's disability housing grants page, last updated November 18, 2025, describes three grants:

• Specially Adapted Housing (SAH): helps buy, build or change a permanent home. You must own or will own the home and have a qualifying service-connected disability. VA's list includes the loss or loss of use of more than one limb, blindness in both eyes with 20/200 visual acuity or less, certain severe burns, and certain losses of a lower leg or foot, including a post-9/11 category for the loss or loss of use of one lower extremity. VA says Congress limits that post-9/11 category to 120 veterans and service members each fiscal year.
• Special Home Adaptation (SHA): also helps buy, build or change a permanent home. You or a family member must own or will own it, and the qualifying disabilities include the loss or loss of use of both hands, certain severe burns and certain respiratory or breathing injuries.
• Temporary Residence Adaptation (TRA): helps adapt a family member's home where you are living temporarily, if you qualify for SAH or SHA. You don't have to own that house.

VA publishes a maximum for each grant every fiscal year. For FY 2026, VA lists up to $126,526 for SAH and up to $25,350 for SHA. TRA is up to $50,961 if you qualify for SAH, or up to $9,100 if you qualify for SHA. VA also says grant money can be used up to six times over your lifetime, which matters if you plan changes in phases or move later. Read VA's full eligibility list rather than relying on this summary. The same page links VA's housing design handbook for SAH and SHA projects, which is worth reviewing with your contractor before drawings start.

How to apply: VA's how-to-apply page says you can apply online, by mail with VA Form 26-4555, or in person at a VA regional office. Mailed applications go to Department of Veterans Affairs, Claims Intake Center, PO Box 4444, Janesville, WI 53547-4444. VA processes the claim and sends you a decision letter, and you can check the status by signing in to VA.gov.

HISA grant: Home Improvements and Structural Alterations

HISA is a VA health care benefit, administered through Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service. VA's HISA page (last updated February 12, 2025) describes medically necessary improvements to a veteran's primary residence, such as:

• Making it possible to get into and out of the home
• Access to essential bathroom facilities, for example a roll-in shower
• Access to kitchen or bathroom sinks and counters
• Improving entrance paths or driveways right around the home
• Plumbing or electrical changes needed for home medical equipment

The same page lists what HISA does not cover, including walkways to exterior buildings, spas and hot tubs, exterior decking, new construction, security systems, removable equipment like portable ramps, porch lifts or stair glides, and routine maintenance such as replacing roofs, furnaces or air conditioners.

HISA has lifetime limits in two tiers. The higher tier, $6,800, applies to a service-connected condition, a condition VA treats as if it were service-connected, or a non-service-connected condition if you have a service-connected rating of at least 50 percent. VA's page says percentages can't be combined to reach that 50 percent. The lower tier, $2,000, applies to other conditions. If you've used HISA before, ask your local Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service what balance you have left.

What the HISA application asks for: according to that page, a prescription written or approved by a VA physician, VA Form 10-0103 (current revision February 2025), a written itemized estimate covering labor, materials, permits and inspections, a color photo of the area before any work, and, for renters, a signed and notarized statement from the owner. Start with your VA health care team or the prosthetics office at your VA medical center.

How HISA approval and payment work

VA's HISA regulations add details that affect your construction schedule:

• Inspection before approval: VA may inspect your home before it approves the request. When it does, the regulation sets that inspection no later than 30 days after VA receives a complete application.
• Missing documents: if VA tells you something is missing and doesn't receive it within 30 days of that notice, VA closes the application.
• Approval notice: VA's notice states the total benefit authorized and any advance you requested, and it explains your right to appeal.
• Advance payment: if you requested one on VA Form 10-0103, VA pays you 50 percent of the authorized benefit no later than 30 days after approval.
• Final payment request: due no later than 60 days after approval, or after the advance if you received one. It includes your statement that the work is complete, a color photo of the finished work and the itemized actual costs for materials, labor, permits and inspections.
• No payment for unfinished work: VA may inspect before the final payment, and no payment is made if the work hasn't been completed. If actual costs come in below the advance, you repay VA the difference.

The regulations describe both payments going to you, the beneficiary. Agree on a written payment schedule with your contractor, and line up materials and permits before approval so the work can finish inside that 60-day window.

SAH or HISA: which one fits?

Some veterans may be able to look at both. Ask VA how the programs apply to you.

Where San Antonio veterans can get help applying

• For HISA: start with your VA health care team. At the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans' Hospital, 7400 Merton Minter Boulevard, VA lists a prosthetics and rehabilitation service whose services include home modifications. Appointments there are scheduled with a referral.
• For the housing grants: an accredited Veterans Service Organization representative can help you gather evidence and file a claim. VA says their services on your VA benefit claim are always free.
• Bexar County: the county's Department of Military and Veterans Services helps veterans identify and obtain the VA benefits they're entitled to. You can reach the office at (210) 435-7838 (HELP-VET).

Common HISA projects in San Antonio homes

Most HISA requests fall into a few kinds of work, each tied to an item on VA's covered list:

• Bathrooms: roll-in or low-threshold showers, lowered sinks and accessible counters. For layout, the estimate split and the build sequence, use our VA bathroom remodel steps for San Antonio homes. For the construction side, see our bathroom remodeling in San Antonio page.
• Getting in and out of the house: permanent ramps on entrance paths and changes at the door. Portable ramps are excluded, so the request should describe a permanent ramp. Plan slope, landings and handrails with our wheelchair ramp installation guide for San Antonio homes.
• Kitchen access: lowered sinks or counters you can reach from a seated position.
• Medical equipment: plumbing or electrical changes a home medical device needs. That work goes to licensed trades, coordinated through our plumbing remodel coordination and electrical remodel coordination services.

What the construction side needs

Whichever program you use, the paperwork goes smoother when the construction scope is clear:

1. Measurements of existing conditions: door widths, thresholds, hallway turns, shower size, counter heights and the path from the driveway to the door.
2. A written scope that ties each change to the need it addresses.
3. An itemized estimate that lines up with the scope, with labor, materials, permits and inspections broken out, since HISA asks for exactly that.
4. Before photos of each area.
5. Drawings where ramps, structural openings or layout changes are involved.
6. Licensed trade work for any plumbing, electrical or HVAC changes, performed, permitted and inspected by licensed trade contractors, plus City permits where required.

Do not start work before VA tells you the request is approved. Follow the instructions your VA contact gives you and keep copies of everything you submit.

For a safer bathroom, use the aging-in-place bathroom remodel checklist for San Antonio homes to plan curbless or low-threshold showers, grab-bar blocking, ADA reference dimensions, doors, toilets and lighting, and compare layouts with our guide to tub-to-walk-in-shower conversions. The Texas program is a separate benefit, covered in our Texas Veterans Land Board guide. Our VA construction and renovation page explains how we document scopes and estimates for these requests across San Antonio and nearby cities.

Your next step

If you need a measured scope and itemized estimate for a VA request, call (210) 796-3695, request an estimate or book an estimate consultation. Veteran-owned 214 Veteran Solutions will measure your home and put the scope and estimate in the form VA asks for.