Representative Adriano Espaillat Introduces the Protect Veteran Students, Job Seekers, and Entrepreneurs Housing Act

NEW YORK, NY – This month, Representative Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) introduced the Protect Veteran Students, Job Seekers, and Entrepreneurs Housing Act to preserve and provide greater protections for Veterans and their families.

“Currently, residential properties and landlords do not guarantee that educational assistance and benefits provided to veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs will be accepted as income to help residential leases,” said Rep. Espaillat. “This limitation affects many veterans and their families across my district in their ability to access quality and affordable housing. Our veterans served our nation, and upon their return home, we have a responsibility to ensure benefits and resources that will help them transition back to civilian life following their service—and my bill aims to do just that.”

The Protect Veteran Students, Job Seekers, and Entrepreneurs Housing Act (H.R. 7885) proposes a series of amendments to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and would require landlords to consider certain educational assistance administered by the Secretary of Veteran Affairs as income as well as require a residential lease period to not exceed the number of months an individual is entitled to educational assistance in order to preserve housing for veterans and their families.

Current statute allows for the VA to eliminate or pause veteran benefits if they miss a requirement, even if it is due to circumstances out of a veteran’s control, such as a death or other major life events. Additionally, the Espaillat bill would establish a 60-day grace period before the VA is permitted to terminate educational assistance benefits when an individual does not fulfill a program requirement.

“These past years have shown us that personal circumstances can change in an instant. We must ensure that servicemembers, veterans, and their families are not immediately cut off from receiving educational assistance or job training benefits and instead are provided an opportunity to remedy program requirement to ensure these benefits remain in place,” Espaillat concluded.