Special Needs Housing

Many landlords find this blog while researching Dr. Cash Flow, Nick Sidoti’s method of special needs housing which I first wrote about here. So to further that discussion, I researched some information I found on The Successful Landlord Blog about veteran housing.

Landlords Can Serve Veterans

Landlords can offer housing that meets the needs of veterans and generates a nice income stream to boot. If that sounds interesting, then here’s how to get a quick start:

1 –  Start by emailing the Supportive Services for Veteran Families at SSVF@va.gov  to express interest and let them know where your rentals are located. They will get back to you with contact information for your local Veteran Housing Service Provider.

2 – Connect with your local VA housing specialist and learn about their challenges and see what supportive services they offer.

3 – Craft an offer to meet their housing allowances.

I connected with the Ms. Destiny J. Paul, Veterans Services Housing Coordinator with Volunteers of America to learn more.

Sharing Insider Details

Here are a few things she wants landlords to know about providing housing for veterans:

1 – The housing specialist is typically not a VA employee. They are contracted by the VA to help put an end to homelessness for veterans.

2 – Renting to anyone is a huge gamble in itself, but when you have another person to contact regarding any issues with rent, noise etc., it makes it a little bit easier to handle.

3 – Supportive Services for Veteran Families is a newer program. We help with the house search and pay the move in cost which is usually the deposit and the first months’ rent. We MAY be able to help with a portion of the next months’ rent also.

4 – There is another program as well: Permanent Supportive Housing for Veterans. In this program, we will pay their entire rent for the term of their lease and they will pay 30% of their income to us. This guarantees that the landlord will have rent. Most people will get to pick their own place to live and most people will want their own housing.  Because we can only help them move once, they can’t move multiple times under this program.

Using Nick Sidoti’s Niche Housing Idea to House Veterans

Wow,  you can grow your real estate empire while housing heroes! That’s pretty cool.

It should be easy to build a relationship with your local Veteran Housing Speciality. Find out what they need and provide a solution. Create value by making it easy for a case manager to monitor their clients by housing several veterans in the same house. As Dr. Cash Flow suggests, if you create an all-inclusive housing package for a niche that has a fixed budget, you may be able to place several tenants in a home and charge each the maximum they can comfortably afford each month.  The gross about you collect, less expenses, may be quite a bit more than a traditional rental would bring in (plus you could do right by people who’ve sacrificed so much for us).

The end result may be an affordable housing package for the vet, increased ease of management for their case worker, and above market rents for the landlord.  A win-win-win situation.

I’m exploring my options with this set up and will report back. You should check it out as well. We all want our veterans to have the decent housing they deserve. Why not be a part of the privatized solution?

You can find more ways to tap compartments of potential income by picking up the 40 Ways book at Amazon.