Veterans’ advocates are elevating issues {that a} new agreement between the departments of Veterans Affairs and Justice could take away veterans’ autonomy over their well being care selections and deter them from searching for care, significantly these dealing with homelessness.
The memorandum, introduced by the departments final week, would authorize VA attorneys to “initiate and participate in state court guardianship or conservatorship proceedings” whereas serving as particular assistant US attorneys appointed by the Justice Department.
Guardianship “doesn’t take away your physical autonomy, but it can take away your right to vote, your right to marry, your right to engage in some financial transactions,” Jennifer Mathis, deputy director at Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, informed NCS. “That’s a big deal. We shouldn’t take that lightly.”
The VA stated in a press release the company serves “hundreds of Veterans” who can’t make their very own well being care selections and don’t have household or authorized illustration, together with these experiencing homelessness.
Under the memorandum, VA attorneys will be capable to provoke guardianship proceedings “in cases where a legal decision-maker is required for post-acute transitions of care.” If the court docket approves, a third-party, “who is not a VA employee” shall be appointed as a guardian, VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz informed NCS.
When a court docket grants guardianship, it permits a member of the family or somebody appointed by the court docket to make some or all selections for an additional particular person. A Department of Justice webpage says that “guardianship results in the removal of an individual’s legal rights and restricts their rights to make their own decisions. For that reason, state laws recognize that it should be a last resort.”
Mathis informed NCS she is anxious the memorandum “is that this may be a way to discharge veterans (experiencing homelessness) who are sitting in hospitals to settings that they might not choose.”
“If people are sitting in a VA hospital and not being discharged, it’s very likely because there aren’t enough services or housing, not because they don’t have guardianship,” Mathis stated.
Asked about advocates’ issues that the memorandum significantly impacts veterans dealing with homelessness and places them at danger, Kasperowicz stated, “VA’s announcement is not aimed at homeless Veterans. It is aimed at roughly 700 Veterans across the country who are currently in VA facilities and are unable to make their own health care decisions and have no family or legal representation to help them.”
“These Veterans remain in VA hospitals, which may not be the most appropriate setting for them, with no way of transitioning to more appropriate care,” he added. “Some are homeless or at risk of homelessness, but the key characteristic is not homelessness, it is the lack of capacity to make their own medical decisions.”
Thomas O’Toole, VA’s performing assistant undersecretary for well being for medical providers, relayed an identical message to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on Wednesday. He informed lawmakers, “It is not intended as a homeless initiative.”
Mathis informed NCS it’s an uncommon transfer to have VA’s legal professionals petition for guardianship. However, Kasperowicz pushed again on the declare and stated it’s just like “health care providers and hospitals” submitting guardianship petitions, stressing that the legal professionals must observe the identical guidelines as different petitioners.
Kathryn Monet, the CEO of National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, stated with the memorandum, the departments are “trying to make it easier to place veterans in the conservator- or guardian-type situation.”
She informed NCS she worries that “there’s a lot of opportunity for misuse,” pointing to the Trump administration’s actions on homelessness, which she described as being “focused on forced treatment and penalizing people for being outside.”
Last summer season, for instance, President Donald Trump signed an executive order making it simpler for native jurisdictions to take away homeless individuals from the streets. Kasperowicz informed NCS the memorandum “has nothing to do with” the president’s govt order and pushed again in opposition to issues of misuse.
According to a Department of Housing and Urban Development report printed in 2024, there are almost 33,000 veterans dealing with homelessness and almost 14,000 of them are unsheltered. According to National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, round 5% of adults experiencing homeless are veterans.
Monet informed NCS that stigmas round homelessness might make it simpler for docs to mistake veterans’ decisions and behaviors as an indication of psychological sickness relatively than in response to the circumstances of poverty.
Another danger, she added, is as soon as positioned in conservatorship, a veteran experiencing homelessness might not have “the means to a legal defense to get out of this situation.”
Monet additionally acknowledged the chance that the memorandum could deter veterans from searching for care.
“That’s the last thing that I want to see happen for a veteran facing housing instability, because VA, for a long time, has been a really strong provider of health care, and the place that is, you know, a resource for folks in poverty,” Monet stated.
Democratic Rep. Mark Takano, the rating member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, additionally raised issues that the memorandum will put veterans’ autonomy at danger. He stated in a statement, “Veterans fought for our freedom and theirs. The federal government should not be engineering ways of taking it away.”
VA Secretary Doug Collins and Attorney General Pam Bondi have touted that permitting VA legal professionals to petition for guardianship would make proceedings extra environment friendly and be certain that veterans obtain “timely” care.
“The Department of Justice is proud to partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs to support our nation’s brave Veterans by ensuring that they have the best legal resources available when it comes to making medical decisions and receiving timely care,” Bondi stated within the assertion. “We owe our Veterans a debt we can never fully repay — but we can give them the support they deserve.”
But even one supporter of the transfer stated it will be difficult to implement.
Stephen Eide, who research homelessness as a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, informed NCS he strongly believes “there should be more use of involuntary interventions to deal with the mental health crisis and the homeless crisis.”
“There is a certain kind of individual — who is homeless or at risk of it — who has a condition like schizophrenia and is not being treated, who simply cannot be relied on to seek treatment voluntarily,” Eide stated. “For this type of person, the choices are either no treatment or some kind of involuntary treatment. And I’ll go with involuntary treatment.”
However, he added that addressing the difficulty “from the federal level is very awkward.”
“It will require a lot of coordination between police, social workers, state and local governments,” Eide stated. “There will be complexity in the execution of this.”