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Soldiers’ Home — Two Years’ Residency, and Priority for Those Without Means

Admission to the soldiers’ home turns on wartime service or peacetime service carrying federal VA hospitalization or domiciliary entitlement, a discharge other than dishonorable, disability that leaves you unable to earn a living — and two years’ actual residency here immediately before you apply.

Verified August 22, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: Long-term residence, with priority given to veterans who have no adequate means of support

No rate is claimed here. The statute is about who gets in, not what they pay, and the operating pages that carry the room rate could not be read this session.
The weight reflects what long-term care costs privately, which is the alternative, not a figure the state publishes.

Who is entitled to it

You served.
A widow, widower, mother, father or minor child may be admitted where they cannot support themselves because of physical disability.
Your discharge was under conditions other than dishonorable.
You are in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

1Check the residency test first, because it is the one that catches people: no applicant may be admitted who has not been an ACTUAL resident of this state for at least two years next preceding the date of application. Moving here to enter the home does not work.
2The service test has two routes: active service during any period of war, or peacetime service that entitles you to federal VA hospitalization or domiciliary care.
3There is also a disability test — disabled by disease, wounds, old age or otherwise, and incapacitated from earning a living. It is not a rating threshold; it is a capacity test.
4Priority goes to a veteran who has no adequate means of support, together with the family members dependent on them. If you have means, expect to wait behind someone who does not.
5A felony conviction bars admission unless the director determines the person has been adequately rehabilitated and is not dangerous to themselves or to the person or property of others. That is a judgement the director makes, so it is worth asking rather than assuming.

Form: Application for admission
File with: The veterans services office, which runs both homes
Documents you will need: dd214 · va benefit summary letter
Annual recertification: The office asks you to confirm each year.

CorrectionSummaries of state veterans homes usually lead with the discharge and the medical need. Here the binding condition for many applicants is neither: it is two years of actual residency immediately before application, with no exception written into the section.

Worth knowingThe family provision is narrower than "spouses may be admitted". It names a widow, mother, widower, father or minor child of a qualifying veteran, and requires that person to be incapable of self-support because of physical disability.

Known gapTwo homes operate — the soldiers’ home at Fort Dodge and the veterans’ home at Winfield — and reports describe a fixed monthly room rate charged according to ability to pay, with no resident fee at a 70% or higher service-connected rating. None of that could be read from the administering office this session, so none of it is published here.

Sources

authority · statuteK.S.A. 76-1908 — Admission to the soldiers’ home

Why only one source type: The revisor’s text carries the service test, the discharge test, the two-year residency bar, the priority rule, the felony bar and the family provision. The veterans services office’s own eligibility and admissions pages return 403, so the operating layer could not be read.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.