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Skilled Nursing in a State Veterans Home — 180 Days’ Residency First, and a Hardship Rate If You Cannot Pay

The Missouri Veterans Commission admits veterans needing skilled nursing care to its veterans homes on eight eligibility conditions, including 180 days’ physical residency in the state before applying. A waiting list runs on two priorities, with a 70 percent or higher service-connected rating, a need for care for an adjudicated service-connected disability, or individual unemployability all placing an applicant in priority one. A resident who cannot afford the monthly room and care fee may apply for a hardship rate.

Verified August 27, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: Skilled nursing care in a state veterans home, at a monthly room and care fee set by the commission — reducible on hardship

The Missouri Veterans Commission operates seven veterans homes across the state, listed with their locations on the commission's homes pages.
The statutory frame is RSMo 42.100 to 42.130, with the admission and fee regulation at 11 CSR 85-1.030.
Which home has capacity varies, so the commission's own homes section is the place to check availability rather than any static list.
The same stale-access note appeared on mo-guard-reserve-in-state-tuition and mo-returning-heroes-education-act; those statutes are now directly readable too.

Who is entitled to it

Admission is for the person who served.
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

1Count the residency days before applying. The rule requires 180 days of physical residency in Missouri immediately before the application, and it is the first condition on the list.
2Meet the veteran-status test one of two ways: the criteria the federal veterans department uses for veteran status, or an honorable discharge from the National Guard — with preference given to the Missouri National Guard.
3You must need SKILLED nursing care, defined in the rule as care and oversight by licensed personnel twenty-four hours a day, and the home must be capable of providing it at the time you apply.
4Establish the money side. You need adequate financial resources to defray the cost of care as contemplated by RSMo 42.110, OR you must qualify for a hardship rate under this rule.
5Two disqualifications are absolute: appearing on any sex offender registry, and a criminal history including a conviction or a plea of guilty or nolo contendere to a Class A or B felony in Missouri, or an offence elsewhere that would be one here. A previous discharge from a Missouri Veterans Home also bars re-admission.
6Be ready to move when the call comes — the eighth condition is being ready to admit to the facility on notification from the home.
7Ask which waiting-list priority you are in, because it decides everything about the wait. Priority one covers an applicant with a singular or combined rating of 70 percent or more from one or more service-connected disabilities, or who needs skilled care for an adjudicated service-connected disability, or who holds a total disability rating based on individual unemployability. Priority two is everybody else.
8If the fee is beyond you, put in a hardship application. It goes to the Hardship Review Team — the directors of the Homes Program, of Budget and Finance and of Veterans Services, or their designees — which must convene within ten business days of receiving a complete application, and the director of the Homes Program makes the final decision.
9If a hardship is refused, the decision letter must state the appeal process, and the rule requires it to say so. If it is refused, full payment of outstanding room and care expenses is due by the tenth of the following month.

Form: Application for placement in a Missouri Veterans Home, with a hardship application if needed
File with: Missouri Veterans Commission, through the home you are applying to
Documents you will need: dd214 · va rating decision
No renewal: Once granted it does not need renewing.

CorrectionThe hardship rate is not an entitlement and the reason is budgetary, not personal. The commission maintains an allocation cap of approximately $500,000 for hardships across all its homes while the state is funding 35 percent or more of the care of veterans not deemed full cost of care by the federal veterans department. Once that cap is reached the commission keeps accepting hardship applications but will not ADMIT an applicant requesting a hardship until it falls back below the cap — and then considers the outstanding applications in the order received.

Worth knowingA 70 percent rating is the line that matters most here, because it decides the queue rather than the price. Individual unemployability and a need for skilled care for an adjudicated service-connected disability reach priority one on their own, without the schedular percentage.

Worth knowingAdmission is not permanent. The rule allows involuntary discharge where the resident’s needs cannot be met, where their health has improved enough that the services are no longer needed, where the safety or health of others in the facility is endangered, or where the resident fails to pay after reasonable and appropriate notice.

Known gapThe statutes behind the rule — RSMo 42.100 to 42.130, and RSMo 42.110 on the cost of care — could not be read. revisor.mo.gov did not resolve to a plain fetch and browser navigation to it was refused, and the commission’s own site at mvc.dps.mo.gov returned 403 on every attempt. The monthly room and care fee, the hardship application form and the number and location of the homes therefore are not published here.

Sources

authority · published policyMissouri Veterans Commission — Veterans Homes
operating · statuteRSMo 42.100–42.130

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