State Veterans Homes — Long-Term Nursing Care, and Who Sets the Fee
The veterans department may establish and operate state veterans homes providing long-term nursing care for veterans discharged under other than dishonorable conditions. Since 2025 the department itself sets the admission and discharge criteria and sets and collects the fees, and it may take the assignment of a state or federal benefit as full or partial payment.
Verified August 27, 2026
What this benefit is
The veterans department may establish and operate state veterans homes providing long-term nursing care for veterans discharged under other than dishonorable conditions. Since 2025 the department itself sets the admission and discharge criteria and sets and collects the fees, and it may take the assignment of a state or federal benefit as full or partial payment.
What it's worth: Long-term nursing care at a state home, at a fee the department sets
- There are six state veterans homes: E. Roy Stone Veterans Pavilion (Columbia), Veterans' Victory House (Walterboro), Richard Michael Campbell Veterans Home (Anderson), Veteran Village (Florence), Palmetto Patriots Home (Gaffney) and Patriot's Village (Sumter).
- The state veterans agency states eligibility as separation under general or honorable conditions, South Carolina residency, and a need for skilled or intermediate nursing care.
- A 24-month service requirement applies to those who enlisted after 7 September 1980, or who entered active duty after 16 October 1981. It does not apply to earlier service.
- Because there are six homes across the state, distance from any one of them is not a reason to rule this out.
Who is entitled to it
- Admission is of the veteran; the family is usually the one arranging it.
- Your discharge is within the range the definition covers.
- Your home is in South Carolina.
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
Deadline: Set by the department; waiting lists are common at state homes- 1Start with the department, not the home. Since 2025 the admission and discharge criteria are the department’s to adopt and execute, so that is where the answer on eligibility comes from.
- 2Check the discharge test carefully. The statutory definition is "other than dishonorable", which is wider than the honourable-only test most state reliefs use.
- 3Note the definition is about a citizen of this State — residency is built into the definition itself, not added as a separate condition.
- 4Ask for the current fee schedule in writing. The department sets and collects the fees, and no figure is fixed in the statute.
- 5Ask about assigning benefits. The department is authorised to take the assignment of a state or federal benefit as full or partial payment, which is how most residents actually pay.
- 6Ask which home and what the wait is. The statute allows homes in the plural and says nothing about capacity.
- 7A county veterans’ affairs officer can file the application with you and will know the current packet.
- Form
- The department’s state home admission application
- File with
- South Carolina Department of Veterans’ Affairs
- Documents you will need
- dd214
- No renewal
- Once granted it does not need renewing.
Sources
Why only one source type: Article 7 was read in full this session on the legislature’s own host. The department’s admission packet, which carries the resident charge, sits behind a country block that refused every request.
This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.