H.R. 3749 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide grants to public or private entities to provide legal assistance in areas such as housing, family law, and criminal defense to veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
Based on information from legal-aid organizations on their capacity and the demand for legal services from homeless veterans, CBO expects that VA would pay for legal aid for roughly 16,500 veterans through this grant program. After considering the caseload and compensation of legal fellows, CBO estimates that VA would provide grants to legal-aid organizations to hire about 100 legal fellows at an average compensation of $20,000 per fellow. CBO expects that this program would not be fully implemented until 2022 because of the time necessary to establish criteria and requirements for the program and to select eligible grantees. As a result, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 3749 would cost $7 million over the 2020-2024 period. That spending would be subject to the appropriation of the necessary amounts.
In addition, the bill would require VA to conduct a study on the services it provides to female veterans who are homeless. CBO estimates implementing that provision would cost less than $500,000 over the 2020-2024 period, subject to the availability of appropriations.
