Pennsylvania broke ground Tuesday on a 200-bed, long-term care facility for military veterans. It is one of at least four states that have recently invested in newer nursing homes specifically for veterans and their spouses.
In Pennsylvania, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and the Department of General Services began construction on the $97 million facility in the central part of the state. The new home will be on the campus of the Hollidaysburg Veterans’ Home in Blair County, which is one of six nursing homes for veterans operated by the state, according to a press release from Gov. Josh Shapiro (D).
“Pennsylvania’s veterans have served and sacrificed for all of us, and we owe them the very best care we can provide,” said Major General Mark Schindler, Pennsylvania’s adjutant general and head of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
The three-floor facility will be on the site of the former administration building of the Hollidaysburg campus and will feature single- and double-occupancy rooms, while still increasing capacity. It is scheduled to open in 2025.
In what may be a renaissance of sorts for state-run homes, several other states are also in various stages of adding or improving nursing home options for former service members and their spouses. The Government Accountability Office in 2019 had called out Veterans Affairs for not allowing enough oversight of its caretaking deficiencies.
Facilities in New Jersey and Massachusetts were scenes of two of the nation’s worst pandemic outbreaks, and aging facilities have long been called out for their decline. Overall, more than 1,400 residents died of COVID-19 at residential facilities supervised directly by state officials.
A Veterans Affairs spokesman told McKnight’s on Wednesday that the department has initial plans for new facilities in Atlanta, GA, and Huntington, WV.
Last month, the Florida Department of Veteran Affairs put up $30 million to build a nursing home in Collier County. Florida has nine veterans’ nursing homes, but only one is operating at capacity due to staffing problems, according to local news reporting.
In February, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) signed into law a bill to use $16.6 million from the state’s Budget Reserve Trust Fund to address “skyrocketing construction costs” on a new long-term care facility for veterans in Bowling Green, per local news. The original estimate on the 60-bed facility was $30 million, but the price tag has risen to $53 million. The nursing home is expected to open next year and will fill a need for veterans care in southern Kentucky.
Meanwhile, Wyoming opened a new, skilled nursing facility for veterans, their spouses and Gold Star families that added three cottages that can house 12 veterans each to the campus of the Veterans’ Home of Wyoming in Buffalo, according to local media.
States aren’t alone in making improvements. In January, the VA also proposed a new pay system for the 162 homes run by states, which have a combined total of about 30,000 beds.
