Jackson County Soldiers and Sailors Relief through the Veterans Affairs Office

Michigan requires every county to keep a fund for the relief of indigent wartime veterans and their families (MCL 35.21; see the Michigan entry on the county veterans relief fund). Jackson County runs that duty through its department of veterans affairs: the county operates under 1953 PA 192 (MCL 35.621), the act whose section 2, MCL 35.622, declares the soldiers' relief commission inoperative in counties that adopt it and transfers the commission's powers to the county department. There is no separate relief commission on the county's boards list - the Veterans Affairs Committee is the statutory body, and the county's own budget document states the mandate plainly: "All Michigan counties are mandated to provide relief and burial benefits to eligible veterans and their family members." What the county does not publish is the application, the amounts and the committee's relief rules. No relief form or guideline appears on the county site, in the Board's 2026 packets or on BoardDocs, and neither the budget document nor the committee minutes record a per-claim amount. A Jackson County veteran who needs the fund should call the Veterans Affairs office at 517-788-4425, 1715 Lansing Avenue, and ask for relief; the same office is the county's door to the Michigan Veterans Trust Fund (see the Michigan entry). A refusal by the county can be taken to the circuit court within 15 days (MCL 35.23).