Nebraska Veterans’ Homes

Section 80-315 establishes four homes: the Central Nebraska Veterans' Home at Kearney, the Norfolk Veterans' Home, the Eastern Nebraska Veterans' Home at Bellevue and the Western Nebraska Veterans' Home at Scottsbluff. The Department of Veterans' Affairs runs them and describes assisted living, skilled nursing and memory care, with physical, occupational, speech and restorative therapy, hospice and palliative care, and dedicated memory support units. Admission is governed by 80-316 and it is worth reading closely, because two of its provisions are wider than any comparable statute in this catalog and one is narrower. The wide part first. Subsection (1)(a) reaches a person who served on active duty in the armed forces of the United States other than active duty for training, or who served on active duty in the Nebraska National Guard "including active duty for training", with an honorable or general under honorable conditions discharge. That second clause is deliberate. For the Nebraska Guard, training counts. A Guard member whose only service was basic training and annual training, and who therefore holds no DD Form 214 and is not a veteran for most federal purposes, is eligible for admission to a Nebraska veterans home. This catalog has found no other state home statute that says so. The second wide part is who else can be admitted. Subsection (1)(b) covers the spouse of a member, married at least two years before the member's entrance to the home. Subdivisions (1)(c) and (d) cover surviving spouses, and parents, of eligible service members who died in the service of the United States or have since died of a service-connected disability, and surviving spouses of eligible service members who have since died. The Department of Veterans' Affairs describes the parent route as Gold Star parents. Very few state homes admit a parent at all. The narrow part. Subsection (1)(a)(i) requires that at the time of application the applicant has been a bona fide resident of Nebraska for at least two years. Compare the states around it in this catalog: Wisconsin requires no residency whatsoever, Alaska requires one continuous year, Kansas requires two years of actual residency. Nebraska's two years sits at the strict end. How the department reads that requirement is more generous than the words suggest, and the reading is stated in two places. The Department of Veterans' Affairs website and the April 2026 NDVA Guide to Veterans' Benefits both describe eligibility as having "resided in Nebraska for at least two years during their lifetime". On that reading a veteran who grew up in Nebraska, spent forty years elsewhere and wants to come home is eligible on arrival. The statute says "has been a bona fide resident of the State of Nebraska for at least two years" without the words "immediately preceding", which is what leaves room for it. A veteran relying on the lifetime reading should get it confirmed in writing by the home before selling a house somewhere else. Surviving spouses and parents under (1)(c) and (d) face an extra test in subsection (2): two years of bona fide Nebraska residency and an inability to earn a livelihood. Payment is the part that surprises people. Section 80-322 requires any member admitted under 80-316 who has an income in excess of forty dollars per month, including federal pension, compensation or social security, or who has sufficient assets, to reimburse the state monthly a reasonable amount for the expense of maintenance, in an amount set by the Veterans' Homes Board. The forty dollar figure is a relic and has not moved in generations, so in practice every member with any income at all contributes. The department describes it as a sliding scale based on income and assets. Money paid goes to the Department of Veterans' Affairs Cash Fund. Section 80-321 preserves a member's right to pay the cost of their own care, and allows the board to decide that a member's financial position means they should no longer be maintained at public expense. Subsection (3) of 80-316 removes any vested right to continued residence if a person stops meeting the eligibility requirements, with one protection: no person regularly admitted may be denied continued residence solely because of marriage to another member of the home. Applications go direct to the home, or through a county veterans service officer, or through a recognised veterans service organisation.