New Hampshire Veterans’ Home

RSA 119:1, I establishes the New Hampshire Veterans' Home "for the support, care, and treatment of veterans who have served on active duty in the armed forces of the United States as defined by 38 U.S.C. section 101, or in reserve units or in the New Hampshire army or air national guard, and have been discharged of a character outlined in RSA 21:50 therefrom." Three service routes, not one: active duty as the federal statute defines it, service in a reserve unit, or service in the New Hampshire Army or Air National Guard. No wartime period, no minimum days and no rating anywhere in the section. Guard service alone is a route in, which is broader than most state veterans homes in this catalog. The discharge standard was widened on August 31, 2026. 2026 chapter 252, section 7 put "discharged of a character outlined in RSA 21:50" into paragraph I, so an applicant with a general discharge under honorable conditions, or an uncharacterized discharge based on a service-connected injury, illness or disability, now qualifies. The same act made the same change to the qualifications for appointed members of the board of managers in RSA 119:2, II, which the statute prints in both its pre and post August 31, 2026 versions. Residency is one year, with two express waivers in paragraph II. The one-year requirement is waived for "a veteran whose DD214 certificate or any document used by the veterans' home for admission states a New Hampshire address as his or her home of record upon discharge from active duty", and for "an active duty veteran who has a New Hampshire address as his or her home of record and who is being discharged directly from a medical facility." The first waiver is wider than it looks because it accepts a New Hampshire home of record on "any document used by the veterans' home for admission", not only the DD214. A veteran who enlisted from New Hampshire, spent a career elsewhere and is returning does not have to wait a year. The care the home provides, in paragraph III, is a long list: "nursing care, assisted living, domiciliary, day care, dementia, chemical dependency and psychiatric services, and other related services and programs for any veteran otherwise eligible for admittance." And the services "shall be provided at the veterans' home or contracted through other organizations and facilities, both within and outside of New Hampshire." The second clause matters: the home may buy care elsewhere, including out of state, rather than turning away a veteran whose needs it cannot meet on site. Admission is by rule rather than by statute. RSA 119:5 gives the board of managers power to "adopt rules under RSA 541-A relative to the management of the veterans' home and for the admission and discharge of residents", and RSA 119:9 requires an application on forms furnished by the home, with rules on admittance or rejection "including an appeal process" adopted under RSA 541-A. So the operative eligibility detail and the fee structure live in administrative rules. What RSA 541-A gives in return is real: rulemaking with notice and comment, legislative oversight through the joint legislative committee on administrative rules, and an appeal process the statute requires the rules to contain. Governance is unusually prescriptive and unusually representative. RSA 119:2, I vests the home's government in a board of managers consisting of the state commanders of the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans ex officio, plus 9 citizens appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the council. Paragraph II requires at least 6 of the appointed citizens to be wartime veterans, reserves one seat each for members of the American Legion, the VFW and the DAV, three for active members of recognised and chartered veterans service organisations including at least one woman, one for a woman from a named auxiliary, and, notably, "Two appointees, one of whom shall be male and one of whom shall be female, shall be residents of the veterans' home." Residents sit on the board that governs the home. RSA 119:3-a requires the board to meet monthly and to notice all meeting times and venues in the calendars of the house and the senate, which is how a family member can find out when the board meets. RSA 119:6 carries a small employment preference: the board appoints and may remove the commandant for just cause, and "a veteran as defined by RSA 21:50 shall have preference for employment in the home if qualified by the New Hampshire division of personnel." That preference was pointed at RSA 21:50 by 2026 chapter 252, section 1. RSA 119:1-a provides that older statutory references to the "New Hampshire Soldiers' Home" mean this home, which is why archival material and some deeds use that name. RSA 119:8 lets the board receive donations and bequests for the support and care of residents.