Rhode Island Veterans’ Home

The Rhode Island Veterans' Home at Bristol is established under chapter 30-24 for those who served "in any war or conflict" and were honorably discharged, and the list of services in section 30-24-1 includes the Merchant Marines and, since P.L. 2025, ch. 165 and ch. 166, § 11, effective June 24, 2025, the Space Force. Admission under section 30-24-10(a) turns on three tests. Ninety days or more of service in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Space Force, or Air Force, where that period began or ended during any foreign war in which the United States was engaged, or in any expedition or campaign for which the United States issues a campaign medal, with an honorable discharge. A veteran who served less than ninety days qualifies if they were honorably discharged and acquired a service-connected disability or disease as a result of the service. A need for the care the home provides, as the admission rules define it. And a Rhode Island connection, which has two routes: the person must have been accredited to the enlistment or induction quota of the state, meaning they entered service from Rhode Island, or must have resided in the state for at least two consecutive years next prior to the date of application. Note that the residency route is measured to the application rather than to any earlier date. The cost is the part to understand before moving in, and it is not a flat rate. Under section 30-24-10(b) the director determines the net per diem cost of maintenance at the end of each fiscal year and assesses against each resident who has net income a fee equal to eighty percent of that net income, capped at the actual cost of care for the resident. Twenty percent of the fee assessed is deposited in the veterans' restricted account. Net income is defined and the deductions are what a resident should check line by line. Gross income minus applicable federal and state taxes, minus one hundred and fifty dollars per month of residency, minus fifty percent of any sum received due to wounds incurred under battle conditions for which the resident received the Purple Heart, and minus amounts the resident pays to support a spouse, parents, minor children, or children who are blind or permanently and totally disabled as defined in Title XVI of the Social Security Act, up to a maximum set by rule. Two of those deductions deserve attention. The personal allowance is one hundred and fifty dollars a month, which is what a resident keeps for everything the home does not provide. And the Purple Heart deduction shelters half of compensation received for battle wounds from the fee base, which is a recognition built into the arithmetic rather than into a ceremony. Failure to pay when due is cause for dismissal from the facility, though the resident must be afforded administrative due process first. Section 30-24-9 is the provision every resident's family should read. All goods, chattels, property, money, and effects of a deceased resident that have not been disposed of by a completed inter vivos conveyance or gift or by a valid will become the property of the State on death, after payment of funeral expenses not exceeding ten thousand dollars and the reasonable debts and expenses determined by rule, and are applied to the veterans' restricted account. The director may, at discretion, give a surviving relative items that serve as a memento. That is an escheat. A veteran who dies at the home without a will leaves their estate to the State of Rhode Island rather than to their heirs. Making a will is the single most valuable thing a resident can do, and it costs nothing to say so. Two smaller provisions. Section 30-24-10(c) requires admissions to be made without discrimination as to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, assets, or income, and the inclusion of assets and income in that list is unusual for a facility that means-tests its fee. Section 30-24-10(d) provides laundry services to residents at no charge. An advisory council for veterans' affairs of up to fifteen members, ten of them honorably discharged veterans, advises the director; the statute requires that one member be a female veteran and one a minority veteran. There is a loose end in the chapter worth knowing if you are chasing accountability. Sections 30-24-1 and 30-24-2 put management and control of the home in the director of human services, while section 30-24-3 has the director of veterans services appoint the administrator. The chapter was not fully reconciled when veterans services was separated out, so the two directors appear in the same chapter. No disability rating gates admission, so the rating filter never hides this entry.