South Carolina Veterans Homes

South Carolina runs six state veterans homes: the E. Roy Stone Jr. Veterans Pavilion in Columbia, Veterans' Victory House in Walterboro, the Richard Michael Campbell Veterans Nursing Home in Anderson, Veteran Village in Florence, the Palmetto Patriots Home in Gaffney, and Patriot's Village in Sumter. The statutory picture changed twice in three years and the second change is the one that matters for a veteran reading a published eligibility list. 2023 Act No. 60 moved the homes out of the Department of Mental Health and into the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and it phased the move. Section 16 of that act provides that the transfer takes effect July 1, 2024 for the homes for which the Department of Mental Health had a service contract with a third-party provider as of May 1, 2023, and July 1, 2025 for those it did not. So through most of 2025 the six homes were under two different agencies. Section 25-11-710 now states the authority: the Department of Veterans' Affairs, in mutual agreement with the federal Veterans Administration, "may establish and operate South Carolina veterans homes to provide treatment for South Carolina veterans who require long-term nursing care", and is designated as the state agency to apply for and accept federal construction and operating money. The department may consult the Department of Public Health and the Office of the Governor about policies, management and operation. Section 25-11-720 defines the population, and it is broad: "South Carolina veterans" means "any ex service South Carolina citizen who was discharged under other than dishonorable conditions and who served in any branch of the military or naval service of the United States." No wartime service. No minimum days. No rating. No minimum period of South Carolina residency stated. Other than dishonorable, which takes in a general discharge and, on the words, an other than honorable discharge. Then 2025 Act No. 5, effective April 28, 2025, added Section 25-11-730 and took the admission rules out of statute altogether: "(A) The Department of Veterans' Affairs shall adopt and execute criteria, policies, and procedures for admissions to and discharges from South Carolina veterans' homes. (B) The Department of Veterans' Affairs shall set and collect fees for residence in and services provided by South Carolina veterans' homes. (C) The Department of Veterans' Affairs is authorized to receive, as full or partial payment of any fees charged by a South Carolina veteran home, the assignment of any state or federal benefit." That is the whole of the admission and fee law. Every specific condition a veteran will be quoted comes from a department policy the statute authorises rather than from the code. The commonly published conditions are an honorable discharge, at least one year of South Carolina residency, and a VA determination that the applicant requires skilled or intermediate nursing care. None of those three appears in the statute, and the residency figure in particular conflicts with Section 25-11-720, which states no residency period at all. Treat the one-year residency and the care-level determination as current administrative practice, confirm them with the department before planning around them, and expect them to move without a legislative act. The department's own benefits booklet, dated January 7, 2026, states the discharge test as "separated from the U.S. Armed Forces under general or honorable conditions", which is itself narrower than the statute: Section 25-11-720 reaches anyone discharged under other than dishonorable conditions, including an other than honorable discharge on the words. 2026 Act No. 153 (H. 4799), signed May 15, 2026, added veterans homes owned and operated by the Department of Veterans' Affairs to the list in Section 44-7-170(B) of facilities the certificate of need article does not apply to, so a new home or added beds no longer need that approval. Subsection (C) is worth reading for what it permits. The department may take the assignment of "any state or federal benefit" as full or partial payment. In practice that is how a resident's VA pension, Aid and Attendance, or per diem is applied, and it means a veteran without private means is not excluded for want of cash. There is no spouse admission route in the statute. Several states in this catalog admit a spouse or a Gold Star parent to a veterans home; Chapter 11 of Title 25 says nothing about either, which leaves it to department policy under Section 25-11-730(A). A reporting requirement gives a way to check the homes' actual condition. Section 25-11-10(D)(4) requires the department's annual report to the Governor and the General Assembly, due by December 31 each year, to describe "the current status and condition of the department's domiciliary and nursing homes, including the number of residents received and discharged during the preceding year, occupancy rates, staffing, and all receipts and expenditures from the preceding year." That report is the primary source for whether a home has capacity. One bill worth knowing did not pass. H. 4385 in the 2025-2026 session would have added to Section 25-11-730 a requirement that the department submit its admission and discharge policies to the legislative oversight committees within sixty days of adoption or amendment, together with "a summary of stakeholder engagement and an analysis of potential impacts on low-income, disabled, and minority veterans". It was recommitted to committee and did not become law. The department's policy-making under Section 25-11-730(A) carries no such transparency condition.