Wood County Veterans Service Commission: Financial Assistance Program

The program runs on the commission's Financial Assistance Policy, VSC-approved August 26, 2025 and posted on the office's site with the 2026 rate table as its Appendix C (read 2026-10-21). Eligibility: the applicant "MUST be a Veteran, an active-duty member of the Armed Forces of the United States, or the spouse, surviving spouse, dependent parent, minor child, or ward" of one, "a bona fide resident of Wood County for at least three months"; a veteran is one discharged under Honorable conditions who served on active duty for reasons other than training or has a service-connected disability, and for multiple periods of service the most recent discharge governs - a discharge that is not Honorable or General under Honorable Conditions routes the applicant to a discharge-upgrade conversation. Dependents follow 38 C.F.R. 13.20, 3.57 and 3.59. An application cannot sit pending while another is open, or during the ten-day reconsideration window. A personal interview is required (spouse, adult child or caretaker may attend), with a written statement of need; the signed Eligibility and Sanctions form and the completed checklist go with the application; approval may be made contingent on a budgeting or financial-coaching course the commission approves. The money test. If the household's 30-day income beats its allowable expenses by $500, the commission "may deny assistance based on 'excessive income'"; if liquid assets exceed $500 after the math, "excessive assets" denial. Allowable expenses are reviewed annually with caps printed in the policy - hotel or rent/mortgage principal and interest $1,200 a month, water/sewer $100, electric $150, gas utilities $100, toiletries $50, car payment $500, internet $50, phone $150, trash $20, gas and vehicle maintenance $200, health and auto insurance $700, plus support orders, recurring medical costs, documented emergent repairs (two quotes) and funeral expenses to $1,000. Where expenses beat income the Executive Director may grant at the HHS Federal Poverty Guidelines: the maximum direct payment is one month of the 100-percent rate, paid directly to vendors with a W-9 on file, and the 2026 table is $1,330 for one person, $1,803 for two, $2,277, $2,750, $3,223, $3,697, $4,170, $4,643 and $5,680 more per member beyond eight, with food vouchers of $200 rising $100 a person beside it, reduced by SNAP. Assistance may only be issued for rent or monthly mortgage principal, utilities (water, electric, gas, firewood) and food vouchers; it will not pay taxes, support orders, life insurance, cell, cable or internet, personal or credit-card debt, deposits, hospital or doctor bills, tuition, late fees, rent after an eviction judgment or a mortgage in foreclosure. Once every twelve months per applicant, waivable by the commission "by consent of those present", which may also set any amount or deny; the Executive Director may issue emergency assistance to $2,000 plus a food voucher on the enumerated emergencies; humanitarian cards give the director or commission discretion for the near-eligible. A decision may be reconsidered once, in writing within ten days, and the commission's word is final. Misstatements, promising vendors the commission will pay before it has decided, voucher abuse, non-cooperation or abuse of staff bring sanctions of the commission's choosing. The policy cites Revised Code 5901.01, 5901.08 and 5901.09. The checklist that goes with it gives the five-business-day rule: bring the full packet "WITHIN 5 BUSINESS DAYS OF THE DATE YOU SIGNED THIS CHECKLIST OR YOUR APPLICATION WILL BE WITHDRAWN", digital PDF or originals, every page - discharge papers for all periods of service, state photo ID, the statement of need (VA 21-4138 may be used), JFS intake documents, unemployment determination, a year of employment history, disability and income proofs. The ineligibility list on the signed sanctions form adds the county's edge rules: no assistance if unemployed due to a strike, seasonally employed by choice, part-time or self-selected underemployment, in school instead of work, divorced from the veteran or remarried after widowhood, or refusing to apply for JFS benefits; rent and mortgage requests die if the eviction or foreclosure court order has already issued. The commissioners' minutes let the reader watch it work: on October 9, 2025 Mr. Migura reported the county had paid $7,804 of financial assistance to local veterans that year, with staff checking every applicant for federal VA benefits and teaching budgeting on the way; the 2026 holiday outreach (September 1 to November 15) had by October 8, 2026 issued 48 fifty-dollar Kroger gift cards, a group of twenty veterans more to be presented the same afternoon.