The Center for Public Representation (CPR) is deeply concerned about a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) initiative targeting veterans, including those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, for guardianship. On March 17, CPR sounded the alarm over this initiative, which includes a memorandum of understanding between the VA and the Department of Justice that purported to authorize VA lawyers to serve as Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the sole purpose of pursuing guardianship over veterans. On March 25, CPR and twenty partners submitted a statement for the record in a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, opposing draft legislation related to this initiative.
Guardianship and conservatorship are extreme legal interventions that strip fundamental rights of people to direct their own lives. They are not solutions to homelessness or service access. If there are indeed “hundreds” of veterans in acute care facilities waiting to be discharged, as the VA claims, it is not because they lack guardians, but because there are not enough community services and housing to support them. Rather than deputizing more attorneys to initiate guardianship proceedings, the VA should instead focus on fulfilling its obligations under federal law to ensure veterans have access to the most integrated settings and to increase its capacity to provide critically needed supported housing and community-based services.