Coastal Concepts Construction · For veterans
VA grant funded home modifications
A veteran owned, licensed North Carolina general contractor doing the accessibility work HISA, SAH and SHA pay for, across Wilmington and the surrounding coast.
If a VA grant is paying for work on your home, the hard part is usually not the construction. It is getting the paperwork right, and finding a contractor who has done it before and will not disappear halfway through.
Coastal Concepts Construction is veteran owned and has been a licensed North Carolina general contractor since 2007. We already build the work these grants fund: accessible bathrooms, permanent ramps, widened doorways, and aging in place modifications. We write the itemized estimate VA asks for, take the photographs they require, and build to the approved scope.
One thing worth knowing
You will see contractors advertise themselves as VA approved or VA authorized for these programs. VA does not run a contractor approval program for HISA, SAH or SHA. There is no such list. What matters is that your contractor is properly licensed and insured, has done this work before, and can produce the itemized estimate and photos VA requires. Ask any contractor who claims otherwise to show you the credential.
The three grant programs
Maximums shown are current for federal fiscal year 2026, which runs October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026. VA adjusts SAH and SHA amounts most years based on construction costs, so confirm the current figure with VA before you plan around it.
HISA
Home Improvements and Structural Alterations
Up to $6,800 or $2,000
Up to $6,800 lifetime for improvements tied to a service connected condition. Veterans with a service connected rating of 50 percent or higher can also use the $6,800 figure for non service connected conditions. Everyone else is capped at $2,000.
Who qualifies: Any veteran with a VA physician's prescription showing the modification is medically necessary. HISA is available whether or not the disability is service connected.
Read the official VA pageSAH
Specially Adapted Housing
Up to $126,526 (FY2026)
The largest of the three. Built for veterans with severe service connected disabilities who need a home they can move through independently. It can be used up to six times across a lifetime, so long as the total stays under the maximum.
Who qualifies: Veterans with specific severe service connected disabilities, including certain losses of limb, blindness, and severe burns. VA determines eligibility.
Read the official VA pageSHA
Special Home Adaptation
Up to $25,350 (FY2026)
Sits between HISA and SAH. Typically used to adapt a home the veteran or a family member already owns, rather than to build or buy an adapted one.
Who qualifies: Veterans with certain service connected disabilities including blindness in both eyes, loss of use of both hands, or specific severe burn injuries.
Read the official VA pageWhat HISA pays for, and what it does not
This is the list that saves people the most time. HISA is tightly scoped to medical necessity, and several things homeowners expect it to cover are specifically excluded.
Typically covered
- Roll in and walk in showers, plus the fixtures that make a bathroom usable from a wheelchair
- Widened doorways and hallways
- Permanent ramping to improve access to the driveway or a permanent walkway
- Lowered kitchen and bathroom counters and sinks
- Improvements to entrances and exits of the home
- Plumbing or electrical work required by newly installed medical equipment
Not covered by HISA
- Exterior decking
- Walkways to buildings other than the home
- Spas and hot tubs
- Portable ramps and stair glides
- Home security systems
- New construction
- Routine maintenance such as roof or furnace replacement
Worth calling out: HISA will not pay for exterior decking. A permanent ramp that improves access to the home is a different thing and can qualify. If you want both, we can quote the ramp separately from any deck work so the grant paperwork stays clean.
How the process actually runs
1. Get the prescription
Every HISA award starts with a VA physician. The prescription has to state the medical justification for the modification. Your VA social worker or the prosthetics department at your VA medical center is the right first call.
2. Complete VA Form 10-0103
This is the Veterans Application for Assistance in Acquiring Home Improvement and Structural Alterations. You can download it below. If you rent, you also need written authorization from the property owner.
3. Get an itemized estimate
VA wants a line item cost breakdown, not a single number, plus a color photograph of the area to be modified. This is where we come in. We walk the space, measure, photograph it, and write the estimate in the format VA expects.
4. VA reviews and decides
Your paperwork goes to VA. They approve, deny, or come back with questions. Nobody outside VA can approve a grant or promise you will get one, and you should be skeptical of any contractor who says otherwise.
5. We build it
Once you have an approval in hand we schedule the work, pull permits where the job needs them, and build to the scope VA signed off on. You get the same written scope and the same crew as any other job we run.
Get the application
HISA runs on VA Form 10-0103. Here is the current fillable version straight from VA, plus everything that goes in the packet alongside it.
VA Form 10-0103
Fillable PDF · February 2025 revision
Veterans Application for Assistance in Acquiring Home Improvement and Structural Alterations.
Download the formThis links to the copy hosted by VA, so you always get the current revision rather than an out of date one. Form details are on the VA form page.
What goes in the packet
- 1
A VA physician's prescription
Stating the medical justification for the modification. Your VA social worker or the prosthetics department starts this.
- 2
VA Form 10-0103, completed and signed
The application itself. Download it below.
- 3
An itemized contractor estimate
Broken out by line item, not a single total. This is the part we write for you.
- 4
A color photograph of the area
The space as it exists today, before any work. We take these during the walkthrough.
- 5
Written owner authorization
Only if you rent. The property owner signs off on the modification.
Two of those five are ours. Book a walkthrough and you leave with the itemized estimate and the photographs, in the format VA expects.
Book a grant walkthroughAbout this information
Coastal Concepts Construction is a private general contractor. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any government agency. We do not determine eligibility, process applications, or decide awards. Only VA does that.
Grant amounts, eligibility rules and covered items are summarized here for convenience and change over time. Confirm everything with VA before making decisions. Start with the VA HISA program page and the VA disability housing grants page, or speak with the social work or prosthetics department at your VA medical center.
Planning a grant funded modification?
Call (910) 239-8500 or fill out the estimate form and our office team will get back to you fast. We'll put together a custom written scope -- no generic packages, no pressure.