Gov. Little’s Leading Idaho plan includes a $75 million investment in care for veterans

BOISE, Idaho — Governor Brad Little’s Leading Idaho Plan calls for investing $75 million to refurbish state veteran’s homes to provide each person with their own room and bathroom while creating other safety measures to help care for Idaho’s vets.

The Idaho Division of Veterans Services runs three Idaho State Veterans Homes one in Boise, Pocatello and Lewiston with one more home being built in Post Falls.

“Right now our veterans share bedrooms and they share bathrooms in those facilities,” said the chief administrator of the Idaho Division of Veterans Services Mark Tschampl. “For us that $75 million is the single biggest quality of life improvement that we can actually make for our veterans that we take care of in those skilled nursing homes.”

If the legislature approves this funding it would be the largest investment in veterans care in state history and the renovations would also include putting in new HVAC systems to circulate air and anti-microbial surfaces to create a safer environment.

“It basically jumps us light years ahead in terms of being able to protect the vulnerable populations in those homes and making sure we provide the best care we can for those veterans,” said Tschampl.

These improvements would also help guard against infectious diseases and perhaps that’s more important now more than ever as veterans and the staff were forced to be very careful these past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story from Idaho News 6 here.