Veterans Ministry Program
Referring a veteran to the VMP
The operating page for VA outreach, Guest Services, hospitals, treatment centers, and out-of-area inquiries. The public briefing is on the main page. The steps live here.
The short version
The VMP is a structured program. A veteran enters by referral, after someone who has already seen how he shows up is willing to stand behind that referral.
Direct entry is only for a veteran already reporting to an external authority on a fixed schedule: Boise VA IOP, Boise VA Behavioral Health on a fixed appointment schedule, Veterans Treatment Court, or entering RSAT. Everyone else starts at Guest Services. The referral comes from the Guest Services case manager once he has seen the veteran in the building.
How to refer
Tell us what you have observed
Note the readiness you have actually seen, and anything that gives you pause. The second half matters as much as the first.
Send verification of service
Any one of these works: a copy of his DD-214, a driver's license indicating veteran status, a VA medical card, or a verification email from VA Outreach or another official VA source.
Flag any VA work in motion
HUD-VASH, SSVF, IOP, benefits claims. Knowing what is already moving keeps us from cutting across it.
Verification of service is required before any referral, no exceptions
If he has none of the four documents, contact us before referring rather than after. There is usually a way through, but it has to happen first.
What happens next
A referred veteran is sent his own private application link to complete from his phone. It is issued per veteran, so please do not forward one man's link to another. If he has no phone access, tell us and we will work it out.
Before a veteran travels to Boise
We want them here and we want them to succeed. Both depend on arriving with an accurate picture rather than a hopeful one.
Contact Boise VA Homeless Program Outreach first
Make contact before the move. They are the ones who get HUD-VASH moving.
Ask about a referral into IOP
If that is in place on arrival, it is the cleanest path into the VMP.
Plan the first night
Plan it on the assumption that an arrival date is not a bed.
Read the program briefing
The savings window and the standard are on the main page. Ask us for the veteran handouts if you want the in-house versions.
What we cannot do
We cannot reserve or hold a bed, we cannot guarantee availability on a given date, and the VMP is not a walk-in program. Please set this expectation clearly with any veteran planning to travel.
A veteran arriving from out of state expecting a veterans-dorm bed on request is the most common misunderstanding we have to correct. It is much kinder to correct it before he gets on the bus.
What the veteran is agreeing to
Worth saying out loud before a referral, not after.
- Attendance at required VMP programming.
- On-time arrival to appointments, inside the program and outside it.
- A direct response when staff messages him.
- A monthly financial review against his actual bank statements.
- A savings floor of 30% of income, with a program goal of 50%.
That last one is the piece that turns a stay into a lease, and the piece men tell us they wish they had understood on day one.