§ 3120.
(a)
The Secretary may, under contracts with entities described in subsection (f) of this section, or through facilities of the Veterans Health Administration, which possess a demonstrated capability to conduct programs of independent living services for severely handicapped persons, provide, under regulations which the Secretary shall prescribe, programs of independent living services and assistance under this chapter, in various geographic regions of the United States, to veterans described in subsection (b) of this section.
(c)
The Secretary shall, to the maximum extent feasible, include among those veterans who are provided with programs of independent living services and assistance under this section substantial numbers of veterans described in subsection (b) of this section who are receiving long-term care in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and nursing homes and in nursing homes with which the Secretary contracts for the provision of care to veterans.
(e)
(1)
Programs of independent living services and assistance shall be initiated for no more than 2,700 veterans in each fiscal year, and the first priority in the provision of such programs shall be afforded to veterans for whom the reasonable feasibility of achieving a vocational goal is precluded solely as a result of a service-connected disability.
(2)
The limitation in paragraph (1) shall not apply in any case in which the Secretary determines that a veteran described in subsection (b) has been displaced as the result of, or has otherwise been adversely affected in the areas covered by, a natural or other disaster, as determined by the Secretary.
(f)
Entities described in this subsection are (1) public or nonprofit agencies or organizations, and (2) for-profit entities in cases in which the Secretary determines that services comparable in effectiveness to services available from such an entity are not available, or cannot be obtained cost-effectively from, public or nonprofit agencies or through facilities of the Veterans Health Administration.
(Added [Pub. L. 96–466, title I, § 101(a)], Oct. 17, 1980, [94 Stat. 2185], § 1520; amended [Pub. L. 99–576, title III, § 333(a)], (b)(6), (c), Oct. 28, 1986, [100 Stat. 3279]; [Pub. L. 100–689, title II, § 202(b)], Nov. 18, 1988, [102 Stat. 4176]; [Pub. L. 101–237, title IV], §§ 404, 423(b)(1), Dec. 18, 1989, [103 Stat. 2080], 2092; renumbered § 3120 and amended [Pub. L. 102–83, § 5(a)], (c)(1), Aug. 6, 1991,