'You just turned your back': Pro-Trump vets furious as critical VA program cut

NPR reports the Trump administration is now canceling a program designed to help veterans behind on home loans get new, low-interest mortgages. And veterans are furious.

"My social media posts have not been nice to the director of the VA and have not been nice to Trump. And I voted for the guy!" said Jon Henry, who served in Iraq during the first Gulf War.

Last month, the Veterans Administration abruptly killed its VA Servicing Purchase (VASP) safety net program, which has helped more than 33,000 veterans and service members, according to the VA. But this most recent service cancellation is only the latest in a VA mortgage roller-coaster leaving service members confused about what help the federal government actually provides, if any.

“The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) dramatically increased the risk of foreclosure for tens of thousands of Veterans and their families,” reported the Center for Responsible Lending in May. However, it was only April 10 when the Trump administration announced the birth of the VASP program as “a new, last-resort tool in VA’s comprehensive suite of home retention options for eligible Veterans, active-duty Service members, and surviving spouses …”

ICE Mortgage Technology surveys indicate roughly 80,000 U.S. vets are behind on mortgages and spiraling toward foreclosure. NPR reached out to more than 50 veterans around the country who say they are terrified.

"It's like, damn, you keep talking big about how you're doing all this for the veterans, but you just turned your back on 80,000 vets that have VA loans," said Henry.

Retired Navy Special Operations diver Matthew Kelly described his own predicament as “infuriating and it's devastating.”

Republicans and Democrats are both equally riled at the shut-down, according to questions pummeling VA secretary Doug Collins at a recent U.S. Senate committee.

“I was just with a press conference back home with reporters back home. They asked me about the VA servicing purchase program or VASP," inquired Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) of Collins.

But Collins stood behind the VA's decision to end VASP, saying: "The VASP program is something that we do not need to be in.”

The program worked by buying veterans’ troubled loans and rolling their missed payments into a new loan with a low 2.5 percent interest rate, which is a marked improvement over average mortgage rates of about 7 percent.

Read the full NPR story at this link.