With $5 million in federal funds, the state Department of Veterans Affairs plans to convert three buildings on the Rocky Hill campus into temporary housing for veterans.

The project will provide up to 46 rooms for veterans and their families in three existing buildings, Deputy Commissioner Joseph D. Danao II said Tuesday. The facilities are designed to help veterans in a variety of situations, Danao said, from U.S. Marines returning to civilian life after serving at the Groton submarine base to homeless veterans and their families.

The money comes from the American Rescue Plan Act and all funding must be contracted by December 31.

“Any money that is not committed by the end of the year, we have to return,” Danao said. “So we’re working really hard with our partner agencies at the state level to make this happen and get the most out of this program for our veterans.”

Work includes asbestos and lead assessment and removal, renovations that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, painting, and purchasing appliances and furniture. The project includes 11 three-bedroom apartments and rooms arranged around shared bathrooms.

The buildings, which date back to 1940, are in fairly good condition and originally housed agency employees, Danao said. Some of the rooms were moved into by veterans last year, while others have been vacant for a decade or more.

Department staff are working with state legislators, the housing authority and other government agencies to complete the project, Danao said. The rooms are intended as temporary accommodation, initially for one year, but can be extended for two years.

With housing a priority, House Majority Leader Jason Rojas (D-East Hartford) said Wednesday that he and other lawmakers have asked state agencies to “think about state lands that could be used to further housing goals.” Democratic Rep. Kerry Wood, who represents Rocky Hill and Wethersfield, invited him to tour the Veterans Home site, Rojas said, “since existing housing there has not been usable for some time.”

“After inspecting the properties,” he said, “my priority was to raise the funds needed to bring those properties back online.”

The project will build on an existing program called Patriots Landing, which currently consists of five furnished single-family homes. The program houses veterans and their families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and provides supportive services designed to help the veterans reach their goals and find permanent housing. In the past two months, two veterans and their families have left the housing program and transitioned into their own independent living situations, the agency said.

The housing facilities at the Rocky Hill Campus are intended for Connecticut veterans who have been honorably discharged or discharged under honorable conditions from active duty in the armed forces. Eligible veterans are all those who live in the state or were residents of the state at the time of their enlistment or call-up to military service.

In a related development, Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut recently announced new federal guidelines that would repeal the policy of counting veterans’ disability payments as income when applying for affordable housing. The change is intended to make housing available to more veterans.

Anastasia Woolcock, housing director for West Hartford-based Journey Home, said Friday that the income limit is the most common barrier to accessing affordable housing for veterans and that is why her organization has vacant units.

“We have 100 veterans on our waiting list, 70 of them in the greater Hartford area,” Woolcock said Friday. “We are pleased that a solution is on the way.”

Sharon Castelli, CEO of the Hartford-based Chrysalis Center, said the affordable housing crisis for veterans and all Connecticut residents has been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has led to a flood of people moving to the state from New York and other neighboring states. As a result, she said, landlords have raised rents due to competition and also made other changes, such as requiring three months’ rent to be paid in advance.

“This completely overwhelmed our veterinarians,” Castelli said.