Every Veteran deserves a safe, stable place to call home, and that’s why VA is committed to ending Veteran homelessness. In March 2023, VA announced its goal to place at least 38,000 Veterans experiencing homelessness into permanent housing and to ensure that at least 95% of the Veterans housed that year did not return to homelessness during that same year.
I am proud to say that for the second year in a row, VA exceeded its goal.
Delivering more for homeless Veterans
VA is helping people like Roderick Johnson, an Army Veteran who was housed in August 2023. “It was like a blessing that came to me,” Johnson said.
VA found Johnson an apartment to call home and continues to help him along the way. “It went from, ‘Where am I going to stay?’ and ‘Who am I going to stay with?’ to ‘I am well established now,’” Johnson said.
By the end of 2023, 46,552 homeless Veterans were permanently housed by VA and its community partners, representing 122.5% of the goal, a tremendous accomplishment and a step toward ending Veteran homelessness.
Additionally, of the 46,552 homeless Veterans housed, 95.9% remained in housing by the end of the year. Of the 1,919 Veterans who returned to homelessness, 96.4% were either rehoused or were back on a pathway to rehousing by the end of the year.
Lastly, VA engaged with 40,203 total unsheltered Veterans, connecting them to VA care—including housing and health services. View the full report here.
The right tools in the toolkit
VA supports Veterans through an array of services that support the full range of housing needs and barriers that they may face, including:
- Outreach, engagement, assessment and referral services—such as Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) and the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans—serve as front doors to both VA homeless programs and VA health care.
- Residential services—such as the HCHV Contracted Residential Services or Grant and Per Diem programs—provide temporary placement in the form of emergency or transitional housing for Veterans who need a place to stay right now.
- Permanent housing services—such as Supportive Services for Veteran Families and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA (HUD-VA) Supportive Housing, or HUD-VASH—connect Veterans to affordable housing in their communities through short or long-term rental subsidies, case management, and varying levels of wrap-around services to ensure that Veterans have all the necessary resources to stay housed.
- VA also has programs to assist Veterans in the criminal justice system access VA services, help them gain meaningful employment, or take care of their health needs through primary care tailored to the unique access barriers that come with homelessness.
Continuing the fight
Ending Veteran homelessness is a top priority of VA and President Biden, who has made supporting Veterans a key pillar of his Unity Agenda for the nation. Since 2010, Veteran homelessness has been reduced by more than 52%. Further, 83 communities and three states have achieved an effective end to Veteran homelessness.
But despite this progress, one homeless Veteran will always be one too many.
The fight to end homelessness among Veterans is not over, and I will continue to fight to put America’s Veterans into safe and stable housing. I hope you will join me as VA leads the way to end Veteran homelessness. Learn how to get involved with housing homeless Veterans.
Learn about VA Programs
If you are a Veteran who is homeless or at risk for homelessness, call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-4AID-VET (877-424-3838).
Visit the VA Homeless Programs website to learn about housing initiatives and other programs for Veterans exiting homelessness.
Check out the Ending Veteran Homelessness podcast to learn more about what VA is doing about Veteran homelessness.
For more stories like these, subscribe to the Homeless Programs Office newsletter to receive monthly updates about programs and supportive services for Veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
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