VA sets goals for conquering veteran homelessness in 2024

For the last two calendar years, the Department of Veterans Affairs set goals to permanently house 38,000 homeless veterans each year. In 2022, the VA housed 40,401 homeless veterans and surpassed that number in 2023, housing 46,552.

“We are talking about veterans moving into apartments that they either rent or own. Many of our veterans did move from homelessness into permanent housing with help from either a voucher or a subsidy provided by one of our VA programs,” said Jill Albanese, director of Clinical Operations and senior advisor for VA’s Homeless Programs Office, during a VA call with veteran service organizations. “So it’s pretty exciting.”

For 2024, VA set three goals: to provide permanent housing for 41,000 homeless veterans; prevent return of homelessness; and engage unsheltered veterans. As of April 30, 2024:

·         26,772 veterans have been permanently housed. This is 65.3% of VA’s goal of housing 41,000 veterans.

·          97.8% of the veterans housed have remained in housing. VA’s goal is to ensure that at least 95% of the veterans housed in 2024 stay housed.

·         24,616 unsheltered veterans have been engaged. This is 61.5% of VA’s goal to engage with at least 40,000 unsheltered veterans in 2024. These are veterans living in tents, cars or on the streets.

Albanese said the unsheltered veterans are sleeping in cars, on the streets and “are the folks in our opinion that are often the most vulnerable. They have worse health outcomes than those that are in shelters. So we really want to make sure that we are targeting these folks and that we are doing outreach to our veterans who are unsheltered and getting them into our transitional housing program (e.g., hotels). We just want to get those folks off the streets.”

Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness can call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-424-3838 to speak with a trained counselor. Family and friends of the veteran also can call or visit va.gov/homeless. The veteran will be connected to their local VA medical center to assist with their housing crisis.

VA is always looking for landlord partners to help end veteran homelessness, Albanese stressed. “We do depend very much on the private sector of landlords to help us get veterans housed. There are benefits to landlords renting to a veteran.”

Benefits including reliable income, support from VA and helping those who have served in uniform to protect our freedoms. Landlords can learn more about this partnership with the VA at va.gov/homeless/landlords.asp.