VA Homeless Programs
Message from Monica Diaz, Executive Director, VHA Homeless Programs Office
December 2023
When you think of the holiday season, what comes to mind? Often, it’s gathering to enjoy good company and good food in the warmth of a welcoming home.
But for some, there is nowhere to call home. It’s our goal to bring the stability of home to every Veteran, and to help make this holiday vision possible for those who have bravely served our country.
The state of Veteran homelessness
As 2023 winds down and we prepare for 2024, let’s take a moment to reflect on the progress we’ve made toward our goals this year.
In the fiscal year that runs from October 2022 to September 2023, we housed almost 75,000 Veterans and their families or prevented them from becoming homeless. That’s enough to fill a football stadium!
Even more impressively, nearly half that number has come since January.
Another football stadium—over 80,000 Veterans—signed leases through the Housing and Urban Development- Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program this year. This collaborative program pairs HUD housing vouchers with VA support services that lower the risk of Veterans returning to homelessness.
And we’ve already met our goal to house 38,000 homeless Veterans in calendar year 2023.
These accomplishments add to the 52% reduction in Veteran homelessness that we’ve achieved since 2010. And across the country, 83 communities and three states—Connecticut, Delaware, and Virginia—have effectively ended Veteran homelessness.
Providing a safety net
As a nation, and at VA, we were able to make great strides against homelessness with the support of pandemic-era policies, proving that homelessness is a failure of systems—not people.
During the worst of the COVID pandemic, the country invested more to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place.
At VA, we provided an important safety net for Veterans through section 4201(a) of the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020. This act gave the Secretary of Veterans Affairs the flexibility to authorize funding for life-saving food, shelter, goods, and services for homeless Veterans or those served through HUD-VASH.
Because having a roof over your head doesn’t necessarily equate to a safe and stable home, these funds were also used to help make housing comfortable and reliable.
Here are just a few Veterans whose lives were improved by 4201 funds over the last two years:
- Suffering from sleep apnea, a Florida Veteran was able to purchase the CPAP batteries that he needed when Hurricane Ida hit the Gulf Coast in 2021.
- Another Veteran in California bought a generator to keep electricity flowing to his home during frequent power outages.
- When his apartment reached 120 degrees during a heat wave, a Veteran used 4201 funds to buy a window air conditioner.
Looking ahead
Though we’ve made progress, more work remains. According to the last count in January 2023, 35,574 Veterans, an increase of 7.4% from last year.
Few conditions are more harmful to a person’s health and welfare than homelessness. Without a home, people can die decades earlier from hunger, weather, and treatable illnesses—and those with the preexisting conditions common in Veterans are far more likely to experience homelessness.
Also, as we look at all the data, it’s important to remember that the Veterans we serve are more than a number. They are people working to overcome hardship who deserve a safe and affordable home—a need as basic as air, water, and food.
As we continue our work, we keep their stories at the top of our minds. These heroes deserve the chance to spend this holiday season, and every holiday season, safe at home.
