VA Homeless Programs
Message from Monica Diaz, Executive Director, VHA Homeless Programs Office
May 2024
While we can’t avoid all risk in our day-to-day lives, we can take steps to lessen the impact. When we drive, we can wear seat belts. When it’s flu season, we can get flu shots and wash our hands more often. When it’s sunny, we can wear sunscreen.
Similarly, for those who are battling substance use issues, there are ways to avoid the greatest risks of drug and alcohol use.
One approach is harm reduction. Harm reduction includes accepting that drug and alcohol abstinence isn’t going to work for everyone, and that many journeys to recovery involve setbacks. This method focuses on reducing the riskiest and most harmful behaviors rather than avoiding substances altogether.
It nicely supplements our Housing First approach to combatting Veteran homelessness, which doesn’t require Veterans to clear difficult hurdles to obtain permanent housing. Recovery can be a long and winding journey, and with Housing First, Veterans don’t have to make that journey without a safe place to live.
While substance use is not a primary cause of homelessness, it’s a major risk factor—and one we’re committed to helping Veterans overcome. Nearly two-thirds of homeless Veterans participating in the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program have substance use issues that can complicate their exit from homelessness. We don’t require sobriety or drug testing for Veterans to receive housing, but we do want to give them the opportunity and the tools they need to make positive change when they feel ready for it.
These trusting relationships are central to harm reduction. Veterans can only speak truthfully about their lives and the difficulties they face in a nonjudgmental, safe environment, so we encourage staff at VA to leave behind labels and preconceived notions and interact with Veterans with an open mind. Building this connection can also counteract Veterans’ feelings of desperation and isolation that feed the cycle of substance use.
Harm reduction reverses many longstanding approaches to substance use and homelessness, but evidence shows that it works. It leads to better engagement in treatment, higher utilization of overall health care, and improved insights into one’s own behaviors.
We serve Veterans more effectively when we don’t force them down a particular path, such as substance abstinence or treatment. Each person is the expert on their own life and knows better than anyone what they need and what is best for them.
By incorporating the principles of harm reduction into our work, we can help Veterans avoid the most dangerous aspects of substance use and embrace incremental change while allowing them to have a voice, and a choice, in their recovery.
We’re always looking to add to the atmosphere of support at VA, whether that’s through adopting new approaches or coming together to brainstorm how we can improve.
Recently, our HUD-VASH Boot Camps brought regional partners together to discuss how they can improve processes, increase voucher utilization, and expand support services to ensure Veterans move from homelessness to permanent housing more quickly and efficiently, and that they have the resources they need to remain housed.
Thousands of staff from VA, HUD, and local public housing agencies from across the country have attended these boot camps to learn how they can improve their results in the fight to end Veteran homelessness.
Watch our video to get more insight into how the outcomes of the event will benefit Veterans experiencing homelessness moving forward.
As we look to the future, we will continue working to ensure that all Veterans, no matter their circumstances, receive compassionate care from the programs VA’s homeless services have to offer.
