The Department of Veterans Affairs aims to place 41,000 homeless veterans into permanent housing in fiscal year 2024.
“Even one veteran experiencing homelessness is a tragedy,” said VA Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher, who announced the goal on March 15 at the Washington D.C. VA Medical Center.
VA also pledged that at least 95 percent of the veterans housed in FY 2024 would not return to homelessness during the year and that it would engage with at least 40,000 unsheltered veterans to help them obtain housing and other wraparound services.
According to VA, it permanently housed 46,552 homeless veterans in 2023 — surpassing the calendar year goal to house 38,000 veterans by 22.5 percent.
However, the January 2023 point-in-time count by the Department of Housing and Urban Development found the total number of veterans who experienced homelessness was 35,574 – an increase of 7.4 percent over January 2022 and the first in six years.
VA and HUD partnered for 10 national HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) boot camps, in which local VA homeless program staff with public housing agencies from across the country participated in intensive two-day workshops to improve coordination to more quickly rehouse veterans. During 2023, the HUD-VASH program helped over 21,000 veterans exit homelessness and obtain permanent affordable housing with supportive services.
“Whenever we get into contact with a homeless veteran, our first priority is to get them into the housing they deserve,” said Bradsher. “Then we work to provide them with the tools they need to stay housed — including health care, job training, legal and education assistance, and more. That’s how we’ll meet and exceed these goals in 2024.”
Specific goals for combating veteran homelessness in the Greater Los Angeles area were also announced. During 2023, VA provided 1,790 permanent housing placements to formerly homeless veterans in LA, the most of any city in America, and exceeded its local goal by over 19%.
In FY 2024, VA said it would build on that progress by permanently housing at least 1,605 veterans experiencing homelessness and engage with at least 2,184 unsheltered veterans to help them obtain housing and other wraparound services.
For more information about VA’s efforts to end veteran homelessness, visit here.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.