The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have announced that veteran homelessness has dropped to its lowest level on record since the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) started counting this data in 2009.
The PIT is a one-day unduplicated count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals and families across the U.S. HUD requires that each Continuum of Care (CoC) conduct a count in the last 10 days of January every year
The 2024 PIT data, which will be published by HUD later this year, represents a snapshot of homelessness on a single night. Between January 2023 and January 2024, the number of veterans experiencing any form of homelessness dropped from 35,574 to 32,882—a 7.5% drop since last year, 11.7% drop since 2020, and 55.6% drop since 2010. Among unsheltered veterans, the number dropped 10.7%, from 15,507 in 2023, to 13,851 in 2024.
This news comes weeks after VA announced that it permanently housed nearly 48,000 veterans this year alone and more than 133,000 in the last three. And as of the end of Fiscal Year 2024, nearly 90,000 veterans were under lease with vouchers through the HUD-VA Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH), marking the most veterans served at any point in the program’s history.
“Far too many of our nation’s veterans experience homelessness each year, and that is why HUD is laser-focused on ensuring that every veteran has a home,” said HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman. “Today, thanks to interagency efforts by the entire Biden-Harris Administration and our partners on the ground, we are proud to announce a significant decline in veteran homelessness this year.”
This year, the has VA awarded more than $800 million in grants to help veterans experiencing homelessness. In 2021, the administration released strategies to end veteran homelessness. In 2022, VA created the Legal Services for Veterans Grant Program to help veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness obtain benefits, resolve legal issues, and avoid eviction.
“No veteran should experience homelessness in this country they swore to defend,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “This year’s PIT Count shows that VA and the entire Biden-Harris Administration are making real progress in the fight to end veteran homelessness. We still have a long way to go, but we will not stop until every veteran has a safe, stable place to call home.”
Earlier this year, HUD announced policy and other changes to help veterans receive assistance, including:
- Increasing the initial income eligibility threshold to ensure more veterans qualify for HUD vouchers. HUD-VASH eligibility is now set at 80% of Area Median Income rather than 50% of Area Median Income. Currently optional and many housing agencies have already adopted the higher threshold, but HUD is now making this increase mandatory.
- Adopting an alternative definition of annual income for applicants and participants of the HUD-VASH program that excludes veterans’ service-connected disability benefits when determining eligibility. This alternative annual income definition could be adopted by other housing subsidy programs to determine income eligibility.
- Providing guidance to clarify income qualifications for assistance under the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Specifically, this guidance will clarify options for the consideration or exclusion of veterans’ disability benefits when determining income for beneficiaries of CDBG funded programs or activities.
- Hosting a series of “Boot Camps” in partnership with VA to help public housing authorities and VA Medical Centers improve their processes and more quickly transition veterans from homelessness to permanent housing with wraparound supportive services.
“Veterans have given so much to our nation and deserve access to housing, health care, and other critical needs. We must continue investments in stable housing, which are critical to the health and well-being of veterans and their families,” said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, who also chairs USICH. “This data today shows that the efforts of the Biden-Harris Administration over the past four years are working.”
Both the VA and HUD participated in the ALL INside Initiative launched by USICH and the White House to help communities lower barriers to housing, health care, and support for people experiencing homelessness. HUD invested nearly half a billion dollars in first-of-its-kind funding last year to help communities reduce unsheltered and rural homelessness.
“This data show that with the right investments in housing and health care, and with strong leadership and coordination across government, homelessness is solvable,” said USICH Director Jeff Olivet. “The challenge now is to end veteran homelessness and use the lessons we learn to help all people without a home.”
The post Veteran Homelessness Drops to Lowest Level on Record first appeared on The MortgagePoint.
