VA Exceeds Goal of Getting Homeless Veterans Into Stable Housing

(KNSI) — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says it exceeded its goal of housing homeless vets in 2022.

Last year, the VA set a goal to place at least 38,000 homeless veterans into permanent housing, but when the data was analyzed, the VA found they housed 40,401 homeless veterans, 6% more than anticipated. Executive Director for the VA homeless program Monica Diaz says no veteran should be without a roof over their head. “We say this many times, but the words homeless and veterans should not exist together. The VA is committed to ending homelessness among veterans because it is our nation’s duty to ensure all veterans have a place to call home.”

Officials say some veterans are not ready to be housed for one reason or another, and the VA will be relentless in reaching them. “We’re going to keep going and reengage and reengage and reengage. And it might be that veteran may not be ready for housing in that year. But next year, they will. Maybe it’s the following year.”

Throughout the year, VA staff and community partners helped veterans find permanent housing, often with a subsidy to make the housing affordable.

The VA created the 38k Dashboard that gave local VA groups insight into how many veterans they had housed in each program and how many veterans were in their medical center and were homeless but not yet housed.

Veterans who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness can call the national call center for homeless veterans at 877-424-3838. It is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with trained counselors who can help veterans and engage them in the path of housing, landlords and housing providers.

The VA is determining what goals they will establish next but has yet to set those.

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