VA To Assist Over 38,000 Homeless Veterans In 2023

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plans to continue its efforts to provide stable housing for financially distressed veterans in 2023. The department has set a goal of placing at least 38,000 veterans into stable housing this year and ensuring that these moves lead to permanent improvements for those in need.

The VA has already made significant progress in recent years, providing housing for over 40,000 homeless veterans in 2022 alone. However, there are still around 33,000 veterans without stable shelter according to the annual Point In Time count conducted in early 2022.

To address this issue, VA leaders are targeting Los Angeles, the city with the most homeless veterans, with a goal of providing permanent housing placements for at least 1,500 homeless veterans. They are also aiming to help 28,000 unsheltered veterans to obtain some level of assistance from the department. In addition, the VA has set a goal of ensuring that 95% of veterans helped this year do not return to homelessness again, up from 94% last year.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough has vowed to continue the fight to end veteran homelessness until every veteran has a safe, stable place to call home in the country they fought to defend. Despite progress made in recent years, the VA recognizes that even one veteran experiencing homelessness is one too many.

In addition to its efforts to provide stable housing, the department has set a goal of ensuring that at least 95% of veterans housed in 2023 do not return to homelessness during the year and that at least 90% of those who do return to homelessness are rehoused or on a path to rehousing by the end of 2023. The VA has also pledged to engage with at least 28,000 unsheltered veterans to help them get housing and other services, a more than 10% increase from the number reached in 2022.

Gwen Stokes