SQUARES technology improves Veterans’ access to safe, affordable housing

VA permanently housed more than 40,000 homeless Veterans in 2022, providing them with the safe, stable homes they deserve. A technology tool helping VA officials and partners on the front lines is VA‘s Status Query and Response Exchange System (SQUARES).

Case in point. In late 2021, in Wilmington, Del., an unhoused man had set up a tent in the parking lot of a local shopping district, leading passersby to call municipal law enforcement officers. When police officers arrived—members of a specialty unit, the Veterans Response Team—they saw that the man’s tent carried colors and markings resembling Army fatigues. The Wilmington police officers’ unit collaborates with the VA’s Veterans Justice Program, which trains officers to question homeless individuals and learn if they have service histories.

After the officers connected the Veteran to the local VA medical center via their mobile phone, staff members at the VAMC learned that the Veteran was not registered in the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS). He had no documentation on him.

Unfortunately, this Veteran was not alone in his challenges. For millions of Veterans nationwide, finding and keeping affordable, secure housing can be an uphill battle. The COVID-19 pandemic compounded the existing historic challenges unique to the Veteran population, including mental health or physical disabilities resulting from active service, unemployment, and substance abuse disorders.

To quickly adapt to evolving circumstances that imperil Veteran safety, VHA’s Homeless Program Office turned to VA’s Office of Information and Technology for help finding solutions. One of these solutions was to quickly update the innovative IT product Status Query and Response Exchange System (SQUARES) that had initially debuted in 2015.

SQUARES and collaboration

Within months, the collaborative effort dramatically improved outcomes for Veterans struggling to qualify for housing, health care, and other essential services, exemplifying OIT’s agile mindset—and its commitment to delivering best-in-class digital and IT products that are positively transforming the Veteran experience.

In short order, thanks to the additional detailed information the Veteran in Wilmington provided to the responding law enforcement officers and local VA staff determined via the SQUARES interface that the Veteran was indeed eligible for critical services, including housing assistance programs.

And now, in cities and towns nationwide, the SQUARES capability is vastly improving housing access for Veterans. By late 2021, the Homeless Program Office and VHA personnel could access more than 2,200 service providers nationwide via the SQUARES dashboard.

In practice, the increased speed in Veteran eligibility determination and improved visibility of resources provided by SQUARES is dramatically transforming Veterans’ lives.

Check out what happened next for this Wilmington Veteran and how the SQUARES tool is helping in communities across the Nation.