Homelessness rates in the U.S. and among Veterans are on two very different trajectories, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Point-in-Time (PIT) Count.
As overall homelessness in the nation surged to a record high in 2024, Veteran homelessness reached its lowest point since counting began in 2009.
We invited Ken Mueller, operations liaison for business intelligence in the VA Homeless Programs Office (HPO), to join the “Ending Veteran Homelessness” podcast to help us understand where we stand and why.
What the data shows
The PIT Count captures the number of people, including Veterans, who experience sheltered and unsheltered homelessness in January of each year.
Between 2023 and 2024, the count showed a nearly 8% decrease in Veterans experiencing homelessness, dropping from 35,574 Veterans to 32,882.
Unfortunately, Veterans were the only group that saw a decrease. Homelessness across the board was up 18% with families experiencing homelessness rising by nearly 40% and unaccompanied youth jumping by 10%.
The big question is why homelessness among the Veteran population continues to decline.
Mueller sees several reasons why Veterans aren’t seeing the same spike. A big factor is that ending Veteran homelessness is a bipartisan issue with broad support, so the necessary financial resources have been allocated to the cause.
But he believes success is due to more than funding. A lot has to do with our unique approach.
Working as One Team
In the past few years, we have implemented a philosophy called One Team, which focuses on breaking down siloes so we can work together more efficiently. After Veterans are housed, we provide wraparound services, such as health care, mental health care and employment services, all of which make it more likely for Veterans to succeed in their housing placement.
Mueller’s new role in HPO exemplifies One Team. As the bridge between HPO on the national level and staff working directly with Veterans, he makes sure that new policies and procedures effectively trickle down to the local level. He also conveys local feedback to the top so we can adjust and ensure field staff get the support they need to work as effectively as possible.
One Team also extends beyond VA to our community partners, putting an emphasis on combining resources to reach and house as many Veterans as we can.
“We don’t necessarily have the authority to do everything that we need to do to get Veterans off the street, but with those community partners and working together as One Team, we’re able to accomplish a lot,” said Mueller.
Setting goals
For the past few years, we have also set ambitious goals for the number of Veterans housed, number of unsheltered Veterans reached and percentage of Veterans kept in housing.
“We can hear the excitement of people coming together and working together to try to meet these goals,” said Mueller. “When you have meaningful goals that are achievable, you push. You stretch it a little bit.”
By meeting these goals, we can ensure we’re housing Veterans more quickly than they’re entering into homelessness, allowing the number to steadily drop.
However, the secret to our success goes beyond the numbers. Through it all, we remember that Veterans are unique individuals and that it’s critical that each Veteran has a voice and a choice in their path out of homelessness.
“The Veteran is part of this, a very important part of this, and their choice needs to be heard and worked into what we’re doing with our different strategies,” said Mueller. “It’s not just the numbers but how are we helping change the lives of those Veterans.”
Learn about VA programs
- If you are a Veteran who is homeless or at risk for homelessness or need to connect with a Veterans justice outreach specialist, call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-4AID-VET (877-424-3838).
- Visit the VA Homeless Programs website to learn about housing initiatives and other programs for Veterans exiting homelessness.
- Check out the Ending Veteran Homelessness podcast to learn more about what VA is doing about Veteran homelessness.
- Learn how to get involved with housing homeless Veterans.
- Subscribe to the Homeless Programs Office newsletter to receive monthly updates about programs and supportive services for Veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
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You keep saying homelessness has decreased. Then why the hell does the V.A. reduce a veteran’s disability pension to such a small amount that they will be homeless in no time flat? Then when we do become homeless, you offer to put us in a homeless shelter or assisted living facilities? This will cost the government more money than it would to just give the veteran a decent pension so that they can survive on their own. Those out there in Janesville, Wisconsin are always ready to destroy a veteran’s life just because a medical condition seems to have improved. They never take into consideration of how or why the medical condition got there in the first place. I always hear that if a veteran served in Vietnam, they were definitely exposed to AGENT ORANGE and should file a claim. So we file a claim only to be told we don’t qualify. As for myself personally, I was given a disability pension for a non service related condition. My award for this was rated at 20% and I received over $1,000 a month. Then prostate cancer was discovered and I was upped to 100% and received over $3,000 a month. Then a PSA test (NOT ANOTHER BIOPSY) said that my prostate seemed to look NORMAL (?) and so I was reduced back to 20% and was given a pension of $483.01 a month. This is where it stands to this day. How can anyone exist on this kind of money? Even with social security, I am NOT going to survive. The V.A likes to play these life and death games with the veteran making him/her think they are the lowest life form on earth. And then they wonder why there is such a large number of suicides among veterans. I should have gone to Canada back in the 1960s instead of thinking I was doing my patriotic duty for this country. I most likely would have been better off than where I am today.
Every time I read an article about eradicating veteran homelessness and how it’s trending upward (as in the decline of veterans who are unsheltered) I feel my temper spiral out of control. Who are you trying to convince? What about all the failures of the VA to find veterans housing?
“One Team also extends beyond VA to our community partners, putting an emphasis on combining resources to reach and house as many Veterans as we can.”
This is absolutely not true in Chicago. I had the worst experience with veteran services and the community partners that the VA uses in their weak attempt at housing veterans in need. They tell lies, create false hope, and partner with the most incompetent organizations possible to avoid doing the job themselves. In large, urban areas, vets are often dumped into slum-like apartments in unsafe neighborhoods and drug /gang-infested areas (aka, the ghetto). This is not a successful outcome. Obviously, veterans who are gainfully employed, educated, and not suffering from addiction or substance abuse will not accept housing in such areas.
Overall, there is no accountability within the VA system to ensure that homeless vets are provided a decent, affordable, safe place to live in a timely manner.
One of the concerns we have in NYC is how homelessness is defined as well as the criteria used to determine whether a veteran is no longer homeless. My concern is that the NYC DVS report homelessness in NYC is functional zero. However, I can find veteran who are, by lights, homeless because they live in the park or on the street. I suspect the city is counting veterans with a HUD voucher and no longer homeless, and we’re missing a real problem that is the shelters are dangerous and a large number, perhaps a majority, of veterans with HUD vouchers refuse to stay in the shelters.
How does the VA define homelessness? Does it include veterans who are couch surfing? What criteria does the VA use to define when a veteran is no longer homeless? I think the lack of definitions to common terms leave us open to all sort of opportunities for manipulating data to “look good” rather than identifying issues the inhibit progress to a goal.