How VA’s “Getting Veterans Off the Streets” initiative helped support unsheltered Veterans
The safest, healthiest place for homeless Veterans is within VA’s housing programs and supportive services.
That is the message and mission of the “Getting Veterans Off the Streets” outreach events that took place across the nation earlier this summer.
“VA recognizes how important it is to go beyond traditional ways of outreach to meet the needs of our unsheltered Veterans as effectively as possible,” said Lisa Lincoln, a VA Homeless outreach coordinator.
First-of-its-kind national action
Between May and September 2025, every VA Medical Center (VAMC) in the United States participated in this first-of-its-kind national outreach surge, with each VAMC hosting events to locate and provide homeless Veterans with same-day housing. The goal of “Getting Veterans Off the Streets” events was to help VA provide at least 20,000 Veterans nationwide with a path to self-sustainment and hope in fiscal year 2025. To achieve this, VA and its outreach teams adopted a rapid response model to locate, place and enroll homeless Veterans in VA programs, and then track and transition them into permanent housing. They continued to support these Veterans by providing them with comprehensive health care and vocational services to sustain their progress.
The Wilmington VAMC is just one of the many VAMCs that took part in this nationwide initiative to prevent Veteran homelessness.
At the Franklin Street Clinic in Washington, D.C., a DJ kept the music and energy flowing as 37 unsheltered Veterans had breakfast and coffee and met with community partners for same-day housing and health care assistance.
Milwaukee VA Community Resource and Referral Center hosted three “Getting Veterans Off the Streets” events, successfully engaging 27 unsheltered Veterans and providing them with pathways to long-term housing and critical health care services.
On July 30, VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System deployed eight teams into local communities to identify and assist homeless Veterans. In addition to housing and VA benefits, several community providers were present to support sheltered and unsheltered Veterans. The event successfully engaged with 42 unsheltered Veterans.
At the end of fiscal year 2025, VA’s “Getting Veterans Off the Streets” initiative has helped 25,605 unsheltered Veterans move into interim or permanent housing—surpassing its goal of 20,000 by 25.3%
Life-changing resources
As of January 2024, VA reported that there were 32,882 Veterans experiencing homelessness across the United States. This figure reflects a 7.5% decrease from the previous year and marks the lowest level of Veteran homelessness since national tracking began in 2009. VA attributes this progress to coordinated efforts across federal and local agencies, housing-first strategies and targeted outreach events like “Getting Veterans Off the Streets.”
While the work is far from over, VA and its partners are committed to providing every unhoused Veteran with the home and benefits they deserve, while demonstrating that these long-term policy and programmatic interventions are the most effective way to end Veteran homelessness.
See how more events around the country delivered life-changing services to homeless Veterans:
- VA Sierra Nevada “Veterans Stand Down” event.
- VA Salt Lake City July 18 event.
- Birmingham VA July 29 event.
- Clarksburg, WV event.
- Charleston, SC event.
Learn more 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 877-424-3838.
- Visit the VA Homeless Programs website to learn about housing initiatives and other programs for Veterans exiting homelessness.
Learn how to get involved with housing homeless Veterans.
Topics in this story
Link Disclaimer
This page includes links to other websites outside our control and jurisdiction. VA is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of non-VA Web sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy or terms and conditions of those sites to fully understand what information is collected and how it is used.
More Stories
Maggie DeRee has a 25-year relationship with VA, clocking in nearly 28,000 volunteer hours.
Breast cancer affects one in eight women in their lifetime, and some men as well.
Army Veteran William Huff credits VA for turning his life around.
thank you I am in Stony Brooke VA home ?? as a DAV veteran in new York state !!I cannot afford a studio apt can you help myself please ??
Being a drug addict is a choice. Being an alcoholic is the choice. Being homeless is a choice. You will never have a successful Veteran’s homeless program unless you make them invest into the program themselves. Don’t give it out for free, make them work for it. At one time they were good enough to join the service but now everybody treats them like Medal of Honor recipients and tries to give them everything when that’s not what they want. They just want to get high and get drunk and have the US taxpayer pay for their housing.
I called VA homeless program, PhX az. few years back. Ppl. Anserred didnt know what they were talking about.
Rings a little hollow when you were kicked out of VA housing back onto the street because you’re a trans man who just didn’t want to be forced into the woman’s bathroom with a full beard.
I am in a VA help program that will end next year. I can’t get an answer to what will happen next.
Sure!
A senior female Veteran who
has been seriously damaged
by such, “caring, arrogant,
VA manipulators.
God will Truly Bless this Type Program for his chosen, I pray for the work and Success of the program and those making it happen, the hard continuous work will never be in Vein… God Speed, thank you All for your Service…
The safety place is in the ground.
This year alone I’ve had to move 14 times alone. Using my benefits to rent uhauls to try and find a place where I’m not being stalked, monitored, harassed, sought for sex etc. I’ve finally learned that having a target on my back by celebrities and the CIA is the cause for this so this prevents me from being heard and assisted. I was called crazy, incarcerated, defamed and forced into homelessness many times by family, friends etc for years no one has done anything and I’ve reported this to the authorities and the inspector general. I’ve worried that these people, entities want me dead sending me death threats and using technology to bot call me so often I’ve changed my number. The very phone I’m on was hacked by someone I thought I could trust but due to the constant moving I’m unable to purchase another phone. I’ve been unable to sleep this whole month and everytime I go to the va they pretend like I didn’t do eligibility or create some orchestrated scene to get me to react to try to detain me. This needs to be investigated immediately. I was displaced from my home in 2020 and most recently my apartment 2025 due to these theatrical orchestrated psychological attacks. In between that time I’ve been in shelters, halfway houses, raped, ignored, silenced, incarcerated, tortured, stalked, motels, homeless, beaten, robbed, Airbnbs, swindled by police and arrested and the list goes on and on. I can’t be that crazy and unstable as the people who have lied on me and said I was. They have tried to kill me to receive my inheritance. These people have done things in the spiritual sense using black magic in cults and covens to keep me unconscious to their attacks on me. I can now see they’ve been doing this to me my whole life. So in conclusion there definitely needs to be an investigation as I’ve reported and inquired many times. I honestly believe that if I never had any affiliation with the government and my Grandma was here I never would’ve endured what I have. No one has looked out for me and I know this now because I was born into cult mentality where they feel I’m the scapegoat for their lack of accountability and action in their own lives.
I’m a veteran I am also a government entity.I am in need of housing.Iam also an investor and owner of the VA.
Most of our veterans that are homeless have been burdened with the laws that are against the patterns like domestic violence, bakers act all these lower things we put these guys to a point where they want to do nothing would be homeless that’s the signing it has been going on for the last 10 years. Hopefully some lawyers will look into this ad. I shouldn’t and do some more changes.