VA announces goal to house 38,000+ Veterans experiencing homelessness in 2023

WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced its 2023 goals for preventing and ending Veteran homelessness. Specifically, in 2023, VA will:

• Place at least 38,000 Veterans experiencing homelessness into permanent housing.
• Ensure that at least 95% of the Veterans housed in 2023 do not return to homelessness during the year. And of those who return to homelessness, VA will ensure that at least 90% are rehoused or on a path to rehousing by the end of 2023.
• Engage with at least 28,000 unsheltered (PDF) Veterans to help them obtain housing and other wraparound services. This goal represents a more than 10% increase in the number of unsheltered Veterans reached during 2022.

Ending Veteran homelessness is a top priority of VA and the entire Biden administration. The number of Veterans experiencing homelessness has fallen by 11% since early 2020 and by more than 55% since 2010. Additionally, during 2022, VA placed more than 40,000 homeless Veterans into permanent housing — exceeding VA’s 2022 goal by more than 6%.

“We are making real progress in the fight to end Veteran homelessness, but even one Veteran experiencing homelessness is one too many,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “We will not rest until every Veteran has a safe, stable place to call home in this country they fought to defend.”

VA also announced specific goals for combating Veteran homelessness in the Greater Los Angeles area. During 2022, VA provided 1,301 permanent housing placements to formerly homeless Veterans in LA, the most of any city in America. In 2023, VA will build on that progress by:

• Providing at least 1,500 permanent housing placements to formerly homeless Veterans.
• Conducting at least 1,888 engagements with unsheltered (PDF) Veterans to help them obtain housing and other wraparound services.

VA’s efforts to combat Veteran homelessness are grounded in reaching out to homeless Veterans, understanding their unique needs, and addressing them. These efforts are built upon the evidence-based “Housing First” approach, which prioritizes getting a Veteran into housing, then provides the Veteran with the wraparound support they need to stay housed — including health care, job training, legal and education assistance, and more.

Of the 40,401 Veterans housed by VA in 2022, 2,443 returned to homelessness at some point last year. With the help of VA staff and community partners, 86% of those Veterans were rehoused or on a path to rehousing by the end of the year. There are several reasons why Veterans may return to homelessness after being placed into permanent housing, such as financial hardship and illness — and VA works to return them to stable housing as quickly and sustainably as possible.

This initiative is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s broader efforts to reduce homelessness for all Americans by 25% by 2025. President Biden also released his Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Proposal last week, which invests $3.1 billion in providing homeless Veterans — and Veterans at-risk of homelessness — with permanent housing, access to health care and other supportive services.

For more information about VA’s comprehensive efforts to end Veteran homelessness, visit VA.gov/homeless.