Progress on Veteran Homelessness Offers Hope, But Overall Crisis Deepens

LOS ANGELES — While home­less­ness in the Unit­ed States con­tin­ues to rise at an alarm­ing rate, efforts to address vet­er­an home­less­ness offer a glim­mer of hope. Ann Oli­va, CEO of the Nation­al Alliance to End Home­less­ness, and Kathryn Mon­et, CEO of the Nation­al Coali­tion for Home­less Vet­er­ans, recent­ly sat down for an inter­view on Pop­fuzion Live to dis­cuss the lat­est devel­op­ments, chal­lenges, and poten­tial solu­tions to this grow­ing cri­sis.

The lat­est Point-in-Time report from the U.S. Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment (HUD) revealed that in Jan­u­ary 2024, approx­i­mate­ly 770,000 peo­ple were expe­ri­enc­ing homelessness—an 18% increase from the pre­vi­ous year. While this data under­scores the sever­i­ty of the hous­ing cri­sis, one promis­ing trend emerged: home­less­ness among vet­er­ans decreased by 8%.

“Vet­er­an home­less­ness has been a focus for pol­i­cy­mak­ers and advo­cates for years, and we’re final­ly see­ing the impact of tar­get­ed inter­ven­tions,” Oli­va explained. “Hous­ing First strate­gies, rental assis­tance, and com­pre­hen­sive sup­port ser­vices have con­tributed to this decline.”

Mon­et high­light­ed key pro­grams that have been par­tic­u­lar­ly effec­tive in address­ing vet­er­an home­less­ness, such as the HUD-Vet­er­ans Affairs Sup­port­ive Hous­ing (HUD-VASH) pro­gram and Sup­port­ive Ser­vices for Vet­er­an Fam­i­lies (SSVF). “These pro­grams pro­vide not just hous­ing but also wrap­around ser­vices that address the root caus­es of home­less­ness,” she said. “This mod­el should be expand­ed to help oth­er pop­u­la­tions expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness.”

Cities such as Dal­las and Los Ange­les have imple­ment­ed inno­v­a­tive approach­es to reduce home­less­ness among vet­er­ans. Dal­las report­ed a 16% decline, while Los Ange­les, which has long strug­gled with an over­whelm­ing home­less pop­u­la­tion, saw its first decrease in sev­en years. These suc­cess­es have large­ly been attrib­uted to improved hous­ing poli­cies, increased fund­ing, and stronger col­lab­o­ra­tion between local gov­ern­ments and ser­vice providers.

Despite these pos­i­tive devel­op­ments, the over­all home­less­ness cri­sis remains dire. Ris­ing rent prices, insuf­fi­cient afford­able hous­ing, and sys­temic eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties con­tin­ue to dri­ve home­less­ness rates high­er. “The solu­tion isn’t to crim­i­nal­ize home­less­ness,” Oli­va empha­sized. “Instead, we need to invest in hous­ing and pro­vide sus­tain­able sup­port sys­tems.”

The hope is that these suc­cess­es in reduc­ing vet­er­an home­less­ness can serve as a blue­print for tack­ling the broad­er cri­sis affect­ing mil­lions of Amer­i­cans.