Blog

Recently, the National Coalition for Homelessness held its annual conference here in Washington, DC.

Homeless assistance practitioners, policymakers, and advocates from around the country gathered to learn about what’s working to end veteran homelessness. The contributions of numerous officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) were also featured, including a keynote from Secretary McDonald (or Bob, as he urged the audience to call him). In his remarks he touted the efforts of successful communities from New Orleans to Houston and beyond and spoke of VA’s efforts to cut through bureaucracy to get the job done.

Beyond VA’s presence, there were some major takeaways from the conference that are definitely worth sharing:

Today, Houston – the fourth largest city in the country and the city with the second highest population of veterans – became the largest city to date to announce that it had effectively ended veteran homelessness. Mayor Annise Parker made the announcement alongside Secretaries Bob McDonald (Department of Veterans Affairs), Julián Castro (Department of Housing and Urban Development), and Tom Perez (Department of Labor), as part of the secretaries’ three city tour focusing on how communities can come together to end veteran homelessness.

The theme of the announcement was clear: by working together, many different agencies across Houston were able to quickly deploy resources to house over 3,650 veterans in just over three years. Collaboration in the form of regular (weekly!) coordination meetings, and efforts to align federal, local, and state resources, and a high-functioning coordinated assessment system were key components of the city’s success. Secretary Perez emphasized Houston’s success in breaking down siloes and encouraged communities to take a similar approach to ending veteran homelessness.