The National Alliance to End Homelessness is pleased to report that veteran homelessness went down 2.1 percent between 2018 and 2019 (based on data collected at a point-in-time in January of those years). The decrease was announced today by Secretary Carson of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is a welcome reminder that the mission of ending homelessness is, in fact, achievable.
Since 2011, veteran homelessness has been reduced by 43.3 percent, the result of a well-funded and determined federal commitment to the goal of ending veteran homelessness. To date, 78 local communities and three states have declared an effective end to veteran homelessness. While there are many factors that have contributed to this success, three driving forces have made it possible:
- federal resources adequate to meet the needs of homeless veterans for housing and services;
- a full spectrum of federally-funded, evidence-based interventions, ranging from street outreach, to permanent housing, to health care; and
- strong leadership at the national and local levels.
“These numbers show that homelessness is not an unsolvable problem. Indeed, robust federal resources, coupled with strong local leadership and talented nonprofit agency partners, have once again reduced the number of veterans sleeping on the streets and in shelters,” said Nan Roman, President and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
“It should also be noted that ending veteran homelessness has been a bipartisan effort, and that this bipartisanship has been instrumental in its success. We hope that the nation’s leaders are as inspired by this progress as we are, and will join us in supporting communities to finish the job of ending homelessness for all veterans, and then extending that effort to all people who sleep on the nation’s streets and in shelters tonight.”
Download the Alliance’s press release here.