Awards build on investments that resulted in 11% decline in Veterans homelessness from 2020 to 2022
WASHINGTON – RealEstateRama – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) awarded $25.4 million in HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) vouchers to 99 Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) across the country. This award will help homeless Veterans and their families find and sustain permanent housing.
The HUD-VASH program provides housing and an array of supportive services to veterans experiencing homelessness by combining rental assistance from HUD with case management and clinical services provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Thanks to the joint efforts of HUD, VA, and United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness has fallen by 11% since early 2020 – the biggest decline in more than 5 years.
“We’ve made significant strides reducing the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness and these investments will build on that progress,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “The Biden-Harris Administration has made ending homelessness a top priority. Today’s announcement puts us one step closer to ensuring every Veteran who serves our country has safe, stable housing.”
Provided through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program, this supportive housing assistance combines rental assistance from HUD with case management and clinical services provided by the VA. This round of allocations will support 2308 HUD-VASH vouchers, and a breakdown of the awards by recipient is available on HUD’s website.
“No Veteran should experience homelessness in this country they fought to defend,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “These HUD-VASH vouchers will help more than 2,300 Veterans find good homes and stay in those homes, where they belong – and there’s nothing more important than that.”
This calendar year, VA has provided more than 34,000 permanent housing placements for homeless Veterans – putting VA on track to meet, and even exceed, its goal of 38,000 permanent housing placements for homeless Veterans in 2022.
Since 2008, Congress has appropriated a total of $885 million for new HUD-VASH vouchers, and billions more to renew these vouchers every year. To date, nearly 107,000 HUD-VASH vouchers (106,989) have been awarded to Public Housing Authorities and VA Medical Center (PHA/VAMC) partnerships. Approximately 700 PHAs nationwide administer HUD-VASH vouchers.
