VA Awards Grants to Help Homeless and At-risk Veterans and Families

WASHINGTON – (RealEstateRama) — The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced it has awarded $343 million in grants to 288 nonprofit organizations to help low-income Veterans and their families.

The grants were awarded under VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program.

“With these important grants, we are able to leverage the expertise of local experts to help our most economically vulnerable Veterans avoid or exit homelessness,” said VA Secretary Dr. David J. Shulkin. “This is another VA program that moves at-risk Veterans toward housing and independence.”

SSVF funding, which supports outreach, case management and other flexible assistance to rapidly re-house Veterans who become homeless or to prevent Veterans from becoming homeless, was awarded to organizations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

SSVF served more than 148,800 participants, including approximately 95,300 Veterans and 31,950 children in fiscal year 2016. As a result of these and other efforts, Veteran homelessness is down significantly since 2010.

In addition, approximately 360,000 Veterans and their family members have been permanently housed, rapidly re-housed or prevented from falling into homelessness as a result of VA’s homelessness programs and targeted housing vouchers through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Today’s recipients competed successfully for grants under a Dec. 7, 2016, Notice of Fund Availability. The funding will support SSVF services in fiscal 2018.

Information about the SSVF program, including the complete list of grantees, may be found at https://www.va.gov/homeless/SSVF/.

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