NCHV Plan to End Homelessness Among Veterans

Ending and Preventing Homelessness Among Veterans

A Position Statement of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV)

Introduction

Homelessness has become an enduring fixture of contemporary U.S. society. Systemic public policy responses to address this issue have been developed with representatives from federal, state and local governments along with advocates, providers and consumers who continue to pursue public policy solutions to prevent and end homelessness.

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV) shares this commitment by producing policy remedies specifically targeting the subpopulation experiencing or at risk of homelessness that are also bound together by their service in the United States Armed Forces. NCHV’s proposed initiatives are designed to end and prevent homelessness among America’s veterans and help this nation’s former guardians to receive the attention and assistance they need to ensure full reintegration into civilian life as useful, self-sufficient citizens.

Homelessness Among Veterans

Veterans are at a greater risk of becoming homeless due to a number of factors including unique military skills not needed in the civilian sector, combat-related health issues, minimal income due to unemployment, and a shortage of safe, affordable housing.

Prior to becoming homeless, a large number of veterans at risk of homelessness have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or have addictions acquired during or worsened by their military service. At least 45 percent of homeless veterans suffer from mental illness, while over 50 percent have substance abuse problems. Many are dually-diagnosed, which especially challenges existing service-delivery systems.

Most currently homeless veterans served during prior conflicts or in peacetime. However, according to a 2008 RAND Corporation study, nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan – 300,000 in all – report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment. This new generation of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (OIF-OEF) combat veterans, both men and women, also suffer from other war-related conditions including traumatic brain injuries, which also put them at risk of homelessness. The evolving gender mix of the military – women represent 15 percent of the military population – poses new challenges for the nation’s support system for returning veterans and their families. Women veterans report serious trauma histories and episodes of physical harassment and/or sexual assault while in the military. The VA and homeless veteran service providers are also seeing increased numbers of veterans with children seeking their assistance.

Mental and physical health problems in addition to the absence of civilian sector work skills and experience interrupt many veterans’ abilities to keep a job, find a home, establish savings, and, in some cases, maintain family stability. Veterans’ family, social, and professional networks may have been broken due to extensive mobility while in military service or lengthy periods away from their hometowns and civilian jobs. Oftentimes these problems are directly traceable to their military service or to their return to civilian society without appropriate transitional support. 

Most Americans believe our nation’s veterans are well-supported. In fact, many go without the services they require and are eligible to receive. According to a Congressional staff analysis of 2000 U.S. Census data conducted in 2005, 1.5 million veterans – nearly 6.3 percent of the nation’s veteran population – have incomes that fall below the federal poverty level, including 634,000 with incomes below 50 percent of poverty. Neither the VA nor its state and county equivalents are adequately funded to respond to these veterans’ health, housing, and supportive service needs. Moreover, community-based and faith-based service providers also lack sufficient resources. 

The VA estimates that 300,000 veterans will experience homelessness at some point during the year; the VA’s Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) program only serves about one third of this population. Community-based organizations serve approximately one third of those in need. The remaining one third of the homeless veteran population fails to receive the help needed to transition out of homelessness and re-enter society as productive citizens. Likewise, other federal, state and local public agencies – notably housing agencies and health departments – are not adequately responding to the housing, health care and supportive services needs of these vulnerable veterans. Indeed, it appears veterans fail to register as a target group for these agencies in many communities. 

During the past four years, the VA reports nearly 3,000 OIF/OEF homeless veterans were treated at VA medical centers; of that number, 11 percent were women. Most likely, increased numbers of this new generation of war veterans will be coming to the VA and community-based homeless veteran service provider organizations to seek health care, substance abuse prevention, disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, affordable housing, employment training and job placement assistance. Health issues, poverty, unemployment, lack of support from family and friends, and unstable living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing are factors contributing to their need for assistance.

With greater numbers of women serving in combat operations, along with increased identification of and a greater emphasis on care for victims of sexual assault and trauma, new and more comprehensive housing and child care services are needed. Furthermore, in the next ten years, significant increases in current levels of services will be needed for aging Vietnam veterans suffering from chronic mental health problems.

According to the VA 2007 Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education and Networking Groups (CHALENG) report, there were an estimated 154,000 veterans who were homeless on any given night. This estimate of homeless veterans is down 21 percent from the 2006 estimate and represents a 40 percent reduction since 2001. The VA stated the decrease was due in part to the partnership between the VA and community-based homeless veteran service providers, which provides evidence that the VA’s programs to help homeless veterans are effective.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported in its 2007 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress that there had been a 30 percent reduction in chronic homelessness over the past two years. Among the 1.6 million people who were homeless and who found shelter during 2007, 13 percent were veterans. The authors of the report attributed the reduction in homelessness to the effectiveness of supportive housing.

If the trend towards reducing the number of homeless veterans is to continue, more funding is needed for supportive services, employment and housing options to ensure that veterans who served prior to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars can live independently and with dignity. Additionally, increased appropriations to VA homeless veteran assistance programs will help prevent homelessness among the newest generation of combat veterans from OIF/OEF. Through a coordinated effort, Congress; the VA; and other federal, state and local agencies will be able to develop an approach to reduce, eliminate and ultimately prevent homelessness among all of America’s veterans.

NCHV Policy Plan

Preventing and ending homelessness among veterans requires public commitment and action to ensure access to affordable housing, income and health security. This must be accomplished both through general responses that will benefit all homeless persons and those at high risk for homelessness – including veterans – and through specialized responses specifically targeted to homeless veterans.

This policy plan contains initiatives aimed at accomplishing NCHV’s vision to end homelessness among veterans. They are listed under four primary action areas – "Provide Access to Health Care," "Ensure Income Security," "Supply Affordable Housing" and "Prevent Homelessness" – and indicate where change is needed.

These measures are directed toward the U.S. government, but actions taken at this level will benefit all Americans. States, localities and homeless coalitions may also use them as guides in enacting corollary policies and programs. This set of policies serves as the primary resource used by NCHV to advise Congress, the Administration and interested organizations about homeless veteran issues and is a guide to actions needed to end homelessness among America’s veterans.

Provide Access to Health Care

Guiding Assumption: All veterans deserve to have access to comprehensive, high-quality and affordable health care.

Initiatives

• Congress should increase appropriations for the VA Medical Services Account to strengthen the capacity of the VA Health Care for Homeless Veterans program and enable the VA to increase its mental health and addiction service capacity.
   
• Create an “open door” policy that offers Iraq and Afghanistan veterans – and their families – immediate access to health care assessments, counseling and treatment at local and state health departments in communities underserved by the VA; place the administrative burden of coordinating and paying for that care on VA and community health centers rather than the veteran in need.
• The VA should improve its outreach efforts to help ensure homeless veterans gain access to VA health and benefits programs.
   
• Congress should appropriate funds for competitive grants to community-based, faith-based and public organizations to provide health and supportive services to formerly homeless veterans placed in permanent housing.

Ensure Income Security

Guiding Assumption: All veterans deserve income at a level sufficient to obtain and maintain permanent housing, food, health care and other basic human needs. 

Initiatives

• Congress should increase appropriations for the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP) to the authorized level of $50 million. Funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Veterans Employment and Training Service, HVRP is the only federal program wholly dedicated to providing employment assistance to homeless veterans and provides competitive grants to community-based, faith-based and public organizations to offer outreach, job placement and supportive services to homeless veterans.
   
• Congress should increase appropriations for Veterans Workforce Investment Program (VWIP). Funded by the DOL, VWIP provides competitive grants to states geared toward training and employment opportunities for veterans with service-connected disabilities, those with significant barriers to employment (such as homelessness) and recently separated veterans.
   
• Congress should establish a Veterans Work Opportunity Tax Credit (V-WOTC) program. The program would provide incentives to hire homeless veterans by providing employers a tax credit equal to a percentage of the wage paid to the homeless or other low-income veterans.

Supply Affordable Housing

Guiding Assumption: All veterans deserve to have permanent, safe, high-quality and affordable housing.

Initiatives

• Congress should increase the authorization level and appropriations for the VA Homeless Provider Grant and Per Diem program (GPD) to $200 million to meet the need for additional transitional housing and service center programs assistance. GPD provides competitive grants to community-based, faith-based, and public organizations to offer transitional housing or service centers for homeless veterans. Special needs grant funding under this program should increase for women veterans, frail and elderly veterans, veterans with chronic mental illness and those who are terminally ill.
   
• Congress should revise the GPD payment program to allow payments to be related to service costs rather than a capped rate. Grantees should be allowed to use GPD funds, both in capital development projects and operating per diem payments, as a match to any other federal grant source. Grantees should also be allowed to use other available sources of income besides the GPD program to furnish services to homeless veterans, and be allowed to use housing tax credits as described under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program when applying for GPD funding.
   
• Congress should establish additional domiciliary care capacity for homeless veterans, either within the VA system or via contractual arrangements with community-based providers when such services are not available within the VA.
   
• Congress should provide and appropriate funding for an additional 30,000 Section 8 vouchers for the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program, which provides housing subsidies and case management services to homeless veterans with mental and addictive disorders, by appropriating additional funds for additional housing vouchers targeted to homeless veterans. At least 50 percent of the vouchers received should be project-based.
• Congress should require Continuums of Care that apply for HUD McKinney-Vento homeless assistance funds to include comprehensive and appropriate plans to provide housing and services to homeless veterans. Organizations receiving HUD McKinney-Vento homeless assistance funds should screen all participants for military service and make referrals as appropriate to VA and homeless veterans service providers.
   
• Congress should authorize and appropriate funds for a targeted housing assistance program, including 5,000 housing choice vouchers, to prevent homelessness among low-income and formerly homeless veterans.

Prevent Homelessness

Guiding Assumption: No veteran should experience homelessness.

Initiatives 

• Congress should mandate and provide dedicated funding for a national media campaign that will inform veterans of their rights and benefits and where to turn for help when they feel they are headed for trouble.
   
• Congress should authorize funding for a program that would identify service members separating from the Armed Forces and veterans at risk of becoming homeless after discharge. The program would provide life skills training, referral and counseling services to help prevent such veterans from becoming homeless.
   
• The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should ensure that all VA health care facilities develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure the discharge of persons from such facilities into stable transitional or permanent housing and appropriate supportive services. Discharge planning protocols should include providing information about VA resources and assisting persons in applying for income security and health security benefits (such as Supplemental Security Income, Social Security Disability Insurance, VA disability compensation and pension, and Medicaid) prior to release.
• The Secretary should expand veteran homelessness prevention efforts to all correctional, residential health care and other custodial facilities receiving federal funds.

About NCHV
Established in 1990, NCHV is a nonprofit organization with the mission of ending homelessness among veterans by shaping public policy, promoting collaboration, and building the capacity of service providers. NCHV is the only national organization wholly dedicated to helping end and prevent homelessness among America’s veterans.

NCHV was founded by a group of community-based homeless veteran service providers who sought to educate the public about the extraordinarily high percentage of veterans among the homeless population and to place the needs of homeless veterans on the national public policy agenda. In the years since its founding, NCHV's membership has grown to over 250 organizations in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. The majority of NCHV members provide housing, access to health care services, employment training and placement, legal aid and case management to more than 150,000 homeless veterans and their families each year. NCHV members also include faith-based groups, VA medical centers, state offices of veterans affairs, cities, all major veteran service organizations and many of their state departments and affiliates, and for-profit corporations.