VA award $806.4 million in grants to support homeless

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced it will award $806.4 million in grants to support homeless and at-risk Veterans through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) and Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem (GPD) programs.

1. Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF): Through the SSVF program, the VA is awarding 239 grants totaling approximately $797.5 million to community organizations that help rapidly rehouse Veterans and their families, prevent the imminent loss of Veterans’ homes, or identify more suitable housing situations.
2. Grant and Per Diem Program (GPD): Through the GPD program, the VA will award 14 grants totaling approximately $8.9 million to community organizations that provide Veterans with transitional housing and case management services. This includes connecting eligible Veterans to VA benefits, community-based services, and permanent housing. These special needs grants will fund approximately 105 transitional housing beds to support specific populations of homeless Veterans, including women, elderly, terminally ill, chronically mentally ill, or those who care for minor dependents.

Ending Veteran homelessness is a top priority for the VA and the Biden-Harris Administration. The number of Veterans experiencing homelessness fell by 4.5% between 2020 and 2023 and has dropped 52% overall since 2010. These grants build upon significant progress toward ending Veteran homelessness, including VA’s fiscal year 2024 goal to house 41,000 more homeless Veterans. In 2023, the VA placed more than 46,500 homeless Veterans into permanent housing, exceeding the 2023 goal by nearly 23%.

“We’re making real progress in reducing Veteran homelessness, but there is much more work to do,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “These grants allow the VA and the entire Biden-Harris Administration, alongside community partners, to provide more housing and wraparound services to more homeless and at-risk Veterans than ever before.”

These efforts are built upon the evidence-based “Housing First” approach, which prioritizes housing Veterans first, followed by providing them the wraparound support needed to stay housed, including health care, job training, legal and education assistance, and more.

These new grant awards come just a week after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the VA announced policy changes that will help more Veterans receive housing assistance under the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program. The changes include requiring public housing agencies that administer HUD-VASH to set initial income eligibility at 80% of the area median income and excluding Veterans’ disability benefits when determining income eligibility — both of which are expected to increase the number of Veterans eligible for housing assistance.

For more information about the VA’s comprehensive efforts to end Veteran homelessness, visit VA.gov/homeless. To learn more about the Grant and Per Diem program or view the full list of grantees, visit the Grant and Per Diem website. To learn more about the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program or view the full list of grantees, visit the Supportive Services for Veteran Families website.

Source: VA News