About 8,600 homeless veterans will find a permanent home through additional vouchers and services from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veterans Affairs (VA).
The agencies are providing $60 million to local public housing authorities to provide permanent supportive housing to vets across the country.
The assistance is being provided through the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, which combines rental assistance from HUD and case management and clinical services from the VA.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced the additional support in an address to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans this week.
The grants are part of $75 million appropriated this year to support the housing needs of homeless veterans. Local public housing authorities provide rental assistance to homeless veterans while nearby VA medical centers offer supportive services and case management.
The awards can be viewed here. This is the first round of the 2013 HUD-VASH funding. HUD expects to announce more HUD-VASH funding this summer.
Since 2008, a total of 48,385 HUD-VASH vouchers have been awarded, and 42,557 formerly homeless vets have been housed. Under the program, vets rent privately owned housing and generally contribute no more than 30 percent of their income toward rent.
HUD’s annual point-in-time estimate of the number of homeless persons and families for 2012 found that veteran homelessness fell by 7.2 percent (or 4,876 people) since January 2011 and by 17.2 percent since January 2009. On a single night in January 2012, 62,619 veterans were homeless.
