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    Homes for veterans

    Homes for veterans: A home for every veteran.

    Veteran homelessness in America has fallen by 56.1% since 2010. It's a problem people are solving. Finishing the job means housing veterans faster than others lose their homes.

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    Ryan K. Hertel · heyitskenton

    The problem

    What we're up against.

    • Fewer than ever, still too many.

      On a single night in January 2025, 32,495 veterans were homeless, the fewest since HUD began reporting the count. 13,518 of them were sleeping outside or somewhere not meant for living.

    • Older, and often disabled.

      The number of homeless veterans aged 55 or older rose by 150% from 2010 to 2023. Among veterans in shelters in 2022, 74% of household heads had a disability.

    • New veterans keep losing homes.

      VA permanently housed nearly 48,000 homeless veterans in fiscal year 2024, yet the January count fell only 1.2%. VA reads that as many more veterans needing help, which it and its partners only just kept ahead of.

    What works

    Proven, and ready to grow.

    • Housing, with support.

      In a randomized trial of HUD-VASH, veterans given a rent voucher with case management spent 16% more days housed than veterans given case management alone, and 25% more than those given standard VA care.

    • Housing first.

      Among 177 veterans in one metropolitan area, those offered a home without first having to prove treatment or sobriety were housed in 35 days instead of 223, and more of them stayed housed.

    • Tested at scale.

      In a randomized trial of 950 people in Canadian cities with serious mental illness and no stable home, those given Housing First spent 71% of their time stably housed, against 29% for those given usual care.

    • Help that comes fast.

      In a study of 238,059 veterans' VA health records, those who enrolled in VA's rapid rehousing and prevention program were 12.9 percentage points less likely to be unstably housed 120 days later. The gap narrowed to 2.4 percentage points after 1,095 days.

    What a family could fund

    Where the money goes furthest.

    • Money that wins over landlords.

      Private money gives providers room that federal vouchers don't: covering rent above the voucher cap, offering incentives to landlords, or paying for damage left by a previous tenant.

    • Small, fast, flexible funds.

      In Washington, D.C., a flexible fund pays for what other programs often don't cover, like application fees, moving costs and furniture. Since it began, it has helped 209 veterans, 164 of them at imminent risk of homelessness.

    • Whole communities have done it.

      12 communities reached functional zero for veteran homelessness: a milestone that shows a community has ended homelessness for a group and kept it that way.

    • Partners VA already funds.

      VA is awarding $1.17 billion in grants to 680 organizations, $855 million of it through its rapid rehousing and prevention program. A family's initiative could back the same local partners.

    Honest limits

    What money can't promise.

    • Rents keep climbing.

      From fiscal year 2020 to 2024, the average rent paid for each HUD-VASH household rose by $246 a month.

    • Vouchers go unused.

      Only 74% to 78% of HUD-VASH vouchers were in use in recent years. Rising rents, a shortage of suitable homes and reluctant landlords all stand in the way.

    • Big cities are harder.

      Community Solutions found the functional zero approach hard to scale in large urban systems.

    Hard questions

    Asked and answered.

    1. You might ask

      Isn't this the government's job?

      Ryan

      Mostly. HUD and VA spent about $2 billion on HUD-VASH alone in 2024. Private money fills the gaps those programs often can't, like application fees, moving costs and furniture.

    2. You might ask

      Does Housing First work for people with addictions?

      Ryan

      Yes. In the Canadian trial, Housing First was equally effective for people with and without a substance use disorder. People with one spent less time stably housed, with or without Housing First.

    3. You might ask

      Doesn't housing people cost more?

      Ryan

      Sometimes, and we won't hide it. In the HUD-VASH trial, counting costs to society as a whole, the program cost $6,200 more than standard care, about 15% more, or about $45 for each extra day a veteran was housed.

    In the slider

    See what your fortune could do here.

    Homes for veterans

    The slider prices this cause with these numbers:

    • About $23,400 a year houses a veteran through HUD-VASH: rent help from HUD and case management from VA.
    • The whole need is every veteran counted as homeless on a night in January, 32,495.
    • Our arithmetic from GAO's figures for 2024: what both agencies spent, divided by the vouchers in use.
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    More of the Blueprint

    Keep reading.

    23 more chapters on the way

    Back to Keep 100

    Sources

    Every number in this chapter, and where it came from.

    1. Source 1: Point-in-Time (PIT) Count (opens in a new tab)

      US Department of Veterans Affairs, 3 September 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.

      Veterans counted as homeless on one night in January 2025. New veterans become homeless every year.

    2. Source 2: The Growing Crisis of Aging Homeless Veterans (opens in a new tab)

      US Department of Veterans Affairs, 6 March 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

      From VA's National Center on Homelessness among Veterans, using VA's own records.

    3. Source 3: The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 2 (opens in a new tab)

      US Department of Housing and Urban Development, May 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Veterans who stayed in shelters during 2022, the newest year this part of the report covers.

    4. Source 4: Veteran homelessness continues downward trend: 56% since 2010 (opens in a new tab)

      VA News, 25 June 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    5. Source 5: Cost-effectiveness of supported housing for homeless persons with mental illness (Rosenheck, Kasprow, Frisman and Liu-Mares) (opens in a new tab)

      Archives of General Psychiatry, September 2003. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A randomized trial of HUD-VASH with 460 homeless veterans, followed for three years.

    6. Source 6: Housing chronically homeless veterans: evaluating the efficacy of a Housing First approach to HUD-VASH (Montgomery, Hill, Kane and Culhane) (opens in a new tab)

      Journal of Community Psychology, May 2013. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Compares Housing First with a treatment-first program in one metropolitan area. Not a randomized trial.

    7. Source 7: A Multiple-City RCT of Housing First With Assertive Community Treatment for Homeless Canadians With Serious Mental Illness (Aubry and others) (opens in a new tab)

      Psychiatric Services, March 2016. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A trial in five Canadian cities. Its participants weren't veterans: they had serious mental illness and no stable home.

    8. Source 8: The effect of a Veterans Affairs rapid rehousing and homelessness prevention program on long-term housing instability (Chapman and others) (opens in a new tab)

      Health Services Research, May 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Built from VA health records to mimic a trial; not a randomized trial itself. The program is Supportive Services for Veteran Families.

    9. Source 9: Veteran Homelessness Programs: Opportunities to Improve Data Collection and Establish an Evaluation Plan (GAO-26-107517) (opens in a new tab)

      US Government Accountability Office, 30 March 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.

      Spending by HUD (rent help) and VA (case management) on HUD-VASH in fiscal year 2024, and the vouchers in use that year. Veterans also pay part of their rent.

    10. Source 10: Washington, D.C., prevents veteran homelessness through flexible funding (opens in a new tab)

      Community Solutions, 6 November 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

    11. Source 11: Functional Zero (opens in a new tab)

      Community Solutions. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Community Solutions runs Built for Zero, the network these communities belong to.

    12. Source 12: VA awards $1.17 billion in grants to fight Veteran homelessness (opens in a new tab)

      US Department of Veterans Affairs, 14 September 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Grants for fiscal year 2027. Most of the money goes through Supportive Services for Veteran Families, VA's rapid rehousing and prevention program.

    13. Source 13: Effects of comorbid substance use disorders on outcomes in a Housing First intervention for homeless people with mental illness (Urbanoski and others) (opens in a new tab)

      Addiction, January 2018. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A second look at a randomized trial of Housing First in five Canadian cities.