VA Homeless Programs
Message from Monica Diaz, Executive Director, VHA Homeless Programs Office
April 2024
It’s widely known that protecting our country can leave Veterans with the invisible scars of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). What is less well known is the additional compounded trauma that homeless Veterans often face.
Even if they avoid any acutely damaging events while unhoused, being homeless is distressing on its own. It’s traumatic to not know where you can safely sleep. To be hungry and not know where your next meal is coming from. To be unsheltered and facing harsh weather and uncertain surroundings.
The experience wears you down and colors how you see the world for years to come—even long after you’ve found stability and safe housing.
As we work to house at least 41,000 Veterans this year, we know it's crucial that we apply the principles of trauma-informed care to every interaction we have with Veterans. We strive to create safe and transparent environments where we can collaborate with Veterans, empowering them and giving them a voice in their journey back from homelessness.
These principles go hand in hand with our Housing First approach, which not only focuses on quickly getting Veterans into housing, but also on giving them choices when it comes to housing and participation in supportive services.
A trauma-informed approach calls on each of us to look beyond a label or a diagnosis and consider how experiences can shape a person, along with owning how our own experiences and outlook can affect the dynamic.
Homelessness isn’t the only experience that can be traumatic for Veterans. Encounters with law enforcement can be catastrophic for many, and about half of Veterans enrolled in VA homeless programs have been involved in the justice system at some point. Lack of stable housing is a risk factor for incarceration, and in turn, incarceration is a risk factor for homelessness. For justice-involved Veterans, it can feel like a cycle that’s impossible to break, especially as many communities criminalize behaviors associated with homelessness.
This April, during Second Chance Month, we’re focusing on how VA can help justice-involved Veterans succeed no matter how many chances they’ve been given. Navy Veteran Tim Healy’s story reveals the power of second, and even third, chances.
Facing his third strike under California law and up to a life sentence, Healy found himself sitting across from a staffer at the VA Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program in Menlo Park, California. He was overwhelmed by the respect and kindness they showed him despite his troubles.
A judge allowed Healy to go to treatment instead of jail. There, Healy reinvented himself. Now, he’s a peer specialist at VA—using his lived experiences to connect with other Veterans and find them the help and support they need.
Treating someone with that type of respect and kindness is foundational to our work with homeless Veterans.
We remember this as we strive toward our 2024 goals of engaging with at least 40,000 unsheltered Veterans, housing 41,000 Veterans, and ensuring they remain in that housing. These goals build on our recent successes, including cutting Veteran homelessness by nearly 5% since early 2020 and by more than 52% since 2010.
We’ve made this progress by taking aggressive action—expanding access to health care and legal assistance, awarding over $1 billion in grant funding, and helping more than 21,000 Veterans exit homelessness through the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program.
Our efforts are grounded in the understanding that each Veteran is different and has unique needs and experiences. Like the adage, “You can’t really understand another person’s experience until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes,” we honor their journey and sympathize with any traumas or experiences that may have shaped them along the way.
