VA houses largest number of homeless Veterans in seven years; Milwaukee VA helped house nearly 400 Veterans locally
PRESS RELEASE
December 2, 2025
Washington, DC - The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it permanently housed 51,936 homeless Veterans across the country in fiscal year 2025.
That number is 4,011 more Veterans than VA housed last year.
The nationwide numbers include 394 permanently housed by the Homeless Prevention Program at the Zablocki Health Care System.
This is VA’s best national performance since it began tracking the number of individual Veterans permanently housed instead of the total number of permanent housing placements, ensuring a more accurate count of the number of Veterans helped.
VA began using this new methodology in 2022, and when applied retroactively to 2019, the numbers look like this:
FY
Permanent Housing Placements
Unique Veterans Housed
FY 2025
53,839
51,936
FY 2024
51,124
47,925
FY 2023
48,059
46,051
FY 2022
41,208
39,868
FY 2021
39,637
38,401
FY 2020
45,397
44,048
FY 2019
49,462
48,133
In May 2025, VA took bold action to reduce Veteran homelessness by launching its Getting Veterans Off the Street initiative, in which every VA health care system across the country hosted dedicated outreach surge events to locate unsheltered Veterans and offer them immediate access to housing programs, health care, behavioral health services and VA benefits. Getting Veterans Off the Street helped move 25,065 unsheltered Veterans to interim (emergency and transition) or permanent housing.
“We are extremely proud of the work that was done this year by our Homeless Prevention Programs team, grantees and contractors, and dedicated community partners, which has resulted in significant progress toward our goal of ending homelessness among Veterans,” said Amy Mauel, Homeless Prevention Program Manager for the Milwaukee VA. “Each member of the team has committed to embracing a #OneTeam approach to help Veterans access a place they can call home.”
These efforts complement President Trump’s May executive order to establish a National Center for Warrior Independence for Homeless Veterans on the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center campus. The National Center for Warrior Independence for Homeless Veterans aims to provide housing and support for up to 6,000 homeless Veterans from across the nation by 2028.
Every day, VA staff and community partners across the country help Veterans find permanent housing — such as apartments or houses to rent or own — often with subsidies to help make the housing more affordable. In some cases, VA teams and partners help Veterans end their homelessness by reuniting them with family and friends.
Visit VA.gov/homeless to learn about housing initiatives and other programs supporting homeless Veterans.
For more information, contact Milwaukee VA Public Affairs Specialist David Walter at David.walter@va.gov or
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If you are a Veteran who is experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-4AID-VET