VA Deputy Secretary Reaffirms Commitment to Ending Veteran Homelessness

North Las Vegas, Nev.- VA Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher visited the North Las Vegas VA Medical Center Friday, March 8. She toured facilities, met staff and Veterans, and addressed local media regarding several topics such as Veteran homelessness.

Bradsher stated that VA’s goal was to end Veteran homelessness across the nation. She said VA hopes to house at least 900 Veterans in 2024, and the deputy secretary is also looking to maintain a 95% housing retention rate, which is the number of Veterans that don’t fall back into homelessness.

“The success of the work going forward lies in the commitment of all of those involved,” Bradsher said during the address. “So, we’re going to have aggressive numbers for 2024 in making sure that we can do everything we can to house as many homeless Veterans as possible.”

VASNHS Executive Director Bill Caron explained how VASNHS has addressed Veteran homelessness in the Las Vegas community. “This goal can only be achieved through the hard work and dedication of our homeless programs staff, our grantees and contractors and our valued community partners,” said Caron. “The progress we’re seeing with Veteran homelessness in Southern Nevada shows that we have the right solutions to end homelessness for all Veterans we care for.”

Ending Veteran homelessness is not only a top priority of VASNHS, but VA and President Biden, who has made supporting Veterans a key pillar of his Unity Agenda for the nation.

The visit follows the State of the Union address, in which President Biden promised to bolster efforts to end Veteran homelessness. VA and the Biden-Harris administration believe that every Veteran should have permanent, safe, and sustainable housing with access to healthcare and other supportive services, and VA has permanently housed more than 40,000 homeless Veterans each of the past two years. 

Additionally, prior to Deputy Secretary’s visit, the Biden-Harris Administration released the President’s Budget for fiscal year 2025. This budget proposes critical resources to help VA continue providing more care and more benefits to more Veterans than ever before. The Budget invests $3.2 billion to help VA’s efforts to end Veteran homelessness and prevent Veterans from becoming homeless in the future. The Budget also includes funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to expand housing vouchers to more Veterans in need.

Learn more about care for Veterans who are currently displaced: Homeless Veteran Care | VA Southern Nevada Health Care | Veterans Affairs