VA houses largest number of homeless Veterans in seven years VA St. Louis Health Care System helped house 413 Veterans locally

That number is 4,011 more Veterans than VA housed last year.

The nationwide numbers include 413 Veterans permanently housed by the VA St. Louis 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 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.

“This is life-changing and in many cases life-saving work,” said Candace Ifabiyi, MHA, MSBA, FACHE - CEO/Medical Center Director. “We are proud of the progress the VA St. Louis Health Care System is making to get Veterans off the streets and are redoubling our efforts to continue this momentum moving forward.”

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