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The Surge DC: Providing Housing Solutions for Unsheltered Veterans

The Surge

By Gloria Hairston, Director of Public Affairs

Washington DC VA Medical Center’s Social Work Service team partnered with federal and local housing partners to hold its first ever Surge events, July 15, 2025, focusing on providing coordinated housing solutions to unsheltered Veterans in the DC-area.

The Surge DC was a series of collaborative events hosted by the DC VA Medical Center’s Health Care for Homeless Veterans Team which maximized local resources to immediately house unsheltered Veterans. Unsheltered homelessness refers to people sleeping outdoors in public spaces including parks, cars, abandoned buildings and under bridges. The DC VAMC team hosted three unsheltered surge events (July 15, 22 and 29) to proactively engage Veterans and reduce the number of unsheltered Veterans in the local area. 

During The Surge DC events, the VA Peer Support Specialists, who work alongside Social Work Service, walked and drove local communities to identify unsheltered Veterans and to offer them immediate enrollment in housing programs and access to VA benefits.  As a result of the coordinated and focused events, the DC VAMC team connected 37 Veterans to permanent, supportive, or transitional housing solutions and assisted 76 Veterans with employment counseling, legal aid, and VA benefits and claims assistance.

On July 15, 2025, VA Deputy Secretary Dr. Paul Lawrence, was on hand to personally witness and engage with VA staff, federal and local housing partners, and Veterans who were receiving surge services. Dr. Lawrence along with the VA team has a strong commitment to ending homelessness among Veterans.

While the DC VA Medical Center is gearing up for its annual Winterhaven Homeless Veterans Stand Down, November 1, 2025, the surge efforts were meant to place an immediate and focused priority on housing solutions for unsheltered Veterans. The annual stand down is a broader collaborative outreach effort and is a one-stop event for unsheltered Veterans and those who are at-risk and/or underemployed. The stand down offers preventative health care, VA claims assistance, legal aid, and access to an array of community resources.

To contact the DC VA Medical Center’s Health Care for Homeless Veterans Program, call the VA Community Resource and Referral Center, .