The Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) have cooperated on another initiative toward their mutual interest in housing with the publication of Veteran Homelessness: Supplement to the 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. 

According to the joint assessment, nearly 75,609 veterans were among the homeless counted in the one-night 3,000 city tally conducted in January, 2009.  Approximately 43 percent of the veterans counted were living on the street, in abandoned housing, or other areas unfit for human habitation and the remaining 53 percent were housed in shelters.  Over the course of the entire year an estimated 136,334 veterans spent at least one night in a shelter or transitional housing.  This is one of every 168 veterans in the country. 

Veterans are overrepresented in the homeless community.  While only 8 percent of the U.S. population is a veteran, they made up 12 percent of all homeless persons and 16 percent of the adult homeless on the night of the nationwide count and 10 percent of those who were homeless at some point during the year.

Homeless veterans are mostly men between the ages of 31 and 50 and with a disability.  They are mainly alone; 96 percent of them are homeless as individuals; only 4 percent are with families and those are most likely to be younger, female, and without a disability.   Veterans under 30 and females represent only a small portion of the homeless but their numbers are growing.  One in ten veterans living in poverty is also homeless and 25 percent of those veterans are Hispanic/Latinos and another 25 percent are African American.

Homeless veterans tend to congregate in densely populated urban areas in numbers far out of proportion to their numbers in the general population; 72 percent are located in central cities compared to 31 percent of veterans in the general population.  The homeless are also concentrated in four states with almost half located in California, Texas, Florida, and New York, states in which only 28 percent of all veterans live.

The veterans in shelters tended to get there from another homeless situation rather than from housing - either their own or that of a friend or family member.  In 2009 25 percent came from an emergency shelter or transitional housing and 21 percent from the streets or an unsheltered location.  They did not stay in shelter very long, but longer than non-vets.  The median stay for veterans who were on their own was 21 days in shelter and 117 days in transitional housing compared to non-veterans who were in shelters and transitional housing for 17 days and 106 days.  Veterans in families had a median shelter stay of 30 days and 175 days in transitional housing.    

This is the second joint venture between HUD and the VA.  Last June they announced the expansion of the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program in which HUD provides rental assistance to veterans with outreach and supportive services provided by the VA.  The program will ultimately invest $75 million in the program which is planned to serve over 7,700 veterans and their families.