The Department of Veterans Affairs says it had placed 38,847 veterans in permanent housing by the end of October, exceeding its goal to house 38,000 homeless veterans this year with two months left on the calendar.
VA officials announced Wednesday they also are on track to exceed their goal for keeping those newly housed veterans in their homes, with 96.2% of the newly sheltered staying housed. Its goal for the year had been to ensure that no more than 5% returned to the streets.
“More than 38,000 veterans now have the safe, stable homes that they deserve — and there’s nothing more important than that,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement. “While we met our goals for 2023, we’re not stopping here. We’re going to keep pushing — through the end of this calendar year and beyond — until every veteran has a safe, stable place to call home in this country they fought to defend.”
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The department said it also was able to ensure that, of the roughly 1,450 veterans who returned to homelessness, more than 1,300 were back in housing or on the way to getting housed as of Tuesday.
Reducing the number of veterans who return to homelessness is important, said Monica Díaz, executive director of the VA Homeless Programs Office, because it ensures that they can get assistance and services they may need to…
