DeKalb GA News

Permanent housing placements provided by VA staff and community partners included apartments or houses that Veterans could rent or own, often with a subsidy to help make the housing affordable.

As part of VA’s nationwide goal to house 38,000 homeless Veterans in 2022, the Atlanta VA Healthcare System community partners provided 407 permanent housing placements to homeless Veterans.

Permanent housing placements provided by VA staff and community partners included apartments or houses that Veterans could rent or own, often with a subsidy to help make the housing affordable. VA staff also helped some Veterans end their homelessness by reuniting with family and friends.These placements, along with placements provided by other VA health care systems across America, led to VA housing 40,401 Veterans nationwide, meeting and exceeding its national goal by more than 6.3%.

“This goal was achieved through the hard work and dedication of our homeless programs staff, our grantees, contractors, and our valued community partners,” said Atlanta VA HealthCare System Director, Ann Brown. “The progress we’re seeing with Veteran homelessness in the Atlanta area shows that we have the right solutions to end homelessness for all Veterans we care for.

Nationally, the total number of Veterans who experienced homelessness on a single night in January 2022, was 33,129 — a decrease of 11% from January 2020, the last year a full PIT Count was conducted. In total, the estimated number of Veterans experiencing homelessness in America has declined by 55.3% since 2010.

All of these efforts are built on the evidence-based “Housing First” approach, which prioritizes getting a Veteran into housing, then provides the Veteran with the wraparound support they need to stay housed — including health care, job training, legal and education assistance and more.

Original source can be found here.