The White House Thursday announced plans to reduce homelessness among veterans, including $3.1 billion in grants dedicated to help communities “quickly rehouse” unhoused people.

What You Need To Know

  • The White House is pledging more than $3.1 billion in grants to help communities "quickly rehouse" people experiencing homelessnes, especially veterans

  • Officials say that the program charges its grantees to pursue equity in marginalized and underserved veteran communities

  • Funding will also go toward programs aiding unhoused veterans with legal services and in job training and placement programs

A Biden adaministration official called the  $3.1 billion in funding the “largest-ever single-year” federal investment in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care program. That money, the White House says, will support nonprofits, Indian tribes and their housing entities, states and local governments to quickly rehouse people.

Those funds can be used for all manner of individuals in need, officials said, whether or not they’re veterans: unhoused individuals; families; people fleeing intimate partner violence, sexual assault and stalking; and young people; all while seeking to minimize the trauma homelessness can cause. 

“One of the beauties of our homeless veteran integration program is that our grantees are charged with advancing equity and inclusion in our underserved veteran communities,” an administration official told reporters on a call previewing the announcement, including veterans in rural communities, Native American communities, LGBTQ+ communities, historically-marginalized communities.

“We’re trying to ensure that all of our grantees have the ability to connect with these communities at the local level, and we put a big emphasis on ensuring that we are having them as part of our conversations,” the official said.

Thursday’s announcement comes nearly eight months since the federal government celebrated an 11% decline in veteran homelessness between 2020 and 2022 — 33,136 veterans, down from 37,252 — which HUD marked as the “biggest drop in veteran homelessness in more than five years.”

“One veteran experiencing homelessness will always be one too many, but the 2022 point-in-time count shows that we are making real progress in the fight to end veteran homelessness,” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough said at the time.

At the time, HUD credited the progress to its “Housing First” approach, which is about what it sounds like: putting a priority on getting people into housing, then shifting on the things they need to stay there, like job training and health care.

The Biden administration is intensifying that approach, pledging nearly $70 million in additional aid. The Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service will award about $58 million in grants to help veterans back into the labor force, with training to work in in-demand industries in tech and construction. About $11.5 million will go to public and nonprofit organizations for a grant program providing legal services to veterans through the VA, which includes helpting to prevent evictions and in obtaining public benefits. 

“In large part, these programs are designed to meet homeless veterans where they are and connect them to the services they need, particularly the legal servies that may be required to help someone get a discharge review board, opportunity to be able to get that upgrade that may be required for their access to services,” a White House official said.

The VA and HUD will also launch a series of “boot camps” to help public housing agencies and VA centers to help transition veterans from homelessness to housing.