How Many Veterans are Homeless?
While only 8% of Americans can claim Veteran status, 17% of our homeless population is made up of Veterans. In 2010, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) estimated that on any given night there were 76,000 homeless Veterans sleeping on American streets. Currently there are nearly 50,000 homeless Veterans in America. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009enabled the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to distribute nearly $1.5 billion over three years to 535 state and local governments under the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), which assisted over a million people across the U.S. to avoid or resolve homelessness. Since that time, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has established the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program, which builds on lessons learned from HPRP and elsewhere in order to effectively end or prevent homelessness among Veterans. Honor 2 Our Heroes (H2O(H)) campaign is developed and designed to fill a niche need when a Veteran move from transitional or homeless to safe permanent housing status. Following grant to receive housing, Veteran receives a voucher valued at $2,500 to purchase furniture and essential household needs called (VMIK) Veterans Move-In Kit. Our vendor partners can be accessed online on our website www.h2oh.us.
- Roughly 56% of all homeless Veterans are African-American or Hispanic, despite only accounting for 12.8% and 15.4% of the U.S. population respectively.
- About 53% of individual homeless Veterans have disabilities.
- Half suffer from mental illness; two-thirds suffer from substance abuse problems; and many from dual diagnosis (which is defined as a person struggling with both mental illness and a substance abuse problem)
- Homeless Veterans tend to experience homelessness longer than their non-Veteran peers: Veterans spend an average of nearly six years homeless, compared to four years reported among non-Veterans.
- There are an average of 22 Veteran suicides per day.