The number of homeless veterans in the United States has declined by just over 50 percent in the last decade, according to government data.
- The total number of homeless veterans in the U.S. declined from roughly 75,609 in 2009 to 37,085 in 2009, according to data from the departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs data, a 51 percent decrease.
- Speaking to reporters in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Secretary Ben Carson announced that the total number of homeless veterans in the U.S. declined by 2 percent between 2018 and 2019 following a decline of 5 percent from 2017 to 2018.
- According to the Associated Press, Carson attributed the decline to the success of the Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, which provides vouchers and other services to help homeless veterans find and sustain permanent housing.
- In 2008, lawmakers injected $75 million into the program to expand the number of available vouchers to 10,000 the following year after President Barack Obama pledged to fully end veteran homelessness by the time he left office.
- While Obama did not meet that goal, the Associated Press noted in 2017 that homelessness among veterans had been “effectively ended” in Virginia, Connecticut, and Delaware despite rising that year.
- According to the HUD and VA 2019 data, the number of homeless veterans across the U.S. has been reduced to mere double digits in Arkansas, Delaware, Mississippi, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wyoming.