National Alliance to End Homelessness

Federal Policy Brief | July 28, 2009

Files: Can HUD-VASH Help End Veterans' Homelessness? (PDF | 220 KB | 3 pages) Chart of HUD-VASH Progress through June 2009 (PDF | 185 KB | 1 page)

As VA’s only permanent supportive housing intervention, HUD-VASH must be an integral part of ending homelessness for veterans. This document provides advocates and policymakers with a number of specific areas for improvement and recommendations to improve targeting and administration of HUD-VASH in the service of homeless veterans.

Issues examined in the brief include:

• Effectively Targeting Resources to Needs: How to Target HUD-VASH
• Improving HUD-VASH Administration: Improving Staffing
• Improving HUD-VASH Administration: Improving Capacity

For each topic, the brief presents two to three recommendations for addressing the challenges posed by the HUD-VASH program.

The brief makes the following broad conclusions:

• VA should ensure that HUD‐VASH is closely targeted to chronically homeless veterans. Reform of this nature will require Congressional support, as well as explicit targets.
• VA should effect administrative improvements, identified during the initial round of vouchers, which will improve performance. These reforms include efforts to lower client‐to‐case manager ratios, as well as hiring and training procedures.

Accompanying the brief is a chart showing progress made through June 2009 with the HUD-VASH program.

Click here to download the full brief.