The Obama administration appears unlikely to deliver on President Obama’s promise to end veteran homelessness by 2016, with less than two months to go before his self-imposed deadline hits.
Although government spending on programs to house veterans has skyrocketed over the past five years, thousands of veterans still have not found their way off the streets. Instead, those programs have gotten bogged down in the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development.
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In 2009, the year before Obama vowed to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015, the VA spent $375,941,000 on initiatives geared toward getting service members into homes. The next year, funding jumped to $622,708,000.
VA spending on homeless programs had grown 304 percent, to $1,520,783,000, by last year. But the number of veterans living on the streets fell 53 percent over the same period, leaving thousands unaffected by the initiative, according to data provided by Congress.
The White House has touted cities that have eliminated veteran homelessness, such as Syracuse, N.Y. and Las Vegas. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is also reportedly expected to announce that his state has eradicated the problem at a Veterans Day event Wednesday.
Nationwide, nearly 50,000 veterans were still searching for a home at the beginning of last year.
For example, the streets of Washington, D.C., are populated by service members who, for one reason or another, are out of a job and in need of shelter.
Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, questioned the “efficacy” of the VA’s housing programs given the number of veterans sleeping on the streets.
“Based on the available data, it’s entirely unclear if VA’s homelessness prevention efforts are providing a bridge to an independent, purpose-filled life or simply a permanent, government-sponsored home,” Miller told the Washington Examiner.
The Florida Republican noted government spending on such housing initiatives had far outpaced the overall reduction in homeless veterans.
“In order to be successful in the long term, VA’s homelessness prevention program must address the root causes of the veteran homelessness problem, such as employment and mental health,” Miller said. “Ultimately, the program’s success has to be measured not by how much money VA is spending, but by how many participants are becoming self-sufficient.”
Veterans are more than twice as likely as the rest of the population to become homeless. The problem has a disproportionate impact on minority members, creating a unique challenge for federal agencies that can’t simply spend their way to an end to veteran homelessness.
A variety of factors contribute to perpetual veteran homelessness, including mental health issues and an inability among returning service members to find quality work.
