WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is stepping up its fight against Veteran homelessness with three ambitious new initiatives aimed at getting veterans off the streets and into stable housing. With a record-low number of homeless veterans nationwide, VA hasn’t declared the fight over—it’s doubling down with targeted grants and a rallying call to cities nationwide.
“Today, we call on mayors across the nation to take action to help us combat Veteran homelessness,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “For many Veterans experiencing homelessness, the first step in ensuring they can take full advantage of VA services is to get them stable housing.”
The announcements signal a focused push to not only maintain, but accelerate, progress made under the Biden-Harris Administration, which has seen a 7.5% drop in homelessness among Veterans since 2023 and an overall decrease of 55.6% since 2010.
Initiative 1: Supporting Veterans and Families with Expanded SSVF Grants
The VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program is being supercharged with new funding in 2025. While the exact dollar amount will depend on VA’s final budget, it’s expected to total hundreds of millions of dollars aimed at critical services.
What does this mean for Veterans? These funds will fuel efforts to quickly house veterans and their families, provide ongoing support to prevent evictions, and help Veterans transition to housing options that better meet their needs. Organizations across the country will benefit, leading to a direct, tangible impact within their communities. These funds are expected to go into effect October 1, 2025, creating immediate opportunities for those on the frontlines of combating homelessness.
Initiative 2: Renewing Case Management Grants for Long-Term Impact
Recognizing the crucial role of qualified case managers, VA is allocating approximately $15 million per year starting in 2025 to its Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Case Management program. This funding will empower nearly 90 grantees to continue providing life-changing case management services over the next three years. With over 120 full-time case managers expected to be supported, the funds will touch countless Veterans’ lives through personalized assistance to help them reintegrate into society.
Grants will range from $75,000 to $300,000 annually, with a cap of $150,000 per full-time manager. This focused investment is designed to ensure that Veterans not only get housed but also receive the comprehensive support they need to stay housed.
Initiative 3: Mayors Take the Pledge to Help
The VA isn’t stopping there. It’s turning to local leaders—the people with the deepest connections to their communities—to make a difference. The new Mayor’s Pledge to House Homeless Veterans challenges mayors nationwide to find and pledge available rental units for Veterans in homeless programs.
Here’s how it works. Mayors will engage landlords, property managers, and multifamily property owners to upload information about their available properties through a dedicated web portal. VA homelessness teams will then connect qualified Veterans to these rentals, creating a direct pipeline from the streets to housing. The initiative runs through September 30, 2025, with the goal of maximizing available housing for Veterans in every city.
“Mayors provide key leadership and maintain strong relationships within their local communities, making them strategically positioned to rally their local landlords to support Veterans,” McDonough emphasized.
Why This Matters
While progress has been made, VA’s commitment to aggressively tackle Veteran homelessness speaks to a deeper mission. For far too long, America’s heroes have found themselves without the support they need after serving their country. The funding and initiatives announced today take aim at the root of the issue, addressing housing instability at both the systemic and individual levels.
With nearly 48,000 Veterans permanently housed in fiscal year 2024 alone, these initiatives aim to supercharge those efforts, ensuring that no Veteran is left behind. Every new grant and every pledge from landlords represent not just numbers, but lives permanently changed.
The Bigger Picture
These announcements reinforce the broader, urgent need for community partnerships in tackling homelessness. VA’s programs depend heavily on access to affordable housing, and without local support, even the most well-funded programs can only go so far. By engaging mayors and landlords directly, VA isn’t just throwing money at the problem—it’s building the critical infrastructure needed to end Veteran homelessness once and for all.
As Denis McDonough noted, “These new grants are also a critical part of our work to end Veteran homelessness, empowering VA and our partners to provide more housing and wraparound services to more homeless and at-risk Veterans than ever before. We will not rest until Veteran homelessness is a thing of the past.”
What Comes Next
With the SSVF and GPD grants reaching organizations by late 2025 and the Mayor’s Pledge running until that same year, these initiatives represent a concerted and urgent push to reach VA’s ultimate goal—to end Veteran homelessness permanently. Whether this becomes a reality depends on continued collaboration between communities, landlords, policymakers, and the VA itself.
For now, the VA is sending a clear message to the country’s heroes: Your sacrifice has not been forgotten, and no matter how difficult the road ahead, we are committed to ensuring every Veteran has a place to call home.
With these bold steps, the VA is proving a simple truth—ending Veteran homelessness isn’t just possible. It’s inevitable.
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