Mr. G is a 67-year-old veteran. During the Vietnam War, he had the “most dangerous job”: helicopter door gunner and mechanic. He served in multiple combat missions and was under constant threat of attack. On returning to the U.S., he experienced anger outbursts, nightmares, hypervigilance, and urges to engage in dangerous behavior, such as driving a motorcycle more than 100 mph. Then he began abusing alcohol and drugs. Mr. G’s behavior and substance abuse eventually led to strained family relationships, termination from a high-paying job, and homelessness.
In 2001, the Washington DC VAMC homeless and substance abuse staff provided outreach and services that helped him secure permanent subsidized housing, achieve and maintain sobriety, get treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and get full-time employment. Mr. G has maintained permanent supported housing status for 9 years, regained a sense of purpose, remained drug- and alcohol-free since 2001, attended a Vietnam combat PTSD support group weekly, and been an exemplary employee for 8 years.
In 2009, on any given night in the U.S., more than 75,000 veterans were without a permanent home and living on the streets, as Mr. G had been.1 Nearly 150,000 other veterans were spending the night in an emergency shelter or transitional housing. In early 2010, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) developed a strategic plan to align federal resources toward 4 key objectives, which included preventing and ending homelessness among veterans. Since then, the most dramatic reductions in homelessness have occurred among veterans, with an overall 33% decline in chronic homelessness nationwide.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), permanent housing is defined as community-based housing without a designated length of stay in which formerly homeless individuals live as independently as possible.2 Under permanent housing, a program participant must be the tenant on a lease for at least 1 year, and the lease is renewable and terminable only for cause. The federal definition of the chronically homeless is a person who is homeless and lives in a place not meant for human habitation, in a safe haven, or in an emergency shelter continuously for at least 1 year; or on at least 4 separate occasions within the past 3 years; and who can be diagnosed with ≥ 1 of the following conditions: substance use disorder, serious mental illness, developmental disability as defined in section 102 of the Developmental Disabilities Assistance Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 15002), PTSD, cognitive impairments caused by brain injury, and chronic physical illness or disability.3
Ending homelessness makes sense from a variety of perspectives. From a moral perspective, no one should experience homelessness, but this is especially true for the men and women who have served in the U.S. military. From a health care and resources perspective, homelessness is associated with poorer medical outcomes; higher medical costs for emergency department visits and hospital admissions; longer stays (often for conditions that could be treated in ambulatory settings); and increased mortality.4-7 From a societal perspective, homelessness is associated with costs for shelters and other forms of temporary housing and with higher justice system costs stemming from police, court, and jail involvement.8 The higher justice system costs are in part attributable to significantly longer incarcerations for homeless persons than for demographically similar inmates who have been similarly charged but have housing.9 According to recent studies, significant cost reductions have been achieved by addressing homelessness and providing permanent housing, particularly for the chronically homeless with mental illness.10-14
This article describes the efforts that have been made, through collaborations and coalitions of government and community partners, to identify and address risk factors for homelessness in Washington, DC—and ultimately to end veteran homelessness in the nation’s capitol.
Historic Perspective on Veteran Homelessness
Although the problem was first described after the Revolutionary War and again after the Civil War, homelessness among U.S. veterans has only recently been academically studied. During the colonial period, men often were promised pensions or land grants in exchange for military service. Several states failed to deliver on these promises, throwing veterans into dire financial circumstances and leaving them homeless. By the end of the Civil War, the size of the veteran population (almost 2 million, counting only those who fought for the Union), combined with an unemployment rate of 40% and economic downturns, led to thousands of veterans becoming homeless.15,16
Homelessness among veterans continued after World War I. In 1932, more than 15,000 homeless and disabled “Bonus Army,” World War I veterans, marched on Washington to demand payment of the financial benefits promised for their military service.
