Campaign Promises

Departments -> Veterans Affairs -> Homelessness


ItemVeterans Affairs
HomelessnessGrade
VA-9 The Promise: "Launch an innovative supportive services-housing program to prevent at-risk veterans and veteran families from falling into homelessness in the first place."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Fulfilling a Sacred Trust With Our Veterans", dayed 09/09/08.
Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/550009/barack-obama-2008-fulfilling-a-sacred-trust-with.pdf
Status:The VA began a $26M pilot program in FY2010 to prevent homelessness and maintain housing stability for veterans' families. Further, the VA began supportive services in FY2010 for low-income veterans living in permanent housing to help prevent the onset of homelessness.

Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF): This program, authorized by Public Law 110-387 (Veterans' Mental Health and Other Care Improvements Act of 2008), provides supportive services to very low- income Veteran families living in or transitioning to permanent housing. SSVF was designed to rapidly re-house homeless veteran families and prevent homelessness for those at imminent risk of becoming homeless due to a housing crisis. Funds are granted to private nonprofit organizations and consumer cooperatives, which then provide very low-income veteran families with a range of supportive services designed to promote housing stability.

Based on an Annual Homeless Assessment Report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), veteran homelessness during the Obama Administration steadily declined as follows:
CY2009 - 75,600
CY2010 - 74,087
CY2011 - 65,455
CY2012 - 60,579
CY2013 - 55,619
CY2014 - 49,689
CY2015 - 47,725
CY2016 - 39,471
By end-CY2016, three states (Virginia, Connecticut and Delaware) as well as 66 communities had reported to the VA that they no longer had homeless veterans. Also since CY2010, more than 600,000 veterans and their family members have been permanently housed, rapidly re-housed, or prevented from falling into homelessness through HUD's targeted housing vouchers and VA's homelessness programs.

During President Obama's two terms in office, significant progress was made to prevent and end veteran homelessness. The number of veterans experiencing homelessness in the USA declined by nearly half (46%) during the period CY2010-CY2016. The unsheltered homeless population -- those veterans living on the streets, in cars, abandoned buildings or other places not meant for human habitation -- declined by 53% over the same period. The HUD Point-in-Time (PIT) Count estimated that on a single night in January 2017, roughly 39,471 veterans were experiencing homelessness. Of these, 26,404 were sheltered and 13,067 were unsheltered or on the street compared to 45,642 sheltered and 29,958 unsheltered in CY2009.

This promise was fulfilled.
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VA-10 The Promise: "Expand proven homeless veteran housing vouchers to assist those already on the streets."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Fulfilling a Sacred Trust With Our Veterans", dated 09/09/08.
Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/550009/barack-obama-2008-fulfilling-a-sacred-trust-with.pdf
Status:According to a Veterans Administration (VA) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report released in 02/11, nearly 76K veterans were homeless on any given night in CY2009, representing about 12% of all homeless adults nationwide that year.

The HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program serves hard-to-house, homeless veterans and their families with deep housing subsidies and intensive supportive services. HUD-VASH, a collaboration between HUD and the VA, grew from a small program serving fewer than 2,000 veterans in CY2008 to a major program with the capacity to serve more than 87,000 veterans by end-CY2016. The program contributed substantially to the 47% decline in the number of homeless veterans since CY2010. Thus, there was a measurable increase in the number of housing vouchers made available to homeless veterans during President Obama's tenure.

This promise was fulfilled.
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