A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) indicates that the number of homeless women veterans has more than doubled, from 1,380 in fiscal year 2006 to 3,328 in fiscal year 2010. The report also finds that the referral process for placing homeless women veterans in temporary housing is broken. While Veterans Affairs (VA) requires its staff to give homeless veterans a referral for shelter or short-term housing while they await housing placement in HUD’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) or VA’s Grant Per Diem (GPD) programs, several homeless women veterans indicated never receiving such referrals. In fact, about 24 percent of VA Medical Center homeless coordinators cited not having referral plans or processes in place for temporarily housing homeless women veterans. According to GAO’s data analysis, women veterans waited an average of 4 months before securing VASH housing. In addition, about one fourth of GPD providers reported that women veterans had to wait for placement in their programs and the median wait was 30 days.
The report is careful to point out, however, that the data is limited as neither HUD nor the VA collects data on the total number of homeless women veterans in the general population. Further, both agencies lack data on the characteristics and needs of these women on a national, state, and local level. Absent this data, these agencies do not have the information needed to plan services effectively, allocate grants to providers, and track progress toward its overall goal of ending veteran homelessness.
To read the full report, click here.
