A key annual report on Veteran homelessness was never released last year, and now lawmakers want to know why the "urgent" data is missing when it may be more important than ever before.
Each year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development releases a "Point-in-Time" count of unhoused people, particularly Veterans. HUD conducted its annual count in January 2020, but never released its report -- a major resource for Congress in making decisions about how to legislate and allocate resources to respond to Veteran homelessness.
The leaders of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees, House Chairman Mark Takano, D-California, and ranking member Mike Bost, R-Illinois, and Senate Chairman Jon Tester, D-Montana and ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, sent a letter to Acting HUD Secretary Matt Ammon Tuesday, urging him to release the data. Not even Department of Veterans Affairs leaders have reviewed the report yet, they wrote.
In past years, the analysis of the number of Veterans homeless on a given night in America was compiled into a report in consultation with VA officials and presented to Congress by the end of the year, but no such report was shared in 2020. The HUD Press Office told Connecting Vets it expected to release a report sometime in February, but as of March 3 it had not been made public.
The lawmakers said the data in the report is critical to the work to end Veteran homelessness.
"In order to effectively address barriers to access shelter, health care, and benefits for this particularly vulnerable population, we all need to be working with the most up-to-date information available," they wrote in their letter.
The 2020 data is also key, given the increased risk to and additional resources needed for Veterans experiencing homelessness, or who are at risk during the pandemic.
"We cannot adequately serve homeless Veterans and their families and ensure that the resources and programs available are helping if this data remains unavailable," the members of Congress wrote.
HUD, like other federal agencies and organizations across the country has been working under pandemic conditions, which the lawmakers acknowledged, but the department did not communicate with Congress about the report's delay or a need for further resources, they said. And Congress cannot move forward without the information, as well as the 2021 report, which will likely be a more accurate reflection of the effects of the pandemic on Veterans experiencing homelessness.
The lawmakers asked HUD for a timeline on the 2020 report, what issues kept it from being released, how it will prevent a future delay for the 2021 report and how HUD will work with VA to address Veteran-specific challenges or findings from the 2020 and 2021 reports, according to the letter.
Last spring, advocates and experts said they expected the pandemic to result in a major spike in the number of Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, a population at greater risk for the virus.
Tens of thousands of Veterans are homeless on any given night in America, and more than 1.4 million were at risk of becoming homeless before the pandemic struck.
In recent years, advocates have praised the efforts of VA, Congress, and state, local, federal and private partners in reducing Veteran homelessness by nearly 50% from 2010 to 2019, according to VA and HUD data.
Early in the pandemic, work to shelter Veterans in permanent housing ground to a halt when they needed it most. Congress worked to provide millions in emergency funding to help house homeless Veterans in hotels and pay for testing for those who fell ill, but permanent housing was still a struggle. Other major Veterans bills that made it through Congress in 2020 also included measures to aid homeless Veterans, such as the omnibus Johnny Isakson and David P Roe Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act, which also featured landmark legislation for women Veterans.
About 11% of the American homeless population are Veterans. Women Veterans are the fastest growing group of homeless Vets. Homeless and housing insecure Veterans are also disproportionately Veterans of color. Homeless Vets are also disproportionately younger and many suffer from mental health and substance abuse issues, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
The Biden administration's pandemic response package moving through Congress includes some funding for VA, including for programs to help homeless or housing insecure Veterans. But that massive bill will have to survive negotiations and a vote in the Senate before it can make it to the president's desk for final approval.
Veterans service organizations are expected to participate in a series of Congressional hearings this week, an annual opportunity for them to lobby the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees about their legislative priorities. This year, groups focusing on minority Veterans will also be included. One of the groups expected to present is the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
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