Nipping it in the Bud: Proactively Identifying and Preventing Risk Factors Associated with Veteran Homelessness in the United States

Abstract

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs is the second-largest federal department in the United States, has a budget of over $200 billion, and employs approximately 280,000 people at its various medical facilities, clinics, and benefits agencies. The VA Health Administration is responsible for the 9 million Veterans who are currently enrolled in the program, and provides care at 1,243 healthcare centers, including 170 medical facilities and 1,063 outpatient clinics. This study analyzes the “scaling up” of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs initiatives combatting veteran homelessness from 2008 to 2015. This study shows that while the VA increased the number of veterans it was seeing, and that the variables associated with veteran homelessness remained relatively unchanged, the effects of these variables on homelessness were only slightly mitigated from 2008 to 2015. The findings of this study are important because they show that to eradicate veteran homelessness, the VA needs to be more proactive in identifying and helping those veterans who have the diagnoses and problems that are the most strongly correlated to veteran homelessness.