VA announces plans to award hundreds of millions in grants, launches new initiative to help homeless Veterans

WASHINGTON - Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced three key steps to help Veterans experiencing homelessness:

• Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Grants: Within the coming year, VA will award hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to organizations that help rapidly rehouse Veterans and their families, prevent the imminent loss of a Veteran's home, or identify new, more suitable housing situations for Veterans and their families. The exact funding amount will be determined by VA's budget, and funding will support operations beginning Oct. 1, 2025.
• Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Case Management Grants: VA will award approximately $15 million per year for three years to existing GPD Case Management grantees to renew their grants. The awards will range from $75,000 to $300,000, depending on factors such as the number of case managers funded. VA expects to fund approximately 90 renewal grants, supporting around 120 full-time equivalent (FTE) case manager positions. Awards may not exceed $150,000 total costs per FTE case manager position per year. Awards made for grants will fund operations for three years beginning on or around Oct. 1, 2025.
• New Mayor's Pledge to House Homeless Veterans: VA is launching a new Mayor's Pledge to House Homeless Veterans - a national initiative encouraging mayors to engage landlords within their communities to pledge their available rental units to Veterans participating in VA's homeless programs. This is critical because VA's permanent housing programs - which help Veterans exit homelessness - depend on access to affordable rental units.

These efforts are a part of VA and the entire Biden-Harris Administration's ongoing commitment to end Veteran homelessness. VA continues to make substantial strides in addressing Veteran homelessness, which is at an all-time record low nationwide since measurement began in 2009, decreasing by 7.5% since 2023 and by 55.6% since 2010. VA recently announced it permanently housed nearly 48,000 homeless Veterans in fiscal year 2024, and 134,000 Veterans since 2022.

"Today, we call on mayors across the nation to take action to help us combat Veteran homelessness," said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. "For many Veterans experiencing homelessness, the first step in ensuring they can take full advantage of VA services is to get them stable housing. Mayors provide key leadership and maintain strong relationships within their local communities, making them strategically positioned to rally their local landlords to support Veterans."

"These new grants are also a critical part of our work to end Veteran homelessness, empowering VA and our partners to provide more housing and wraparound services to more homeless and at-risk Veterans than ever before," added VA Secretary Denis McDonough. "We will not rest until Veteran homelessness is a thing of the past."

The Mayor's Pledge to House Homeless Veterans runs between now and Sept. 30, 2025. Mayors who take the pledge will engage landlords, multifamily property owners, and property managers to submit information about their available rental units through an online web portal. Local VA homelessness teams will then reach out to these landlords to work to connect Veterans to the available units. Mayors can visit https://www.va.gov/HOMELESS/mayorspledge2024faq.asp to take the Mayor's Pledge to learn more.

Learn more information on the SSVF grant opportunity and the GPD grant opportunity. For more information about VA's comprehensive efforts to end Veteran homelessness, visit VA.gov/homeless.