An End to Veteran Homelessness in Virginia?

by Dan Sullivan

The good news first: our Governor set yesterday as the goal for ending veteran homelessness in Virginia; he declared a “functional end” in November. The bad news: that’s a fairly meaningless accomplishment. There is much to applaud in the administration’s efforts to help veterans in Virginia. Not this.

Loosely, the federal definition of a functional end to veteran homelessness is that there are no homeless veterans except those who have been offered housing and turned it down. It can also mean that the number of veterans becoming homeless is less than or equal to the number who are leaving homelessness. So by definition veterans will remain homeless. But accepting that as reality, the concept was originally operationalized in local jurisdictions where the challenge can be reasonably addressed; communities where the task of identifying homeless veterans and providing accommodations is manageable and meaningful. Finding a homeless veteran in a community and locating nearby housing is different than saying we have more available housing than we have identified homeless veterans statewide; particularly in a state as large as Virginia. It doesn’t matter to a homeless veteran in Winchester that there is a roof available in Norfolk.