By Ben Kesling

DENVER -- Nationwide, the homeless population has been slowly rising during the past few years, up more than 5% since 2017. But among veterans, the number has declined by more than 17% over that period, a drop advocates attribute to an aggressive and well-funded "housing first" policy.

The approach is in full swing in a program that operates out of a nondescript brick building in an industrial area of Denver. Lauren Lapinski, a licensed clinical social worker with the Department of Veterans Affairs, arrived at Denver's VA Community Resource and Referral Center before dawn one day earlier this month -- after having been up late the night before canvassing strip malls and alleys as part of an annual homeless count.

The intense focus on finding and connecting with veterans and providing supportive services has worked -- the number of homeless veterans in the metro Denver area dropped more than 30% over the last two years, according to Metro Denver Homeless Initiative.

"The most important thing is having a passionate person who will show up when they say they'll show up," Ms. Lapinski said of her fellow outreach employees.

Homelessness among veterans has been a longstanding problem for the VA. Veterans are homeless at a higher rate than the civilian population across the country, and often deal with service-related trauma and health conditions that make their situations more complex.

In 2009, following an uptick in veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan falling into homelessness, the VA implemented a more aggressive approach to finding and giving aid to homeless veterans. The Biden administration has stepped up the program, to good effect: In 2022 there was an 11% decrease in veteran homelessness, the sharpest drop in many years.

The "housing first" strategy is focused on getting homeless people housed and then working to address issues that might have led to their destitution. It is considered a best practice among advocates for homeless people and doesn't require a person to be sober or have a job or get treatment to qualify for shelter; those issues are addressed after the person is housed.

"If we say you need to come to us and that you need to fit this mold and jump through hoops or we can't help you, then we are going to lose people," said Kristin Toombs, director of Colorado's state office of homeless initiatives, which coordinates with the VA.

The program focuses on locating veterans, maintaining contact with them and providing services when they are ready. Over three dozen VA community resource and referral centers exist across the country, largely designed to operate in large metropolitan areas in coordination with local agencies that focus on reducing homelessness.

Brandy Stephenson, a 43-year-old Navy veteran, said she that had a good job for years as a medical coder but that her worsening addiction to alcohol and cocaine caused her to lose all that last June.

"I've worked my entire life and addiction got in the way and I lost everything," said Ms. Stephenson, who bounced from inpatient treatment to transitional housing and hotels in Charlotte, N.C., finally to a spare room in her sister's home in Kansas City, Mo.

Ms. Stephenson said she had no idea about many of the veterans benefits available to her until she showed up on her own at a VA facility in Salisbury, N.C., and said a knowledgeable and dedicated case worker in Charlotte took up her cause.

In Denver, outreach workers find and connect with veterans through a city database that VA employees use to track all 462 known homeless veterans in the area. The technology lets them see in real time when veterans seek services, affording the VA another chance to connect with them.

Homeless veterans can use the facility's private showers and meet with case managers or primary-care clinicians. A veteran can claim a small cubby behind a locked door, a coveted place where important possessions won't be pilfered.

When a homeless veteran is ready, the VA has ample resources to offer. It budgeted more than $8.2 billion for homelessness efforts in 2022. It has one of the largest healthcare systems in the country, federally guaranteed benefits and has longstanding support in Congress and the White House.

Housing vouchers known as HUD-VASH are the core of the program. With them, a homeless veteran can often get housing from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and other services from the VA, which include help working with landlords, coordinating mental and physical healthcare and getting basic needs such as phone and internet service. At the Denver center, veterans can find health services, employment assistance, transportation and other services to help them feel secure in the housing.

The VA approach is working nationwide: Counts of the homeless population, done every January, show veteran homeless numbers declined by 17% to about 33,000 in the five years between 2017 and early 2022. In the same span of time, overall U.S. homelessness increased 5.7%, federal data show.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough joined Ms. Lapinski and others Jan. 31 for the point-in-time count. That night Mr. McDonough met a man who said he had been a Marine Corps infantryman and even though he had a job was unable to afford housing. That Marine was assigned to a case worker who began engaging with him the next day.

Mr. McDonough acknowledged that rising housing prices have made it difficult for all programs serving homeless people. There are now more delays in getting veterans into housing.

Ms. Stephenson, the veteran living in Kansas City, applied for HUD-VASH and is still waiting for housing.

"I'm a determined person and I want to be in this position as short of a time as necessary," she said.

Write to Ben Kesling at ben.kesling@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 14, 2023 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT)

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