Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the 2009 AHAR

On Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. According to the report nearly 76,000 veterans were homeless on a given night in 2009 while roughly 136,000 veterans spent at least one night in a shelter during that year. Key findings in the report include:

During a 12-month period in 2009, an estimated 136,000 veterans-or about 1 in every 168 veterans-spent at least one night in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program;
Veterans are 50 percent more likely to become homeless compared to all Americans and the risk is even greater among minority veterans living in poverty;
One-half of homeless veterans are located in just four states: California (26 percent), Florida (9 percent), New York (8 percent), and Texas (7 percent); and
Sheltered homeless veterans are far more likely than non-veterans to be homeless alone rather than part of a family household; 96 percent of veterans are individuals compared to 66 percent in the overall homeless population.

Download the report here or read in on the HUD HRE website.