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Mrs. Lisa M. Pape, LISWExecutive Director, VA Homeless ProgramsDepartment of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
FY 14-15: Agency Priority Goal
End Veteran Homelessness
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability.
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count [1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.
[1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).
Strategies
The initiative to end Veteran homelessness is built upon data driven, evidence based strategies that include: outreach/education, treatment, prevention, housing/supportive services, income/employment/benefits, and community partnership. These six pillars encompass a wide continuum of interventions and services. Homeless Veterans will benefit from the expansion of existing program capacity and treatment services, as well as the implementation of new programs that are focused on homelessness prevention and increased access to permanent housing with supportive services. Programming also includes assistance with permanent housing searches and placements, vocational and employment services, healthcare inclusive of mental health and access to benefits and other supportive services that promote improved quality of life. VA continues to reassess and target the needs of homeless and Veterans at-risk of homelessness. Additionally, each VA medical center and Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) has developed an operating plan that explains their approaches to addressing the needs of Veterans who are homeless and at risk of homelessness, close gaps in resources and permanent housing placements for homeless Veterans, and improve overall program performance.
Strategies to eliminate Veteran homelessness address three subpopulations within the broader homeless Veteran population:
- Veterans experiencing chronic homelessness who are eligible for VA services,
- Veterans experiencing non-chronic homelessness who are eligible for VA services, and
- All Veterans experiencing homelessness who are ineligible for VA services.
For Veterans experiencing chronic homelessness who are eligible for VA services, HUD-VASH vouchers, jointly administered by HUD and VA, offer the most appropriate resources, as they couple intensive case management services with permanent housing. For Veterans experiencing non-chronic homelessness who are eligible for VA services, VA offers a variety of programs designed to assist these Veterans with obtaining permanent housing. The SSVF program offers prevention and rapid rehousing solutions to both keep Veterans in housing and quickly move short-term homeless Veterans back into permanent housing. VA also has several programs that provide time-limited housing to Veterans along with supportive services, treatment, vocational assistance, etc. These programs often provide the necessary “bridge” between streets and permanent housing that may not be immediately available. Employment and benefits inclusive of VA are critical in providing homeless Veterans the income required to sustain permanent housing and other daily living expenses.
For Veterans experiencing homelessness who are ineligible for VA health services (for example, those who separate from the military with a less than honorable status or did not serve for the required minimum amount of time), HUD’s Emergency Solutions Grant dollars and Continuum of Care program resources are the appropriate vehicles to offer services and housing packages needed to move Veterans who are ineligible for VA health services off the street and out of shelters and transitional housing. VA works closely with these programs and other partner organizations to help homeless Veterans and Veterans at-risk of homelessness obtain mainstream benefits, including those that provide income support and access to local services.
Implementation Strategy
- Dual focus on housing unsheltered (street) homeless Veterans and increasing exits to permanent housing of sheltered homeless Veterans (HUD and VA).
- Continue to target HUD-VASH vouchers to Veterans experiencing chronic homelessness (VA).
- Explore and implement systems changes for converting transitional housing programs to Permanent Supportive Housing or Rapid Rehousing (HUD and VA).
- Continue to advance Housing First models (HUD and VA).
- Collaborate across HUD, VA and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) to align programs and efforts (HUD and VA).
- Continue to build place-based initiatives that align local, regional, state, and Federal efforts to end Veterans homelessness (HUD and VA).
- Develop estimates of numbers of homeless Veterans ineligible for VA health care services and develop associated strategies to serve these Veterans (VA).
Improve the methodology and reporting of the PIT data, primarily focused on PIT Counts to acquire timely, reliable, and detailed data regarding the number of homeless Veterans (HUD and VA).
Progress Update
In Quarter Four:
- PIT Count. The PIT Count is undertaken in late January each year across the US to enumerate homeless persons, including homeless Veterans. This significant undertaking is led by HUD’s 414 local Continuums of Care (CoCs), which are planning bodies responsible for coordinating all homelessness services in a geographic area. The PIT Count included unsheltered (those living on the street or in another place not meant for human habitation) and sheltered (those living in emergency shelters and transitional housing) individuals on a single night in January 2015. HUD released the results of the 2015 PIT Count of homelessness across the country. On a single night in January 2015, during the PIT Count, there were 47,725 homeless Veterans in the US. These results show that overall Veteran homelessness has decreased by 36 percent since 2010, and unsheltered homelessness has decreased by nearly 50 percent, resulting in tens of thousands fewer Veterans on the streets and without a place to stay. VA is serving more Veterans than ever before with specialized homelessness or at-risk services.
- Interagency Work Plan. VA, USICH, HUD and other federal partners will continue to make progress toward the Interagency Work Plan and build a foundation of ongoing work together in the shared goal to end homelessness among Veterans by the end of FY 2015.
- Moves to Permanent Housing. VA significantly surpassed its annual goal of 49,000. At the end of FY 2015, 64,902 Veterans were placed in permanent housing, including moves into the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program and moves from VA residential and Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) programs into permanent housing.
- HUD-VASH. At the end of FY 2015, the total number of HUD-VASH vouchers allocated by HUD was 78,133. Of these vouchers, 71,155 HUD-VASH vouchers were in use, with 63,039 Veterans housed, and 8,116 in the process of obtaining permanent supportive housing.
- Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program. At the end of FY 2015, 15,507 Veterans were discharged to permanent housing and 43,971 Veterans received services. VA exceeded its target of 65 percent. At the end of FY 2015, 70 percent of Veterans discharged from VA funded residential treatment programs–Grant and Per Diem (GPD) or Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans (DCHV) discharged to permanent housing.
- Unsheltered Status within 30 Days of Engagement. VA exceeded its target of 80 percent. At the end of FY 2015, 87 percent of unsheltered Veterans moved out of unsheltered status within 30 days of engagement. VA has made it a top priority to quickly move Veterans from unsheltered situations to safe housing, either in transitional or permanent settings. A number of factors have contributed to the success of this metric, including utilization of Housing First and Rapid Re-housing models to move Veterans from unsheltered situations to safe housing and continued strong partnerships with community partners to assist with identification and engagement of unsheltered Veterans.
- SSVF Renewal Funding. On September 14, 2015, VA announced approximately $300 million in SSVF renewal funding to 286 non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
- Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Program. At the end of FY 2015, SSVF assisted more than 156,800 individuals:
- Over 98,600 Veterans were assisted.
- Nearly 34,500 children were assisted in nearly 18,200 households with children.
- Of the Veterans assisted, over 13,800 or roughly 14 percent were female.
2015 Accomplishments:
1. PIT Count. The PIT Count is undertaken in late January each year across the US to enumerate homeless persons, including homeless Veterans. This significant undertaking is led by HUD’s 414 local Continuums of Care (CoCs), which are planning bodies responsible for coordinating all homelessness services in a geographic area. The PIT Count included unsheltered (those living on the street or in another place not meant for human habitation) and sheltered (those living in emergency shelters and transitional housing) individuals on a single night in January 2015.
HUD released the results of the 2015 PIT Count of homelessness across the country. On a single night in January 2015, during the PIT Count, there were 47,725 homeless Veterans in the US. These results show that overall Veteran homelessness has decreased by 36 percent since 2010, and unsheltered homelessness has decreased by nearly 50 percent, resulting in tens of thousands fewer Veterans on the streets and without a place to stay. VA is serving more Veterans than ever before with specialized homelessness or at-risk services.
2. Interagency Work Plan. VA, USICH, HUD and other federal partners continued to make progress toward the Interagency Work Plan and build a foundation of ongoing work together in the shared goal to end homelessness among Veterans by the end of FY 2015.
3. Moves to Permanent Housing. VA significantly surpassed its annual goal of 49,000. At the end of FY 2015, 64,902 Veterans were placed in permanent housing, including moves into the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program and moves from VA residential and Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) programs into permanent housing.
4. HUD-VASH. At the end of FY 2015, the total number of HUD-VASH vouchers allocated by HUD was 78,133. Of these vouchers, 71,155 HUD-VASH vouchers were in use, with 63,039 Veterans housed, and 8,116 in the process of obtaining permanent supportive housing.
5. Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program. At the end of FY 2015, 15,507 Veterans were discharged to permanent housing and 43,971 Veterans received services. VA exceeded its target of 65 percent. At the end of FY 2015, 70 percent of Veterans discharged from VA funded residential treatment programs–Grant and Per Diem (GPD) or Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans (DCHV) discharged to permanent housing.
6. VA exceeded its target of 80 percent. At the end of FY 2015, 87 percent of unsheltered Veterans moved out of unsheltered status within 30 days of engagement. VA has made it a top priority to quickly move Veterans from unsheltered situations to safe housing, either in transitional or permanent settings. A number of factors have contributed to the success of this metric, including utilization of Housing First and Rapid Re-housing models to move Veterans from unsheltered situations to safe housing and continued strong partnerships with community partners to assist with identification and engagement of unsheltered Veterans.
7. SSVF Renewal Funding. On September 14, 2015, VA announced approximately $300 million in SSVF renewal funding to 286 non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
8. Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Program. At the end of FY 2015, SSVF assisted more than 156,800 individuals:
- Over 98,600 Veterans were assisted.
- Nearly 34,500 children were assisted in nearly 18,200 households with children.
- Of the Veterans assisted, over 13,800 or roughly 14 percent were female.
2014 Accomplishments:
1. Moves to Permanent Housing. At the end of FY 2014, 53,475 Veterans were placed in permanent housing, including moves into the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program and moves from VA residential and Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) programs into permanent housing.
2. HUD-VASH. At the end of FY 2014, the total number of HUD-VASH vouchers allocated by HUD was 58,135. Of these vouchers, 55,948 HUD-VASH vouchers were in use, with 51,913 Veterans housed.
3. GPD Program. At the end of FY 2014, 14,709 Veterans were discharged to permanent housing and 45,167 Veterans received services.
4. SSVF Program. At the end of FY 2014, SSVF assisted more than 127,800 individuals:
- Over 79,400 Veterans were assisted.
- Over 29,800 children were assisted in over 14, 400 households with children.
- Of the Veterans were assisted, over 11,700, or roughly 15 percent were female.
Next Steps
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Performance Indicators
Number of Veterans placed in permanent housing
Percent of Veterans discharged from VA funded residential treatment programs to permanent housing
Percent of unsheltered Veterans moved out of unsheltered status within 30 days of engagement
Number of homeless Veterans (on a single night)
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
Contributing programs within the agency: Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Homeless Programs (mental health, health, and dental care); Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA); National Cemetery Administration (NCA); Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs; Office of Information and Technology (OI&T); Office of Human Resources and Administration (OHRA); Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction (OALC).
Contributing programs or partners outside the agency: United States Congress; Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Department of Labor (DOL); Department of Justice (DOJ); Department of Defense (DOD) and Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness coordinated by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and a host of other federal agency partners.
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Strategic Goals
Strategic Goal:
Empower Veterans to Improve Their Well-being
Statement:
Empower Veterans to Improve Their Well-being
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Improve Veteran Wellness and Economic Security
Description:
Summary:
Numerous programs provide a broad spectrum of benefits and support services that assist Veterans and eligible beneficiaries. To enable Veterans and eligible beneficiaries to choose the best benefits and services for their needs, VA will improve coordination between our programs, leverage supportive interactions between programs, and reduce overlap across programs. Success will be measured by the differences made in the lives of the Veterans we serve, including decreasing Veteran unemployment, decreasing home foreclosures, decreasing homelessness, reducing processing times for disability compensation claims, increasing preventive care and healthy lifestyle changes, and increasing access to and utilization of virtual care modalities.
Strategies:
VA will eliminate Veteran homelessness by the end of FY 2015. VA, in collaboration with its Federal partners, will continue to provide rehabilitation services for homeless and at-risk Veterans, including employment assistance, access to permanent and transitional housing, and other supportive services. As the number of homeless Veterans continues to decline, the focus will shift from rescue to prevention.
VA will improve Veteran career readiness to reduce Veteran unemployment. We will synchronize and align Veteran employment programs managed by VA, and improve coordination across the various Federal Veteran employment initiatives. We will increase support to our Veterans with disabilities and those who are GI Bill eligible through programs offering educational and vocational counseling. VA will increase support to Veteran entrepreneurs through public-private partnerships to provide capacity building and by providing access to Federal contracting opportunities.
VA will provide Veterans and eligible beneficiaries with personalized, proactive, patient-driven health care to optimize health and well-being, while providing state-of-the-art disease management. VA’s Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT) will ensure patient engagement in self-care, preventive services, primary care, and mental health services. PACT is a partnership between the Veteran and the health care team with an emphasis on prevention, health promotion, and self-management. PACTs use a team-based approach, with various members of the team stepping in at different points in time to provide needed care. We will expand and refine, in coordination with DoD, research into the long-term consequences of TBI and PTSD. VA will increasingly seek to understand underlying health, injury and disorder mechanisms to create evidence-based diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation methods for Veterans and eligible beneficiaries with support from their families.
Statement:
Increase Customer Satisfaction through Improvements in Benefits and Services Delivery Policies, Procedures, and Interfaces
Description:
Summary:
VA is a customer service organization. Complicated application processes, long processing timelines or difficulties getting information and appointments all impact the client’s experience and satisfaction. Veterans and eligible beneficiaries deserve a support system that is responsive to their needs. VA must keep pace with Veterans’ expectations and transform its customer services – soliciting regular customer feedback, streamlining processes, and delivering consistent service across customer-preferred channels.
We live in a connected world. The rapid pace of technological advancement is reshaping Veterans’ expectations regarding how services, benefits, and support should be delivered. Today’s client expects instant access to information and self-service options via the Internet, and increasingly through mobile devices like tablets and smartphones (and the next generation “smart” devices that are yet to be deployed).
To provide a personalized experience, we must listen, learn, and understand the needs and expectations of those we serve. We must have the knowledge, information and insight to understand why some choose not to fully engage with VA.
Strategies:
VA will provide timely, accurate decisions on Veterans’ disability claims and eliminate the claims backlog. We will then implement a robust plan, and revisit procedures to ensure claims are addressed in no more than 125 days with at least 98 percent accuracy. The plan includes redesigning policies and procedures, continuing to enhance training for claims processors, and utilizing the most advanced IT. We will also increase the use of video teleconference hearings to address claims appeals.
VA will continue to expand implementation of PACT to improve partnerships with Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, increase team-based care coordination and management, and expand access to care. VA will improve patient-facing and clinician-facing e-health systems by expanding the development and use of health-related virtual modalities. These modalities include telehealth[1], E-Consult[2], secure messaging, MyHealtheVet, and mobile applications.
VA will enhance client satisfaction by capturing client data once, sharing it enterprise-wide, and using this client data for a lifetime, which will promote more efficient use of data across business lines. We will identify sources of consistent, reliable, and authoritative Veteran data. We will establish architecture, business rules, roles and responsibilities, and governance to enable VA lines of business to use the authoritative common client data to improve delivery of benefits and services to Veterans. VA will gain access to additional external data, knowledge, and experiences so we can broaden our understanding of our client’s needs and expectations. We will enable secure, privacy-protected electronic exchange of personal, health, and economic data on Veterans from induction oath through the final survivor benefit.
VA will rethink its operations as a Department, defining the fundamental crosscutting capabilities and interdependencies required to perform them. We will identify and address any internal organizational, policy, procedural, perceptual, and cultural boundaries that constrain our ability to coordinate, integrate, and deliver benefits and services.
VA will streamline its virtual presence (Web sites, portals and call centers), reducing duplication and enhancing personalization to enable clients to get the information they need, on their schedule.
VA will increase access to burial benefits in national cemeteries through its plans to construct five new national cemeteries and by recognizing and addressing the unique needs of Veterans and eligible beneficiaries who reside in densely populated urban areas as well as sparsely populated rural locations. We will ensure that the service and appearance of our national cemeteries meets the highest standards commensurate with these national shrines.
[1] Telehealth uses information and telecommunication technologies to provide health care services in situations in which the patient and practitioner are separated by geographical distance. Telehealth in VA increases access to high quality health care services using Clinical Video Telehealth (CVT), Home Telehealth (HT) and Store and Forward Telehealth (SFT).
[2] E-Consult is an approach to provide clinical support from provider to provider. Through a formal consult request, processed and documented in the Computerized Patient Record System, a provider requests a specialist to address a clinical problem or to answer a clinical question for a specific patient. Utilizing information provided in the consult request and/or review of the patient’s electronic medical record, the consultant provides a documented response that addresses the request without a face-to-face visit.
Agency Priority Goals
Statement:
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Improve client and stakeholder awareness of, and access to, Veterans benefits and health care services. By September 30, 2015, VA will increase the use of virtual service options by increasing the percent of claims received electronically, by increasing the number of accredited Veterans service officers registered on the Stakeholder Enterprise Portal, by increasing the number of registered eBenefits users, and by increasing the percent of patients who access VA health care using a virtual format such as video telehealth or online services.
Indicators:
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Description:
VA’s focus in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 is to deliver seamless and integrated services while increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of virtual access. To achieve the best possible outcomes for Veterans, Servicemembers, and eligible beneficiaries, VA will improve access to, and encourage the use of, its virtual benefits and services. VA and Department of Defense (DoD) have established a jointly supported portal known as eBenefits, which allows Veterans, Servicemembers, and other eligible beneficiaries to access and submit information when, where, and how they want.
The development and proliferation of virtual access to care supports an organizational approach that is personalized, proactive, and patient-driven. VA virtual health services use technology and health informatics to provide Veterans with better access and more effective care management. Advances in virtual care expand where health care services can be accessed, reduce the need for travel to medical facilities, and transform VA’s delivery of health care and its effect on patients’ health outcomes.
Statement:
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Improve accuracy and reduce the time it takes to complete disability compensation benefit claims. Eliminate the disability claims backlog and process all claims in 125 days in FY 2015.
Indicators:
* VA is in the midst of reviewing its claims processing accuracy metrics and goals to ensure VA continues to drive decisions of the highest quality. VA plans to engage its VSO partners and other stakeholders as more information becomes available. |
Description:
VA will provide timely, accurate decisions on Veterans’ disability compensation and eliminate the claims backlog in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. Improving quality and reducing the length of time it takes to process disability claims are integral to VA's mission of providing benefits to eligible Veterans in a timely, accurate, and compassionate manner. In FY 2013, VBA began measuring the accuracy of individual issues for each claim (“issue-based accuracy”), as it provides a more detailed measure of workload proficiency. However, VBA will continue to monitor and report out on claim-based accuracy as a key indicator for this Agency Priority Goal. To improve benefits delivery, VA is transitioning to an electronic claims process that will reduce processing time and increase accuracy. As of the end of June 2015, over 94 percent of VBA’s inventory is in an electronic format and is being processed electronically by VBA employees using the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS). All claims are either received electronically or are converted to electronic format for processing.
Statement:
In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Indicators:
- Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
- The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
- Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Description:
VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability.
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count [1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.
[1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).
Strategic Goal:
Enhance and Develop Trusted Partnerships
Statement:
Enhance and Develop Trusted Partnerships
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Enhance VA’s Partnership with DoD
Description:
Summary:
VA’s life-long engagement with its clients begins when Servicemembers first enter service and continues through the remainder of their lives. In support of this engagement, VA and DoD are working together to improve the access, quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of health care, benefits, and services provided to Servicemembers, Veterans, and other beneficiaries. VA will work closely with DoD to ensure that these benefits and services are delivered through an integrated client-centric approach that anticipates and addresses client needs; that the delivery of health care is provided through a patient-driven health care system that delivers quality, access, satisfaction and value consistently across the Departments; and through the efficiency of operations that are delivered through joint planning, training, and execution. The Departments must ensure that authorized beneficiary and health information is accessible, usable, shared, and secure in order to meet the needs of clients, customers, and stakeholders.
Strategies:
VA and DoD will continue to work towards achieving these goals with its many DoD partners through the VA-DoD Joint Executive Committee (JEC) in order to improve business practices, ensure high-quality, cost effective services for both VA and DoD beneficiaries, facilitate opportunities to improve resource utilization and sharing, and to remove barriers that might impede collaborative efforts.
VA and DoD will create an authoritative source of health information for DoD and VA beneficiaries, which will include the delivery of a highly flexible, reliable, secure, maintainable, and sustainable systems. VA and DoD will jointly implement the separation health assessment based upon the joint common criteria established by the Departments. VA will continue to partner with DoD and increase the information and self-service capabilities available through the eBenefits portal for active duty Servicemembers and Veterans and eligible beneficiaries.
Statement:
Enhance VA’s Partnerships with Federal, State, Private Sector, Academic Affiliates, Veteran Service Organizations and Non-Profit Organizations
Description:
Summary:
While VA is not the sole provider of benefits, services, and resources to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, we hold ourselves accountable for each Veteran’s success, no matter who provides assistance. To provide Veterans and eligible beneficiaries an integrated, coordinated, personalized portfolio of benefits and services efficiently and effectively, we must improve our communication, coordination, and relationships with our partners in other Federal agencies; state, tribal, and local governments; VSOs; MSOs; academic affiliates; unions; nonprofits; and private industry. We must develop a partnership culture that entails trust, transparency, mutual benefit, responsibility, productivity, and accountability. Increased public-private partnership opportunities empower staff with effective tools and resources for collaborations, and allow for building open innovation platforms.
Strategies:
VA will leverage responsible and productive partnership opportunities that can supplement VA services and help fill urgent or emerging gaps in services. We will pursue opportunities for partnering with organizations that can best provide what we cannot or should not.
VA will establish a partnership award program to acknowledge and recognize successful partnerships in various organizational and service categories.
VA will foster stronger collaboration and information exchange with across the spectrum of care, benefits and services providers.
Statement:
Amplify Awareness of Services and Benefits Available to Veterans through Improved Communications and Outreach
Description:
Summary:
The benefits, services, and resources available to our current and future clients, and the means and mechanisms for delivering them, must be widely-known and well understood. We will expand the ways in which we connect to our clients to amplify awareness of the services and benefits available to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries. We will connect with Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, our partners, and the Nation through clear, aligned, and proactive interactions.
Strategies:
VA will establish a robust, authoritative communications capability that provides and aligns a clear, concise, positive, and compelling message. We will establish standardized corporate communications policies and procedures to coordinate efforts across the Department.
VA will establish internal standardized enterprise outreach policies and procedures to coordinate efforts across the Department.
VA will develop outreach plans and strategies in collaboration with our partners to ensure Veterans and eligible beneficiaries and their families are aware of all of the programs for which they are eligible; not only those provided by VA and not solely programs designed to serve a Veteran-only population. We will pursue joint outreach campaigns to enable sharing of communications channels and audiences to reach more Veterans and eligible beneficiaries.
Agency Priority Goals
Statement:
In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Indicators:
- Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
- The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
- Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
Description:
VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability.
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count [1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.
[1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).
Strategic Objectives
Strategic Objective:
Statement:
Improve Veteran Wellness and Economic Security
Description:
Summary:
Numerous programs provide a broad spectrum of benefits and support services that assist Veterans and eligible beneficiaries. To enable Veterans and eligible beneficiaries to choose the best benefits and services for their needs, VA will improve coordination between our programs, leverage supportive interactions between programs, and reduce overlap across programs. Success will be measured by the differences made in the lives of the Veterans we serve, including decreasing Veteran unemployment, decreasing home foreclosures, decreasing homelessness, reducing processing times for disability compensation claims, increasing preventive care and healthy lifestyle changes, and increasing access to and utilization of virtual care modalities.
Strategies:
VA will eliminate Veteran homelessness by the end of FY 2015. VA, in collaboration with its Federal partners, will continue to provide rehabilitation services for homeless and at-risk Veterans, including employment assistance, access to permanent and transitional housing, and other supportive services. As the number of homeless Veterans continues to decline, the focus will shift from rescue to prevention.
VA will improve Veteran career readiness to reduce Veteran unemployment. We will synchronize and align Veteran employment programs managed by VA, and improve coordination across the various Federal Veteran employment initiatives. We will increase support to our Veterans with disabilities and those who are GI Bill eligible through programs offering educational and vocational counseling. VA will increase support to Veteran entrepreneurs through public-private partnerships to provide capacity building and by providing access to Federal contracting opportunities.
VA will provide Veterans and eligible beneficiaries with personalized, proactive, patient-driven health care to optimize health and well-being, while providing state-of-the-art disease management. VA’s Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT) will ensure patient engagement in self-care, preventive services, primary care, and mental health services. PACT is a partnership between the Veteran and the health care team with an emphasis on prevention, health promotion, and self-management. PACTs use a team-based approach, with various members of the team stepping in at different points in time to provide needed care. We will expand and refine, in coordination with DoD, research into the long-term consequences of TBI and PTSD. VA will increasingly seek to understand underlying health, injury and disorder mechanisms to create evidence-based diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation methods for Veterans and eligible beneficiaries with support from their families.
Agency Priority Goals
Statement: In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count). Indicators:
Description: VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability. [1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count [1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.
Strategic Objective:
Statement:
Enhance VA’s Partnerships with Federal, State, Private Sector, Academic Affiliates, Veteran Service Organizations and Non-Profit Organizations
Description:
Summary:
While VA is not the sole provider of benefits, services, and resources to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, we hold ourselves accountable for each Veteran’s success, no matter who provides assistance. To provide Veterans and eligible beneficiaries an integrated, coordinated, personalized portfolio of benefits and services efficiently and effectively, we must improve our communication, coordination, and relationships with our partners in other Federal agencies; state, tribal, and local governments; VSOs; MSOs; academic affiliates; unions; nonprofits; and private industry. We must develop a partnership culture that entails trust, transparency, mutual benefit, responsibility, productivity, and accountability. Increased public-private partnership opportunities empower staff with effective tools and resources for collaborations, and allow for building open innovation platforms.
Strategies:
VA will leverage responsible and productive partnership opportunities that can supplement VA services and help fill urgent or emerging gaps in services. We will pursue opportunities for partnering with organizations that can best provide what we cannot or should not.
VA will establish a partnership award program to acknowledge and recognize successful partnerships in various organizational and service categories.
VA will foster stronger collaboration and information exchange with across the spectrum of care, benefits and services providers.
Agency Priority Goals
Statement: In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count). Indicators:
Description: VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability. [1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count [1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.
