全球智库信息集成服务系统

• Seventeen of 26 VEH received some type of housing, and all but two retained housing during the study. However, only three veterans had received a permanent housing solution by the time the study ended.
• Nine of 26 VEH were never stably housed for more than half of a month over the study period despite all engaging at some point with the homeless service system.
• Participants' stories help confirm the need to more deeply invest in outreach service provision that can lead to tangible support more quickly and efficiently.
• The extent to which outreach teams engage with informal support networks (as opposed to focusing exclusively on the coordinated entry system to access housing) is unclear.
• It is important to respond to individual housing preferences. Several participants made clear that not all housing options are equivalent and that some options will not be acceptable.
• Aligning the housing options that the homeless service system provides with the preferences and needs of the unhoused population appears to clearly facilitate a pathway into housing, but data about housing preferences in this population are limited.
• Data support the idea that once veterans were stably housed, mental health symptoms, quality of life, and social support improved.
• Participants received more housing, legal, financial, and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits when they were stably housed.

Veteran homelessness in Los Angeles (LA), California, is a pervasive public health problem, with the county having the highest concentration of veterans experiencing homelessness (VEH) in the United States. Despite significant investments and many programs and services available to VEH, eliminating homelessness has proven to be a major public policy challenge.

In this report, the authors describe a first-of-its-kind longitudinal study conducted in 2019/2020 that followed 26 VEH in West LA. The information obtained about the veterans' housing, health, and service experiences can be used by policymakers and public health practitioners to identify specific factors that are related to engagement in care and housing attainment and stability.

The COVID-19 pandemic began during the study, and the research team had to adapt to remote data collection protocols to complete the follow-up data collection. As a result, important lessons about the feasibility of remote data collection with VEH both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were learned.

The authors make a number of recommendations, including allocating more resources to fully meet the needs of VEH in LA (including more-robust outreach services, substance use disorder treatment, and other health care treatment), implementing additional temporary and permanent housing solutions, and building in accountability measures to make progress toward these goals more transparent to a larger audience.

This report should be of interest to entities serving populations that experience homelessness, including governments, health care organizations, practitioners, advocacy groups, researchers, and others interested in addressing the homelessness crisis.

• Chapter One

  Veteran Homelessness in Los Angeles

• Chapter Two

  Study Methods

• Chapter Three

  Characteristics of the Sample

• Chapter Four

  Housing

• Chapter Five

  Health and Well-Being

• Chapter Six

  Use of Supportive Services

• Chapter Seven

  Ecological Momentary Assessment Pilot Study

• Chapter Eight

  Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Chapter Nine

  Conclusions

• Appendix A

  Individual Case Summaries

• Appendix B

  Services for Veterans Experiencing Homelessness