US Veterans To Get Financial Boost in 2025

What’s New

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced it is taking new steps to help veterans experiencing homelessness, including new grants and an initiative encouraging landlords to rent to former active military personnel.

Why It’s Important

While homelessness among servicemen and women has declined by more than 50 percent since 2010, the VA found that in January 2024, the number of unhoused veterans was 32,882.

The outgoing Biden-Harris administration has been trying to reduce homelessness among veterans, having recently announced its success in permanently housing nearly 48,000 homeless veterans in the 2024 fiscal year— the largest number of veterans housed in a single year since 2019 —and 134,000 veterans in total since 2022.

What To Know

There are three arms to the VA’s latest push against veteran homelessness:

• The VA will allocate “hundreds of millions of dollars” in 2025 to help organizations rehouse veterans, prevent homelessness and find suitable housing. Funding begins in fall 2025, with the exact amount to be determined by the VA’s budget.
• It will provide some $15 million annually for three years to renew 90 existing Case Management grants. Awards range from $75,000 to $300,000, supporting about 120 full-time case managers, capped at $150,000 per position per year.
• A nationwide initiative—Mayor’s Pledge to House Homeless Veterans —will encourage mayors to engage landlords to pledge rental units for veterans in VA homeless programs, which rely on access to affordable housing. Mayors who take the pledge will engage landlords, multifamily property owners and property managers to submit information to the VA about any available rental units through an online web portal. Local VA homelessness teams will then reach out to these landlords to connect them with veterans.

What People Are Saying

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a press release: “Today, we call on mayors across the nation to take action to help us combat Veteran homelessness. For many Veterans experiencing homelessness, the first step in ensuring they can take full advantage of VA services is to get them stable housing. Mayors provide key leadership and maintain strong relationships within their local communities, making them strategically positioned to rally their local landlords to support Veterans.”

“These new grants are also a critical part of our work to end Veteran homelessness, empowering VA and our partners to provide more housing and wraparound services to more homeless and at-risk Veterans than ever before. We will not rest until Veteran homelessness is a thing of the past.”

What’s Next

Funding for organizations and case management grants will begin on October 1, 2025, while the Mayor’s Pledge to House Homeless Veterans program runs between now and September 30, 2025.