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When we’re talking about homelessness in the United States, there is a definition that is shared by the Department of Veterans Affairs and by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And it is basically people who are living in emergency shelters or transitional housing, residential programs specifically meant for people experiencing homelessness, or people who are unsheltered—literally living on the streets or in places not meant for human habitation. When we’re talking about the number of veterans experiencing homelessness, it doesn’t count people who might be doubled up, or couch surfing, who might be in housing arrangements that are less than ideal or unstable in some way.
For some context, on a given night, there are around 37,000 veterans experiencing homelessness across the United States, and that’s a number that’s decreased by about 50 percent since 2009. Homelessness is a dynamic phenomenon: most folks who are homeless only experience homelessness for a fairly short period of time, and so there’s a lot of turnover in the population. The big reductions in homelessness among veterans over the past 10 to 12 years has a lot to do with the investments that the Department of Veterans Affairs has made in housing programs.
Source: https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/why-veterans-remain-at-greater-risk-of-homelessness/
