VHA Homeless Programs – Ending Veteran Homelessness

This month, we are joined by Lourdes Tiglao, the Director of VA's Center for Women Veterans and Tracy Emmanuel, the Deputy Director for the Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing Program to better understand homelessness among Women Veterans. Our guests talk about the unique challenges and barriers that homeless women Veterans face when accessing services and what VA is doing about it...

Bonus episode! As part of VA’s 2023 Homelessness Goals, VA has adopted a One Team Approach to enhance how housing and supportive services are delivered to homeless and at-risk Veterans. In this virtual interview, which took place on October 10, 2023, host Doug Tetrault from the Technical Assistance Collaborative talks John Kuhn, Deputy Medical Center Director and Sally Hammitt, Chief of Community...

This month, we are joined by Nikki Barfield, deputy director for VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families, or SSVF, Program. Ms. Barfield talks with us about what the program is, how their new Shallow Subsidy service helps rent-burdened Veterans, and how Veterans in need can get connected for help. Veterans who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness are strongly encouraged to contac...

This month, we are joined by Dr. Ryan Holliday, clinical research psychologist at the Rocky Mountain MIRECC for Suicide Prevention and Kenny Bruemmer, program analyst for Homeless Patient Aligned Care Teams, to learn about the intersections of homelessness and suicide risk. Our guests talk with us about why Veterans with a history of homelessness are at increased risk for suicide, how VA identifie...

This month, we are joined again by Eileen Devine, national director for Health Care for Homeless Veterans with the VHA Homeless Programs Office, to learn about how VA coordinates with the homelessness assistance groups in your community. Ms. Devine walks us through what “coordinated entry” is, why it’s essential, and what we’ve learned about communities that do it well. Veterans who are homeless o...

This month, we are joined by Dr. Jack Tsai, Research Director for VA's National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans; Dr. Thomas Byrne, an investigator with both the VA National Center on Homelessness among Veterans and the Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Implementation Research at the VA Bedford Healthcare System; and Ken Mueller, senior business operations specialist in the Homeless Programs...

This month, we are joined by Dr. Jillian Shipherd, Deputy Director of VHA's National LGBTQ+ Health Program and Lindsay Church, Executive Director and Founder of Minority Veterans of America, to learn about how VA homeless programs can improve services to be more accessible to, and effective for, LBGTQ+ Veterans. Our guests talk about the unique risk factors facing LBGTQ+ Veterans, VA policies and...

This month, we are joined by Allison Bond, Deputy Director of the Heath Care for Homeless Veterans Program and Anthony Love, the Principal Advisor to the Executive Director for Intra/Inter-Agency Collaboration and Director of Community Engagement in the VHA Homeless Programs Office, to learn about the experience of unsheltered homelessness among Veterans. Our guests talk about what unsheltered hom...

This month, we are joined by Sean Clark, National Director for Veterans Justice Programs and Madolyn Gingell, National Coordinator for Legal Services for Veterans to learn about why it’s important to help Veterans get their “second chance”. Our guests talk about what justice involvement is, how past incarceration can impact Veterans’ risk for homelessness, and what VA is doing about it. Veterans w...

BREAKING NEWS: Today, March 15, 2023, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced its 2023 goals for preventing and ending Veteran homelessness. To help us understand what this means for Veterans experiencing homelessness and housing instability, we are joined by Jill Albanese, Director of Clinical Operations and Senior Advisor with the VHA Homeless Programs Office. Ms. Albanese walks us through...

This month, we are joined by Dr. Roger Casey, Director for Education and Dissemination at the National Center on Homelessness among Veterans and Dr. Nikola Alenkin, Supervisory Social Worker with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System to learn about burnout among VA’s homeless program social workers. Our guests talk about what burnout is, how it can impact Veterans’ care, and what VA is doin...

This month, we are joined by Deborah Lee, HUD-VASH Regional Coordinator for the VHA Homeless Programs Office; Jia Son, HUD-VASH Director at the VA San Francisco Health Care System; and Adriana Der, HUD-VASH Supervisor at the VA San Francisco Health Care System to learn more about how the how VA homeless programs are changing to help older Veterans age gracefully in their own homes. Our guests talk...

BREAKING NEWS: Today, January 26, 2023, VA announced that it has exceeded its goal to house 38,000 homeless Veterans in 2022. To help us understand what this means for Veterans experiencing homelessness and housing instability, we are joined by Jill Albanese, Director of Clinical Operations and Senior Advisor with the VHA Homeless Programs Office. Ms. Albanese walks us through how many homeless Ve...

This month, we are joined by Mr. Jeff Olivet, Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), to learn more about how the recently released “All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness” will impact Veterans. Mr. Olivet talks about common myths and misconceptions about homelessness, what the plan aims to accomplish, and where the government is goin...

This month, we are joined by Mrs. Monica Diaz, Executive Director of the Homeless Programs Office with the Department of Veterans Affairs to reflect on how 2022 impacted Veterans experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Mrs. Diaz talks about the major initiatives VA implemented this year and shares her thoughts about how relentlessness is critical to the work. Veterans who are homeless o...

This month, we are joined by Jennifer Nemeth, Business Operations and Staffing Coordinator with the VHA Homeless Programs Office to learn about how VA provides smartphones to homeless Veterans so that they can stay connected to their housing providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Nemeth talks about the origins of the telehomeless initiative and why, in today’s hyperconnected world, smartphone...

BREAKING NEWS: Today, November 3, 2022, VA announced the results of the 2022 Point-in-Time Count revealing that Veteran homelessness declined by 11% since 2020. To help us understand what this means for Veterans experiencing homelessness and housing instability, we are joined by Kenneth Mueller, Senior Business Operations Specialist with the VHA Homeless Programs Office. Mr. Mueller walks us throu...

This month, we are joined by Dr. Carma Heitzmann, National Director for Homeless Veteran Community Employment Services with the VHA Homeless Program Office to learn more about how VA helps homeless and formerly homeless Veterans get jobs. Dr. Heitzmann talks about the many employment services that VA provides, the types of jobs that VA helps Veterans obtain, and how employment can help maximize Ve...

This month, we are joined by Dr. Jessica Keith, Clinical Programs and Practices Lead for VA's Military Sexual Trauma Support Team; Dr. Ryan Holliday, Clinical Research Psychologist at the Rocky Mountain MIRECC for Suicide Prevention; and Mrs. Adelaide Kahn-Fowler, Director of Programs and Policy at Protect Our Defenders to learn about military sexual trauma, or MST. Our guests share with us what t...

This month, we are joined by Chanin Santini, the Care, Treatment, and Rehabilitation Service (CTRS) Program Manager and Site Supervisor with the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System to learn about how her program uses tiny shelters to create low-barrier services for unhoused Veterans. Ms. Santini talks about how CTRS got it start during the COVID-19 pandemic, how it draws from low-barrier pri...

This month, we are joined by Eileen Devine, National Director for Health Care for Homeless Veterans with the VHA Homeless Programs Office to learn about outreach and how VA seeks out Veterans experiencing homelessness to help them get connected to housing and health care. Ms. Devine talks about how communities work together to coordinate housing services, how VA outreach staff develop trusting rel...

This month, we are joined by Jill Albanese, Director of Business Operations with the VHA Homeless Programs Office to learn about VA’s new goal to house 38,000 homeless Veterans in 2022. Ms. Albanese walks us through the goal’s origins, the various housing programs VA uses to achieve the goal, and how people like you can help. Veterans who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness are strong...

This month we are joined by Dr. Jillian Weber to learn about how VA adapted its services to make sure that Veterans experiencing homelessness stayed safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Veterans who are homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness are strongly encouraged to contact the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at (877) 4AID-VET (877-424-3838) for assistance. Closed Caption Transcri...