Homeless Incidence and Risk Factors for Becoming Homeless in Veterans

In November 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Shinseki announced a five-year plan to end homelessness among veterans. Primary prevention of homelessness (preventing the newly homeless from occurring) is an integral strategy of eliminating homelessness in veterans. The most challenging aspect of primary prevention efforts is to identify high-risk populations for outreach. We conducted this study to estimate incidences of becoming homeless (the newly homeless) after military separation and identify risk factors for veterans becoming homeless. To conduct this study, we integrated the data from VA and the Department of Defense (DoD) for the population of almost 500,000 male and female veterans who separated from the military from July 1, 2005, to September 30, 2006. Of the veterans in the population, we followed the 310,685 DoD (including TRICARE) or VA (including VA purchased care through fee basis or contractual agreement) users who did not suffer any homeless episodes before separation from the military, for their experience encountering their first homeless episode from the time they left the military through September 30, 2010. We will present the 5-year homeless incidence rates (by gender and status of participating in the recent military conflict) and the identified risk factors for becoming homeless.