WASHINGTON — The number of homeless veterans jumped by more than 7.4% in 2023, according to report released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in December.
Researchers found that in one single night in January of that year, there were more than 35,000 veterans without a home.
One contributing problem is existing rules and regulations.
Right now, veterans who receive total or near total disability compensation are unable to access affordable housing in many areas of the country because their Veterans Affairs (VA) compensation puts them over local income eligibility limits.
House Veterans Affairs Committee Ranking member Mark Takano of California — meeting Tuesday with a bipartisan group of more than 50 members of the U.S. Conference of Mayors — called on the mayors to help update local regulations used to calculate veterans' income to determine eligibility for housing.
"That's where the mayors come in. We will need the help of all of these mayors and then some — mayors across the country — to make sure their cities and states work with us to identify and implement the fix to this problem," he said.
Separately, the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this month announced plans to move more than 41,000 homeless veterans into permanent housing this year.