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United States Government Accountability Office: 
GAO: 

Report to Congressional Requesters: 

December 2011: 

Homeless Women Veterans: 

Actions Needed to Ensure Safe and Appropriate Housing: 

GAO-12-182: 

Contents: 

Letter: 

Recommendations for Executive Action: 

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology:
Objectives:
Analysis of VA Data:
Surveys:
Discussion Groups: 

Appendix II: Briefing Slides: 

Appendix III: Selected Federal Programs Serving Homeless Veterans: 

Appendix IV: State-Level Data and Additional Information on Facilities 
for the Grant and Per Diem Program: 

Appendix V: Characteristics of Veterans Identified by VA as Homeless: 

Appendix VI: Comments from the Department of Veterans Affairs: 

Appendix VII: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments: 

Tables: 

Table 1: Types of Programs and Settings Visited during Our Site Visits: 

Table 2: Summary Information about the Women in Our Discussion Groups 
Who Completed the Demographic Forms: 

Table 3: State by State Data on Number of GPD Programs and Beds for 
Women Veterans: 

Figure: 

Figure 1: Types of living arrangements in GPD programs: 

Abbreviations: 

CHALENG: Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education and 
Networking Group for Veterans project: 

GPD: VA Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program: 

HMIS: Homeless Management Information Systems: 

HUD: Department of Housing and Urban Development: 

HUD-VASH: HUD-VA Supportive Housing: 

MST: military sexual trauma: 

OIG: Office of Inspector General: 

VA: Department of Veterans Affairs: 

[End of section] 

United States Government Accountability Office: 
Washington, DC 20548: 

December 23, 2011: 

The Honorable Patty Murray:
Chairman:
Committee on Veterans Affairs:
United States Senate: 

The Honorable Daniel Akaka:
United States Senate: 

As more women serve in the military, the number of women veterans has 
grown substantially, doubling from 4 percent of all veterans in 1990 
to 8 percent, or an estimated 1.8 million, today. The number of women 
veterans will continue to increase as servicemembers return from the 
conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of these women veterans, like 
their male counterparts, face challenges readjusting to civilian life 
and are at risk of becoming homeless. Such challenges may be 
particularly pronounced for those women veterans who have disabling 
psychological conditions resulting from military sexual trauma 
[Footnote 1] and for those who are single mothers.[Footnote 2] 

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has committed to ending 
homelessness among all veterans by 2015 and funds several programs to 
house homeless veterans. The two largest are the VA Homeless Providers 
Grant and Per Diem (GPD)[Footnote 3] program, which provides 
transitional housing and supportive services; and HUD-VA Supportive 
Housing (HUD-VASH),[Footnote 4] which is a joint program of the 
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA offering 
permanent supportive housing. 

While these programs have expanded in recent years to serve more 
veterans, it remains unclear whether they are meeting the housing 
needs of all homeless women veterans. To respond to your interest in 
this issue, this report addresses (1) What is known about the 
characteristics of homeless women veterans, including those with 
disabilities? (2) What barriers, if any, do homeless women veterans 
face in accessing and using VA's Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem 
and HUD-VA Supportive Housing programs? 

To answer these questions, we analyzed VA data on women veterans 
(including those with disabilities) identified by VA as being homeless 
at some point during fiscal years 2006 through 2010.[Footnote 5] We 
also surveyed all GPD program providers that VA indicated had a 
capacity to serve women veterans, and all homeless coordinators at VA 
Medical Centers.[Footnote 6] In addition, we conducted site visits to 
California, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Texas, 
[Footnote 7] which included discussions with service providers (GPD 
providers and others), organizations collecting homelessness data, and 
homeless women veterans; and interviewed agency officials, academic 
researchers, and representatives of veterans service organizations. 
Finally, we reviewed program documents and relevant federal laws and 
regulations. For more details on our methodology, see appendix I. We 
assessed VA data for reliability and found them to be sufficiently 
reliable for the purposes of this report. 

We conducted this performance audit from October 2010 through December 
2011 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing 
standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit 
to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable 
basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. 
We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for 
our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. 

On November 21, 2011, we briefed your staff on the results of our 
work. This report formally conveys the information shared at the 
briefing (see app. II for detailed briefing slides). In summary, our 
review found: 

Finding 1: Data on the characteristics of homeless women veterans are 
limited to those who have been in contact with VA. Neither VA nor HUD 
captures data on the overall population of homeless women veterans. 

* Limited VA data show the number of women veterans it has identified 
as homeless more than doubled, from 1,380 in fiscal year 2006 to 3,328 
in fiscal year 2010. Although these data are not generalizable to the 
overall population of homeless women veterans, we identified some 
characteristics of these women. For example, almost two-thirds were 
between 40 and 59 years old and over one-third had disabilities. In 
addition, many of these women resided with their minor children. 

* HUD collects data on homeless women and on homeless veterans, 
[Footnote 8] but does not collect detailed information on homeless 
women veterans. Neither VA nor HUD collect data on the total number of 
homeless women veterans in the general population. Further, they lack 
data on the characteristics and needs of these women on a national, 
state, and local level. Absent more complete data, VA does not have 
the information needed to plan services effectively, allocate grants 
to providers, and track progress toward its overall goal of ending 
veteran homelessness by 2015. According to knowledgeable VA and HUD 
officials we spoke with, collecting data specific to homeless women 
veterans would incur minimal burden and cost.[Footnote 9] 

Finding 2: Homeless women veterans face barriers to accessing and 
using veteran housing,[Footnote 10] such as lack of awareness about 
these programs, lack of referrals for temporary housing while awaiting 
placement in GPD and HUD-VASH housing, limited housing for women with 
children, and concerns about personal safety. 

* Homeless women veterans were not always aware of veteran housing 
services, which posed a significant barrier to access, according to 
GPD programs we surveyed, service providers, agency officials, and 
experts we interviewed. Some VA Medical Center homeless coordinators 
reported challenges in reaching this population. However, VA has 
recently launched an outreach campaign to increase awareness that 
includes materials specific to homeless women veterans. 

* VA requires its staff to give homeless veterans a referral for 
shelter or short-term housing while they await placement in veteran 
housing; however, several homeless women veterans told us they did not 
receive such referrals. In addition, about 24 percent of VA Medical 
Center homeless coordinators indicated not having referral plans or 
processes in place for temporarily housing homeless women veterans 
while they await placement in HUD-VASH and GPD programs. According to 
our data analysis, women veterans waited an average of 4 months before 
securing HUD-VASH housing.[Footnote 11] In addition, about one fourth 
of GPD providers reported that women veterans had to wait for 
placement in their programs and the median wait was 30 days. Without 
referrals for shelter or temporary housing during these waits, 
homeless women veterans may be at risk of physical harm and further 
trauma on the streets or in other unsafe places. 

* More than 60 percent of surveyed GPD programs that serve homeless 
women veterans did not house children, and most programs that did 
house children had restrictions on the ages or numbers of children. In 
our survey, GPD providers cited lack of housing for women with 
children as a significant barrier to accessing veteran housing. In 
addition, several noted there were financial disincentives for 
providers, as VA does not have the statutory authority to reimburse 
them for costs of housing veterans' children.[Footnote 12] Limited 
housing for women and their children puts these families at risk of 
remaining homeless. 

* Homeless women veterans we talked to cited safety concerns about GPD 
housing, and 9 of the 142 GPD programs we surveyed indicated that 
there had been reported incidents of sexual harassment or assault on 
women residents in the past 5 years.[Footnote 13] GPD providers also 
cited safety concerns as a barrier to accessing veteran housing. In 
response to a recent report by the VA Inspector General, VA has begun 
to evaluate safety and security arrangements at GPD programs that 
serve women. However, VA does not have gender-specific safety and 
security standards for its GPD housing, potentially putting women 
veterans at risk of sexual harassment or assault. 

While VA is taking steps--such as launching an outreach campaign--to 
end homelessness among all veterans, it does not have sufficient data 
about the population and needs of women veterans to plan effectively 
for increases in their numbers as servicemembers return from Iraq and 
Afghanistan. Further, without improved services, women--including 
those with children and those who have experienced military sexual 
trauma--remain at risk of homelessness and experiencing further abuse. 

Recommendations for Executive Action: 

We are making the following recommendations:[Footnote 14] 

* In order to help achieve the goal of ending homelessness among 
veterans, the Secretaries of VA and HUD should collaborate to ensure 
appropriate data are collected on homeless women veterans, including 
those with children and those with disabilities, and use these data to 
strategically plan for services. 

* In order to ensure homeless women veterans have an appropriate place 
to stay while they await placement in GPD or HUD-VASH housing, the 
Secretary of VA should ensure implementation of VA's referral policies. 

* To better serve the needs of homeless women veterans with children, 
the Secretary of VA should examine ways to improve transitional 
housing services for homeless women veterans with children. 

* To ensure that women veterans are safely housed, the Secretary of VA 
should determine what gender-specific safety and security standards 
are needed for GPD programs, especially for those serving both women 
and men. 

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation: 

We provided a draft copy of this report to the Department of Veterans 
Affairs and to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for 
review and comment. Both agencies generally agreed with our 
recommendations and noted steps they were taking to address them. 
[Footnote 15] Specifically, HUD officials told us they agreed with our 
recommendation that the Secretaries of VA and HUD should collaborate 
to ensure appropriate data are collected on homeless women veterans 
and use these data to strategically plan for services. They also noted 
that HUD is considering requiring gender data be collected in the 
upcoming 2013 count of unsheltered veterans. VA officials provided 
written comments stating their general agreement with our 
recommendations and detailed the agency's ongoing or planned 
initiatives related to those recommendations. VA comments are 
discussed in further detail below and are reprinted in appendix VI. 

In concurring with our recommendation on data collection, VA said 
several initiatives are already planned or underway to gather 
information on those homeless women veterans who are in contact with 
the VA, including the development of a more streamlined and 
comprehensive data collection system. VA also stated that the agency 
already gathers information on homeless women veterans and their 
needs. However, we disagree that current efforts capture detailed 
information on homeless women veterans or their gender-specific needs. 

In concurring with our recommendation on ensuring the implementation 
of VA's referral policies, VA acknowledged there may be service gaps 
while women await veteran housing. To address the recommendation, VA 
said it plans to review and modify current national guidance on 
referrals, and to develop training for all staff working with homeless 
veterans on providing appropriate referrals for women. 

In its concurrence with our recommendation on improving transitional 
housing services for homeless women veterans with children, VA said it 
will work with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to examine 
how other federal agencies fund such housing and to identify resource-
sharing opportunities. VA also said it will explore the development of 
a legislative proposal to enhance its authority to fund transitional 
housing for the children of homeless veterans. 

In its concurrence with our recommendation on ensuring that women 
veterans are safely housed in GPD programs, VA noted that it has taken 
steps to evaluate the gender mix and scope of services and recently 
developed gender-specific safety and security standards. However, VA 
officials were unable to provide us with written documentation of any 
such standards for the GPD program. VA also said it plans to make 
regulatory changes to enforce specific safety and security standards 
for those programs that shelter women veterans. 

As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce the contents 
of this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days 
from the report date. At that time we will send copies of this report 
to relevant congressional committees, the Secretary of the Department 
of Veterans Affairs, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development, and other interested parties. In addition, this 
report will be available at no charge on GAO's Web site at [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov]. 

If you or your staffs have any questions about this report, please 
contact me at (202) 512-7215 or bertonid@gao.gov. Contact points for 
our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found 
on the last page of this report. GAO staff who made key contributions 
to this report are listed in appendix VII. 

Signed by: 

Daniel Bertoni: 
Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues: 

[End of section] 

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology: 

Objectives: 

This appendix discusses in detail our methodology for addressing the 
following research questions: (1) What is known about the 
characteristics of homeless women veterans, including those with 
disabilities? and (2) What barriers, if any, do homeless women 
veterans face in accessing and using VA's Homeless Providers Grant and 
Per Diem and HUD-VA Supportive Housing programs? 

To address these research questions, we analyzed VA data on women 
veterans (including those with disabilities) identified by VA as being 
homeless for fiscal years 2006 through 2010, and surveyed all GPD 
program providers that VA indicated had a capacity to serve women 
veterans and all homeless coordinators at VA Medical Centers. We also 
conducted site visits to California, the District of Columbia, 
Pennsylvania, and Texas, which included discussions with service 
providers, organizations collecting homelessness data, and homeless 
women veterans. In addition, we interviewed agency officials, and 
representatives of veterans service organizations, and reviewed 
relevant federal laws, regulations, and program documents. 

We conducted our work from October 2010 through December 2011 in 
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 
Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain 
sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe 
that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our 
findings and recommendations based on our audit objectives. 

Analysis of VA Data: 

We received various data sets from VA that included information on 
homeless women veterans that had been in contact with the VA. The 
largest data set was the Form X data set, followed by data on HUD-
VASH. We also received data on VA's diagnoses of disabilities among 
these homeless veterans. 

Data Sets: 

Form X is the intake form that VA used to identify the programmatic 
needs of homeless veterans--and includes information on the veterans' 
characteristics and demographics. For example, Form X data include 
information on age, gender, race, marital status, and time period of 
military service. In addition, the form captures information on 
homelessness, such as length of time homeless, the location of the 
veteran's sleeping arrangement the prior night, and number of 
incidents of homelessness. The form also has information on 
employment, income, veterans' benefits, and the programmatic needs of 
the veteran. 

HUD-VASH data were collected on several worksheets that corresponded 
to the process of accessing HUD-VASH services. VA provided us with 
data from HUD-VASH Referral Worksheets, Admission Worksheets, and 
Housing Progress Report Worksheets. The HUD-VASH data contains 
demographic information similar to that described for Form X in the 
prior paragraph, but also includes information on the veteran's 
parental status and relation with minor dependent children (i.e., 
custody and residence). 

VA also provided us with data (VETSNET) on the any diagnoses of 
disabilities for those veterans the VA had identified as being 
homeless. For those veterans with such diagnoses, the data specified 
the disabling conditions and provided the disability rating associated 
with severity of the disabilities.[Footnote 16] 

Analysis of Characteristics of Homeless Women Veterans: 

To conduct this analysis we combined the two large data sets--Form X 
and HUD-VASH Referral data. 

Before combining the data, we cleaned each data set as follows: 

* Dropped cases where the date the form was completed or the date the 
referral to HUD-VASH was made were missing. 

* Dropped cases where gender was missing or where gender changed in 
cases where there were multiple records for the same individual. 

* Ensured one record per person per fiscal year in each data set. 

- For cases that had more than one record, we: 

-- Selected the record that had the least amount of missing variables: 

-- In cases that had more than one record with the same amount of 
missing variables we kept the most recent record. 

We then combined the data sets. To clean the combined data, we: 

* Dropped cases where gender was not consistent--for example if a 
veteran was coded as a female in one source and a male in another. 

* Followed the same steps as above for multiple records. 

Form X data did not contain information on the number of children a 
veteran may have or their residential status in relation to the 
veteran. For the analysis related to children, we relied exclusively 
on HUD-VASH Referral data. 

Based on the data from Form X and HUD-VASH Referral, we created a 
disability flag according to a self reported response of receiving 
disability compensation. 

To conduct our analysis of the frequency of various disabling 
conditions among homeless women veterans, we used the VETSNET data as 
follows: 

* For cases where there was more than one record per person, we kept 
the record with the highest combined disability rating and with the 
most diagnostic codes. 

* We merged the VETSNET data with the data that was used for the 
analysis described above. 

* As before, we dropped cases where gender was undetermined, for 
example if the gender from one data set was different from the gender 
in the other. 

Analysis of HUD-VASH Wait Times: 

* To conduct our analysis of the wait times for HUD-VASH we used 
information from the HUD-VASH Referral, Admission, and Housing 
Progress Report Worksheets as follows: 

* We used only data that was collected through VA's Online Data 
Collection because the data contained unique identifiers for each 
episode, which allowed us to accurately track and merge episodes 
across the multiple forms. 

* We merged the following data sets: 

- HUD-VASH Referral:
- HUD-VASH Admission:
- HUD-VASH Housing Progress Report, Forms I and II: 

* To ensure we had complete records for our analysis we dropped cases 
that were missing key information. 

- We dropped cases that did not have the entire sequence of forms. For 
example, if a case appeared in the Admission form but not the Housing 
Progress Report forms, then that case was dropped. 

- We dropped those cases that were missing one or more of the 
following key variables of our analysis: 

-- Date of HUD-VASH referral: 

-- Date of formal admission to HUD-VASH (Admission Form, Q8): 

-- Date HUD-VASH voucher was awarded (Housing Progress Report, Part I, 
Q8a): 

* Date veteran moved into apartment (Housing Progress Report, Part II, 
Q15): 

* We also dropped cases where gender was missing or did not match 
across the various forms. 

- We ensured each person had one record by using the most completed 
record (based on key variables for our analysis) across all forms for 
each person with multiple records. 

-- If a person had multiple completed records, then the most current 
entry was used. "Most current" was defined as the most current date of 
referral. 

Surveys: 

In order to determine whether there were barriers that homeless women 
veterans faced in accessing veteran housing services, we conducted two 
surveys--one to GPD providers and one to homeless coordinators at VA 
Medical Centers. The practical difficulties of conducting any survey 
may introduce certain errors, such as difficulties interpreting a 
particular question, which can introduce unwanted variability into the 
survey results. We took steps to minimize such errors by pretesting 
the GPD survey with four program providers and the short homeless 
coordinator survey with two homeless coordinators. We conducted 
pretests to verify that (1) the questions were clear and unambiguous, 
(2) terminology was used correctly, (3) the questionnaires did not 
place an undue burden on officials, and (4) the questionnaires were 
comprehensive and unbiased. An independent reviewer within GAO also 
reviewed a draft of each survey prior to its administration. We made 
revisions to the surveys based on feedback from the pretests before 
administering the surveys. 

Survey of Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program Providers: 

In order to determine whether there were barriers that homeless women 
veterans faced in accessing GPD housing we surveyed GPD programs that 
VA indicated had a capacity to serve women. We added 10 more programs 
as some providers told us they had additional programs serving women 
(for a total of 226 programs). Of these, we dropped 48 programs--
bringing our target population to 178--as we determined that certain 
GPD programs were not in the scope of our survey. For example, we 
dropped programs that reported not serving women, were not yet 
operational, or had closed. To increase the response rate for our 
survey, we sent out follow up e-mails, made phone calls to the non-
respondents on two occasions, and resent surveys as necessary. Through 
these efforts, 142 of 178 providers submitted their completed surveys-
-for a response rate of 80 percent. In addition, for the map on slide 
9 we were able to contact 9 additional providers and have them 
complete partial surveys by phone; thus the map is based on 
information from 151 providers, or 85 percent of our population. 
[Footnote 17] Questions in the GPD Survey focused on number of beds 
available to homeless women veterans and the configuration of GPD 
facilities (mixed gender or single gender and living arrangements), 
beds for specific populations (veterans with disabilities and veterans 
with children), safety concerns, outreach, and barriers homeless women 
veterans may face when accessing veteran housing. 

Survey of VA Medical Center Homeless Coordinators: 

In order to determine whether there were barriers related to outreach 
and placement in temporary housing during wait times for VA programs, 
we surveyed all 142 homeless coordinators at VA medical centers. We 
received responses from 114 of these coordinators, for a response rate 
of about 80 percent. We do not have information on whether or not VA 
Medical Centers reviewed these surveys or how such a review may have 
affected the responses. Questions focused on outreach efforts, 
referral plans and processes, and tracking veterans awaiting placement 
in veteran housing. 

Site Visits: 

In order to improve our understanding of data collection on homeless 
women veterans and any barriers women veterans may face in accessing 
GPD or HUD-VASH housing, we conducted four site visits to California, 
the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Texas. These sites were 
selected in part for geographic diversity, range of services offered, 
and the concentration of homeless veterans. California and Texas are 
among the fours states with the greatest populations of homeless 
veterans. More information on the types of programs we visited is in 
table 1. 

Table 1: Types of Programs and Settings Visited during Our Site Visits: 

California: 
VA GPD providers: 
Special needs grant to serve women with children: [Check]; 
Women only program: [Check]; 
Mixed gender program: [Check]; 
Non VA sponsored Facility: 
Capacity to serve women and children: [Check]; 
Women only: [Check]; 
Mixed Gender: [Empty]; 
Sites we visited were generally: Urban. 

District of Columbia: 
VA GPD providers: 
Special needs grant to serve women with children: [Empty]; 
Women only program: [Empty]; 
Mixed gender program: [Check]; 
Non VA sponsored Facility: 
Capacity to serve women and children: [Empty]; 
Women only: [Empty]; 
Mixed Gender: [Empty]; 
Sites we visited were generally: Urban. 

Pennsylvania: 
VA GPD providers: 
Special needs grant to serve women with children: [Empty]; 
Women only program: [Check]; 
Mixed gender program: [Empty]; 
Non VA sponsored Facility: 
Capacity to serve women and children: [Empty]; 
Women only: [Empty]; 
Mixed Gender: [Empty]; 
Sites we visited were generally: Non Urban. 

Texas: 
VA GPD providers: 
Special needs grant to serve women with children: [Empty]; 
Women only program: [Empty]; 
Mixed gender program: [Check]; 
Non VA sponsored Facility: 
Capacity to serve women and children: [Check]; 
Women only: [Empty]; 
Mixed Gender: [Check]; 
Sites we visited were generally: Both. 

Source: GAO analysis of site visit documentation. 

[End of table] 

For our site visits we spoke with: 

* VA Medical Center staff, including homeless coordinators when 
possible; 

* GPD providers; 

* homeless women veterans; 

* representatives from the local Continuums of Care; and: 

* community-based homeless service providers that housed women 
veterans, but did not receive GPD funding. 

We also took photographs at VA Medical Centers and at GPD programs. 

Discussion Groups: 

To improve our knowledge of any barriers that homeless women veterans 
face and to understand their experiences seeking housing, we held ten 
structured discussion groups during our site visits at VA and non VA 
funded programs. Overall we spoke with more than 50 women veterans who 
were experiencing or had experienced homelessness (the number is not 
exact because in some discussion groups women entered and left). In 
order to help ensure anonymity and increase comfort with the 
discussion, we asked that the women not use their own names throughout 
the discussions. 

In each of the discussion groups, we covered the following topics: 
factors that led to homelessness, experiences with current housing 
program and other housing programs if appropriate, HUD-VASH, 
homelessness with dependent children, and experiences while waiting 
for veteran housing programs. We also discussed barriers the women may 
have faced in accessing GPD housing and solicited any suggestions the 
women had for how the federal government could best meet their needs. 
Following the discussion groups, we asked the women to provide us with 
some basic demographic information on a volunteer basis, and 52 women 
completed the demographic forms. 

Table 2: Summary Information about the Women in Our Discussion Groups 
Who Completed the Demographic Forms: 

Number of women: Total 52. 

Characteristic: Age; 
Age: 18-29: 4.
Age: 30-39: 7.
Age: 40-49: 12.
Age: 50-59: 25.
Age: 60-69: 3.
Age: 70-79: 1. 

Characteristic: Race; 
African American or Black: 23.
Caucasian or White: 20.
Other: 5. 

Characteristic: Employment; 
Employed: 12.
Unemployed: 39. 

Characteristic: Education; 
GED: 1.
High school diploma: 8.
Some college (no degree): 24.
Associate's degree: 9.
Bachelor's degree: 9.
Doctorate: 1. 

Characteristic: Had children under the age of 18: 11. 

Source: GAO analysis of voluntary participant questionnaires. 

Note: Number of women in each category may not sum to 52 as some 
fields were missing. 

[End of table] 

Appendix II: Briefing Slides: 

Homeless Women Veterans: 

Actions Needed to Ensure Safe and Appropriate Housing: 

Briefing to Congressional Staff: 
Committee on Veterans Affairs: 
United States Senate: 

November 2011: 

Overview: 
* Introduction; 
* Research Questions; 
* Scope and Methodology; 
* Summary of Key Findings; 
* Background; 
* Findings; 
* Conclusions; 
* Recommendations. 

Introduction: 

As more women serve in the military, the number of women veterans has 
grown substantially, doubling from 4 percent of the veteran population 
in 1990 to 8 percent (or an estimated 1.8 million) today. 

 The number of women veterans will continue to increase as service 
members return from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Some women veterans are at risk of homelessness because they: 

* have disabling psychological conditions, such as Post-Traumatic 
Stress Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder, often resulting from 
experiencing military sexual trauma,[Footnote 1] or: 

* are single mothers facing challenges with readjustment to civilian 
life.[Footnote 2] 

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has committed to ending 
homelessness among all veterans by 2015. 

* One of the guiding principles set forth in the plan is that 
"veterans and their families are the centerpiece of our mission and of 
everything we do."[Footnote 3] 

VA offers several housing programs for homeless veterans. The two 
largest housing programs are the: 

* VA Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program, which funds 
transitional housing and supportive services;[Footnote 4] and; 

* HUD-VA Supportive Housing Urban Development (HUD) and VA offering 
permanent supportive housing.[Footnote 5] 

While these programs have expanded in recent years to serve more 
veterans, it remains unclear whether they have the capacity to meet 
the housing needs of all homeless women veterans and their families. 

[End of section] 

Research Questions: 

1. What is known about the characteristics of homeless women veterans, 
including those with disabilities? 

2. What barriers, if any, do homeless women veterans face in accessing 
and using VA's Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem and HUD-VA 
Supportive Housing programs? 

[End of section] 

Scope and Methodology: 

To answer these questions, we: 

* analyzed VA data for fiscal years 2006-2010 on women veterans 
(including those with disabilities) identified by VA as being 
homeless;[Footnote 6] 

* surveyed all GPD program providers that VA indicated had a capacity 
to serve women veterans and all homeless coordinators at VA Medical 
Centers;[Footnote 7] 

* conducted site visits to California, the District of Columbia, 
Pennsylvania, and Texas, which included discussions with service 
providers, organizations collecting homelessness data, and homeless 
women veterans;[Footnote 8] and; 

* interviewed agency officials and veterans service organizations, and 
reviewed relevant federal laws, regulations, and program documents. 
For more details on our methodology, see appendix I. 

We assessed VA data for reliability and found them to be sufficiently 
reliable for the purposes of this report. 

We conducted this performance audit from October 2010 through November 
2011 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing 
standards. 

[End of section] 

Summary of Key Findings: 

1. Data on the characteristics of homeless women veterans are limited 
to those who have been in contact with VA. While HUD captures data on 
homeless women and on homeless veterans, neither HUD nor VA collect 
detailed information on homeless women veterans. Specifically, they 
lack data on the number of such women in the general population, as 
well as data on the characteristics and needs of these women on a 
national, state, and local level. 

2. Homeless women veterans face barriers when accessing and using 
veteran housing,[Footnote 9] including lack of awareness of these 
programs, lack of referrals for temporary housing while awaiting 
placement in GPD and HUD-VASH housing, limited housing for women with 
children, and concerns about personal safety. 

[End of section] 

Background: 

For the purpose of the GPD and HUD-VASH programs, homeless veterans 
include those: 

* who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; 

* whose primary. nighttime residence is a place not designed for or 
ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation; or; 

* who are living in a supervised temporary shelter (including hotels 
and motels funded by charities or government programs).[Footnote 10] 

HUD, VA, and the Department of Labor fund programs that specifically 
serve homeless veterans. These programs focus on supportive housing 
(transitional and permanent); treatment and rehabilitation; employment 
and job training; and the prevention of homelessness.[Footnote 11] 

In addition, VA officials told us that the agency recently created a 
task team to address the needs of homeless women veterans. 

Grant and Per Diem Program: 

VA annually awards funding to community providers for supportive 
housing to homeless veterans through its GPD Program.[Footnote 12] 

* VA staff are tasked with approving applications from potential 
community providers and annually reviewing existing programs to ensure 
they meet program requirements, including general safety requirements. 
As of October 2011, VA reimbursed providers up to $38.90 per day for 
each veteran housed. 

* A special needs component of the GPD program funds providers that 
serve certain groups of vulnerable homeless veterans, including women 
veterans caring for minor dependent children.[Footnote 13] 

GPD programs offer various supportive services for homeless veterans 
to help them achieve residential stability, increase their skill 
levels and/or income, and aid their self-determination. 

The 600 current GPD programs have 13,888 beds that primarily provide 
transitional housing—typically up to 24 months—to homeless veterans. 

• Approximately 178 GPD programs serve women and 42 of these programs 
opened in the last two years.[Footnote 14] 

* Currently, as many as 2,605 beds are available to women veterans. 

- At least 956 of these beds are currently designated solely for 
homeless women veterans. 

- These figures include 74 beds at the six GPD providers receiving 
special needs funds to serve women veterans with children. 

[Figure: Interactive graphic: illustrated U.S. map] 
                 
For more information on programs, roll mouse over each state. See 
appendix IV for print version. 

Depicted on the map: 

Types of programs by state: 
Mixed gender, no children; 
Mixed gender, children; 
Women only, no children; 
Women only, children; 
Nonrespondents. 

Source: GAO analysis of survey and VA data. 

[End of figure] 

HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program: 

The HUD-VASH program provides case management and assistance with 
permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans and their families. 

* VA provides case management and services to support stability or 
recovery from physical and mental health issues, or substance abuse. 
[Footnote 15] 

* HUD provides rental assistance through the Housing Choice (Section 
8) Voucher Program, which provides rental subsidies to homeless 
veterans to rent apartments or houses.[Footnote 16] 

HUD and VA work collaboratively to determine the distribution of the 
vouchers. 

HUD-VASH vouchers are targeted to the chronically homeless; however, 
homeless women veterans who are not chronically homeless, including 
those with children, are also eligible for HUD-VASH, according to the 
program handbook.[Footnote 17] 

* Over 31,000 HUD-VASH vouchers were issued from fiscal years 2008 
through 2011, according to VA data, and about 11 percent went to 
homeless women veterans.[Footnote 18] 

* 1,020 HUD-VASH vouchers, or about 3 percent, were given to homeless 
women veterans with children during this time period, according to VA 
data.[Footnote 18] 

Federal Data Collection on Homeless Veterans: 

In response to congressional directives, HUD collects data on 
homelessness in part to assist with service planning at the federal 
level.[Footnote 19] VA uses HUD data on homeless veterans to track 
progress toward its goal of ending homelessness among veterans by 2015. 

* HUD publishes the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress on 
the extent and nature of homelessness using data collected from the 
Homeless Management Information Systems, Point-in-Time Counts, and 
Housing Inventory Counts.[Footnote 20] 

* Over the past 2 years, VA and HUD have been collaborating to jointly 
collect data specific to veterans for the veterans supplement to the 
Annual Homeless Assessment Report. 

To identify and plan for the needs of homeless veterans, VA 
collaborates with local communities across the United States through 
its Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education and Networking 
Groups for Veterans (CHALENG) project. 

* This project publishes an annual report that ranks the needs of 
homeless veterans based on two VA surveys: one of homeless and 
formerly homeless veterans and the other of VA staff and community 
providers. 

[End of section] 

Finding 1: Overview of Characteristics: 

Information on the Characteristics of Homeless Women Veterans Is 
Limited: 

Limited VA data show that the number of women veterans the agency 
identified as homeless more than doubled between FY 2006 and
FY 2010. In FY 2010, homeless women veterans were commonly middle-
aged, divorced, unemployed, or newly homeless. Many of these women 
also had disabilities. 

HUD collects data on homeless women and on homeless veterans, but
does not collect detailed data specific to homeless women veterans. 

* As a result, the number of homeless women veterans is unknown at the 
national, state, and local levels. 

• Key information on the characteristics and needs of these women is 
also lacking at these levels, potentially hindering program planning 
and progress toward VA's goal of ending homelessness among veterans. 

Characteristics: Limited Information: 

Number of Homeless Women Veterans Identified by VA Increased between 
FY 2006 and FY 2010: 

Women veterans identified as homeless by VA increased more than 140 
percent, from 1,380 in fiscal year 2006 to 3,328 in fiscal year 2010. 
[Footnote 21] 

This compares to a 45 percent increase in male veterans identified as 
homeless, from 34,137 to 49,373 over the same period. 

Data represent only those homeless veterans identified by VA, and are 
not generalizable to the population of homeless women veterans. 
 
Figure: Number of VA-Identified homeless women veterans from FY 2006-
10: 

[Refer to PDF for image: line graph] 

Year: 2006; 
VA-Identified homeless women veterans: 1,380. 

Year: 2007; 
VA-Identified homeless women veterans: 1,500. 

Year: 2008; 
VA-Identified homeless women veterans: 1,718. 

Year: 2009; 
VA-Identified homeless women veterans: 2,505. 

Year: 2010; 
VA-Identified homeless women veterans: 33,328; 
141% increase since 2006. 

Source: GAO analysis of VA data. 

[End of figure] 

Homeless Women Veterans Identified by VA Were Often Unemployed and 
Staying with Family or Friends: 

Figure: Characteristics of VA-Identified Homeless Women Veterans (FY 
2010)[A] 

[Refer to PDF for image: data illustrated on 3 dog-tags] 

Ages 40-59: 61%; 
Non-Hispanic: Black (45%); White (41%); 
Divorced: 45%; 
Residing with minor children: 33%; 
Veterans of Persian Gulf period or after: 45%; 
Unemployed: 77%. 

Were homeless: 
For at least one month but less than 6 months: 24%; 
1 time in last 3 years: 53%; 
Staying with family or friends: 61%. 

More likely than men to be: 
Ages 18-29: 35% vs. 12%; 
Residing with minor children: 33% vs. 8%; 
Staying with family or friends: 51% vs. 37%. 

Less likely than men to have: 
Served in the post-Vietnam era, 1975-1009: 21% vs. 36%; 
Been homeless 2 years or more: 16% vs. 27%; 
Lived outdoors: 6% vs. 16%. 

Source: GAO Analysts of VA data on population (Intake form and HUD-
VASH Referral Worksheet). 

[A] Information concerning the children of VA-identified homeless 
women veterans is based on GAO analysis of VA's HUD-VASH Referral 
Worksheet data. "Staying with family or friends" above signifies 
"living in an apartment, room, or house of family member or friend 
during the past 30 days." "Lived outdoors" above signifies "lived 
outdoors during the oast 30 days." The "Persian Gulf period or after 
includes the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

[End of figure] 

Homeless Women Veterans Identified by VA Frequently Had Disabilities: 

VA data indicate that over 40 percent of VA-identified homeless women 
veterans had disabilities and a corresponding disability rating. 
[Footnote 22] 

* Among those with a disability rating, homeless women were more 
likely than homeless men to have a rating of 50 percent or higher. 

* The most frequent diagnoses among homeless women veterans with a 
disability rating were musculoskeletal conditions followed by mental 
disorders and eating disorders. 

The characteristics of homeless women veterans who reported receiving 
disability compensation were largely similar to those who did not 
report receiving such compensation. However, a larger percentage were 
unemployed (86 percent compared to 71 percent for those without 
disability compensation). 

Characteristics: Inadequate Data:  

Neither VA Nor HUD Capture Data on the Overall Population of Homeless 
Women Veterans: 

HUD captures detailed data on homeless women and on homeless veterans, 
but not on homeless women veterans. 

* As a result, the number of homeless women veterans is unknown at the 
national, state, and local levels.[Footnote 23] 

In addition, VA does not have complete information on the 
characteristics and needs of these women on a national, state, or 
local level because neither HUD nor VA collect these data. 

* HUD does not collect any data on unsheltered veterans by gender. 

* Neither HUD's Annual Homeless Assessment Report nor its associated 
veterans supplement capture characteristics of sheltered homeless 
women veterans, such as age, number of children, or disability status. 

* VA does not have complete information on the needs of homeless 
veterans by gender. 

- While VA has begun collecting gender information from its survey of 
homeless veterans for its 2011 CHALENG report, it does not collect 
gender-specific information on the needs of homeless veterans from its 
survey of local VA staff and community providers.[Footnote 24] 

Lack of Data Hinders Program Planning and Measurement of Progress 
toward Goal of Ending Homelessness: 

Limited VA and HUD data hinder a thorough understanding of the 
characteristics and needs of the overall population of homeless women 
veterans. 

Without more complete data, VA does not have information needed to 
plan services effectively, allocate grants to providers, and track 
progress toward its overall goal of ending veteran homelessness by 
2015. 

* VA's incomplete data on the needs of homeless women veterans impedes 
its ability to plan programs and services for this population. 

* While VA funds programs for housing homeless women veterans, it does 
not have adequate data to determine if the programs have the right 
number of beds in the right locations. 

* VA does not have the information necessary to measure changes in the 
total number of homeless women veterans, including those who are 
unsheltered, over time. 

To be consistent with federal standards and best practices established 
by GAO, federal agencies should ensure they capture information needed 
to plan effectively.[Footnote 25] In addition, Congress directed HUD 
to develop meaningful data on the nation's homeless population to 
improve efforts in addressing homelessness.[Footnote 26] 

Collecting Additional Data on Homeless Women Veterans Would Involve 
Minimal Burden and Cost: 

A key HUD official familiar with homelessness data collection said the 
burden and cost of obtaining data on homeless veterans by gender would 
be minimal. 

* Because HUD currently captures information on both homeless veterans 
and on homeless women, capturing detailed information on homeless 
women veterans would require minimal changes to HUD's data collection 
efforts, according to HUD officials.[Footnote 27] 

Representatives of the five organizations we contacted that submit 
homelessness data to HUD said the burden of submitting data on the 
numbers and characteristics of homeless veterans by gender would be 
minimal. 

* These representatives also stated that they currently collect some 
data on the characteristics of homeless women veterans. 

In addition, VA officials familiar with the CHALENG report indicated 
that modifying the report's data collection efforts to gather 
information from providers on the needs of homeless women veterans 
would not impose additional costs. 

[End of Finding 1] 

Finding 2: Overview of Housing Barriers: 

Homeless Women Veterans Face Several Significant Barriers to Accessing 
and Using GPD and HUD-VASH Housing: 

Homeless women veterans encounter several barriers to accessing and 
using the GPD and HUD-VASH programs. These include: 

* Lack of awareness about these housing programs: 

- Many homeless women veterans may not know about VA supported 
housing; however, VA has recently launched an extensive outreach 
campaign that includes efforts to target homeless women veterans. 

* Lack of referrals: 

- About 24 percent of VA Medical Center homeless coordinators reported 
not having referral plans or processes in place to ensure homeless 
women veterans have temporary housing while they wait for HUD-VASH or 
GPD housing. 

* Limited housing for women with children: 

- Only about one-third of GPD programs with a capacity to serve women 
could also house their children, and many of these programs had 
restrictions on the ages or number of children per family. 

* Safety concerns: 

- Homeless women veterans we talked to cited safety concerns with GPD 
housing and some GPD programs reported incidents of sexual harassment 
or assault on women residents. In addition, there are no minimum 
gender-specific safety and security standards for GPD programs. 
[Footnote 28] 

Housing Barriers: Lack of Awareness: 

Lack of Awareness About Veteran Housing Poses a Barrier: 

Many homeless women veterans may not be accessing veteran housing 
programs because they are unaware of the availability of these 
programs, according to GPD programs we surveyed, service providers, 
agency officials, and experts we interviewed. 

While VA Medical Center homeless coordinators reported reaching out to 
homeless women veterans at locations such as soup kitchens and 
homeless veteran outreach events (stand downs), they described several 
challenges.[Footnote 29] 

* For example, one homeless coordinator wrote, "Homeless women 
veterans are an invisible population. They do not want to be 
identified as homeless for fear of [youth protective services] 
assessing their situation as dangerous to the welfare of their 
families." 

* Several homeless coordinators told us women do not always self-
identify as veterans. One homeless coordinator explained that women 
often believe the designation refers exclusively to those who served 
in combat.[Footnote 30] 

In Their Own Words: Lack of Awareness About Veteran Housing: 

I found myself sleeping out there on the streets... If it wasn't for a 
couple of veterans that were out there that told me about this place, 
I'd still be out there... I was stopped by a couple of cops. They 
said... there are lots of places for veterans. I asked where; they 
couldn't tell me. 
— Mother of three; Served in Marine Corps for 14 years, homeless for 
13 years. 

I didn't know about this place until a month ago, I had no idea the 
place existed... they don't advertise it or anything. 
— Homeless woman veteran; Served in U.S. Navy for 1 year, homeless for 
3 years. 

Source: GAO discussion groups with homeless women veterans in 10 
locations. For details, see appendix I. These are quotes from 
individual veterans and do not represent the views of all the women in 
the discussion groups or of the total population of homeless women 
veterans. 

New VA Outreach Campaign May Increase Awareness of Veteran Housing 
Programs: 

In October 2011, VA launched an extensive campaign to reach out to
homeless veterans and connect them with veteran housing and related 
services. The campaign includes: 

* materials specific to women veterans and veterans with children,
and; 

* outreach to clergy, family members, and friends to engage those
women veterans who may be reluctant to approach VA. 

The campaign targets 28 communities, including 7 in rural areas that
may have fewer resources for homeless women veterans.[Footnote 31] 

Sustained outreach efforts could help homeless women veterans, 
including those with children and those in rural areas, by increasing 
their awareness of veteran housing services. 

Housing Barriers: Lack of Referral Plans: 

Lack of Referrals for Temporary Housing While Waiting for HUD-VASH and 
GPD Housing Poses a Barrier: 

VA screens homeless veterans for various services, including HUD-VASH 
and GPD housing, and requires its staff to "ensure that homeless 
veterans have a referral for... shelter or temporary housing" in VA or 
community facilities.[Footnote 32] 

However, several homeless women veterans told us VA did not provide 
referrals for temporary housing while they awaited placement in 
veteran housing. 

Further, 24 percent of VA Medical Center homeless coordinators 
indicated that they did not have a referral plan or process for 
temporarily housing homeless women veterans awaiting placement in HUD-
VASH or GPD programs. 

We also found that 11 percent of homeless coordinators did not have a 
referral plan, process, or list of shelters for these women.[Footnote 
33] 

Additionally, it was unclear the extent to which some homeless 
coordinators who reported having a referral plan, process, or list of 
shelters actually referred women to shelter or temporary housing. 
[Footnote 33] 

Referrals for Temporary Housing Are Needed Because of Waits for HUD-
VASH and GPD Housing: 

On average, a homeless woman veteran waited 126 days from her initial 
HUD-VASH screening to her move into more permanent HUDVASH housing, 
according to our analysis of VA data for fiscal years 2008-2011. 
[Footnote 34] 

One fourth of GPD programs we surveyed reported waits for women's 
beds. The median wait was 30 days.[Footnote 35] 

In Their Own Words: Lack of Referrals Pose a Barrier: 

GAO interviewer: Did the VA help you find a place to stay while you 
were waiting [for veteran housing]? 

No, I stayed in an unhealthy environment where I was very abused.
— Woman veteran; Served in U.S. Army and diagnosed with a condition 
related to military sexual trauma. 

(While waiting for veteran housing) I slept in my car... for 9 days... 
One of the reasons I like a big car is in case someone throws me out - 
I have a big back seat to sleep in... 
— Homeless woman veteran Served in U.S. Army for 3 years, homeless 
since 2003. 

Source: GAO discussion groups with homeless women veterans in 10 
locations. For details, see appendix I. These are quotes from 
individual veterans and do not represent the views of all the women in 
the discussion groups or of the total population of homeless women 
veterans. 

Lack of Referrals for Temporary Housing Puts Homeless Women Veterans 
at Risk During Wait for Veteran Housing: 

VA officials and others told us that homeless women veterans are often
further in crisis than their male counterparts when they seek VA help. 

* One VA Medical Center homeless coordinator said homeless women 
veterans "have often used all of their available resources from 
family, friends, and community before they come to us, causing them to 
need immediate help, which is often hard to find." 

Without referrals to appropriate and safe housing while waiting for 
HUDVASH or GPD housing, homeless women veterans may be at risk of 
physical harm and further trauma. 

* Homeless women living on the street are at risk of assault and other 
physical harm.[Footnote 36] 

Housing Barriers: Limited Programs House Children: 

Limited GPD Housing for Homeless Women Veterans with Children Poses a 
Barrier: 

 Over 60 percent (90) of GPD programs we surveyed with a capacity to 
serve women reported that they do not house children. 
 
Over 70 percent of the 52 GPD programs that reported housing children 
had restrictions. 

* 31 programs restricted the number of children housed per veteran.
Of these, 11 said they could accommodate up to 2 children and 6
said they could accommodate up to 3 children per veteran. 

* 16 programs had age restrictions. Of these, 5 house only children 
age 14 and under, and 3 do not house boys over age 12. 

* Other restrictions applied to room arrangements. For example, one 
program does not allow children older than 5 of different genders to 
share a room. 

Over 40 percent (62) of the GPD programs we surveyed cited "lack of 
access for women with children" as one of the top barriers faced by 
homeless women veterans. 

Additionally, over 25 percent (37) reported insufficient housing or 
services for homeless women veterans with dependent children.[Footnote 
37] 

* For example, one provider wrote: "One of the biggest [service] gaps 
that I see is the lack of access for women with children. It is 
difficult to find housing with children. The VA does not provide much 
support for the veteran's family." 

Such limitations on housing for women veterans with children could 
hinder VA from fulfilling its guiding principle of serving veterans 
and their families. 

In Their Own Words: Limited GPD Housing for Women with Children Poses 
Challenges: 

(Shelters that take children) don't have any beds available. You call 
one, they say they're full and tell you to call the one down the 
street and they don't have beds either... I've done things I wasn't 
happy with just to keep my kids off the streets. 
— Mother of three children under age 12, served in U.S. Army. 

I called Child Protective Services on myself... I figured if I'd give 
[my children] to CPS, they could give them back to me... my son was 2 
and the babies... they were infants... No one asked if I was a veteran. 
— Mother of four children, served in U.S. Army; Homeless in area with 
no GPD program for women with children She later received HUD-VASH 
housing and was reunited with her children. 

Source: GAO discussion groups with homeless women veterans in 10 
locations. For details, see appendix I. These are quotes from 
individual veterans and do not represent the views of all the women in 
the discussion groups or of the total population of homeless women 
veterans. 

GPD Programs Face Financial Disincentives to Serving Homeless Women 
Veterans with Children: 

VA reimburses GPD providers for the daily costs of housing homeless 
veterans, but does not have the statutory authority to reimburse 
providers for the costs of housing veterans' children.[Footnote 38] 

* Even VA's GPD special needs grant program—-which specifically serves 
women with children-—does not include payments for the daily cost of 
housing children.[Footnote 39] 

18 of the GPD programs we surveyed reported financial disincentives or 
increased costs associated with serving homeless women veterans with 
children. 

* For example, one provider wrote: "If a female is admitted with 
children, there is no compensation or reimbursement for the beds that 
the children use, which could be used for veterans. The result is a 
net loss of income for the program. Housing women veterans with 
children is a disincentive to programs due to an income reduction." 

 As a result, homeless women veterans with children face additional 
barriers to accessing GPD housing and may be at risk of remaining 
homeless. 

Housing Barriers: Safety Concerns: 

Safety Concerns Pose a Barrier to Using GPD Housing: 

Several homeless women veterans we talked to cited safety concerns 
with GPD housing, including incidents of men accessing women-only 
spaces, and male staff and residents watching them and making 
inappropriate comments and physical advances. 

9 of 142 GPD programs we surveyed said there were reports of sexual 
harassment or assault of women at their facilities.[Footnote 40] These 
included: 

* A staff member making inappropriate telephone calls to and taking 
photographs of a female resident. 

* A male resident pushing a female resident down and trying to kiss 
her.[Footnote 41] 

Over one-fourth (40) of GPD programs we surveyed cited "feeling unsafe 
in shelter or housing facility" as a barrier that could hinder women 
from accessing veteran housing. 

We also found possible safety issues at some GPD facilities we 
visited, including: 

[Refer to PDF for image: 3 photographs] 

Double doors meant to separate the women's wing from the men's wing 
were kept open; 

Unmonitored security station; 

Women could only access showers at specific times and had to cross a 
public lobby and enter the men's area to do so.  

Source: GAO. 

[End of figure] 

In Their Own Words: Safety Concerns in GPD Programs: 

A man put his hands on me and I body slammed him... I got in trouble, 
but I'm not letting a man touch me... Men made gestures, said sexual 
things, and (sometimes) got physical. They (the VA GPD program) need 
to figure out a way for the women to feel safe there. 
— Homeless woman veteran speaking about her experiences at a GPD 
program. She noted that another man continued to harass her and other 
female residents. She told us the GPD program gave him a warning, but 
did not discharge him from the program for some time. 

If (men are allowed to say) things that are sexually inappropriate, it 
just doesn't feel good when you walk into that environment—-it's 
almost like you are violated all over again. I have heard comments 
made that shouldn't have been made, some females here (at the GPD 
housing) were touched. It goes from comments, to looks, to touching.
— Homeless woman veteran speaking of her experiences at a GPD program. 
She had also experienced military sexual trauma while on active duty. 

Source: GAO discussion groups with homeless women veterans in 10 
locations. For details, see appendix I. These are quotes from 
individual veterans and do not represent the views of all the women in 
the discussion groups or of the total population of homeless women 
veterans. 

VA's Inspector General Found Unsafe Conditions at a GPD Program: 

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported in September 2011 
that one GPD program had been housing homeless women veterans—-
including some who had experienced military sexual trauma and domestic 
violence—-in an all-male facility since fiscal year 2002.[Footnote 42] 

The OIG found women were inappropriately housed and little action was 
taken to address their safety, security, and privacy risks. 

* For example, male and female residents shared a common bathroom that 
was easy to enter even when the door was locked.[Footnote 43] 

As a result, VA has begun surveying all active GPD programs on safety 
and security measures in place to protect women residents. In 
addition, VA officials told us that in the future they plan to ask 
potential GPD providers to discuss safety provisions in their funding 
applications. 

GPD Programs Lack Gender-Specific Safety and Security Standards: 

VA generally requires supportive housing providers to ensure that each 
resident is "afforded appropriate space and security."[Footnote 44] 

However, GPD programs do not have gender-specific safety and security 
standards, according to a VA official.[Footnote 45] 

Without such standards and oversight to ensure they are in place, 
homeless women veterans and their children may remain at risk of 
sexual harassment or assault. 

[End of section] 

Conclusions: 

VA is taking steps to end homelessness for all veterans by 2015, but 
it risks inadequately serving women in programs that have 
traditionally served men. 

* This risk is particularly significant as VA encounters an influx of 
women veterans, including those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Although VA has recently funded additional Grant and Per Diem programs 
that house women, the agency cannot efficiently allocate its resources 
nor effectively plan or evaluate programs for these women without 
specific data on the population of homeless women veterans. 

Homeless women veterans face several barriers in accessing and using 
veteran housing. While VA's new outreach campaign should increase 
awareness of veteran housing, it is incumbent on the agency to foster 
a more welcoming environment for homeless women veterans—including 
those with children and those who have experienced military sexual 
trauma—and to ensure they have safe and appropriate housing. Failure 
to do so may place homeless women veterans, and the agency's goal of 
ending homelessness, at risk. 

[End of section] 

Recommendations for Executive Action: 

In order to help achieve the goal of ending homelessness among 
veterans, the Secretaries of VA and HUD should collaborate to ensure 
appropriate data are collected on homeless women veterans, including 
those with children and those with disabilities, and use these data to 
strategically plan for services. 

* HUD could gather information on the number of unsheltered homeless 
women veterans through the Point-in-Time Counts. 

* HUD could also collect additional information on the characteristics 
of homeless women veterans through its data collection efforts for the 
Annual Homeless Assessment Report supplement. 

*  VA could solicit information on the needs of homeless women 
veterans from local VA staff and community service providers through 
its CHALENG survey. 

In order to ensure homeless women veterans have an appropriate place 
to stay while they await placement in GPD or HUD-VASH veteran housing, 
the Secretary of VA should ensure implementation of VA's referral 
policies. 

* VA should provide technical assistance or guidance to its homeless 
coordinators to facilitate appropriate referrals for women. For 
example, a national directory of programs serving women could be 
helpful. VA could create and distribute such a directory of GPD 
programs—-with information on the number of beds available to women 
and children, the housing environment, and services offered-—to help 
homeless coordinators make appropriate referrals for women. 

* For more short term housing or when GPD beds are unavailable, VA 
should develop guidelines to ensure homeless coordinators have formal 
plans or processes to ensure homeless women veterans receive 
appropriate referrals. 

To better serve the needs of homeless women veterans with children, 
the Secretary of VA should examine ways to improve transitional 
housing services for homeless women veterans with children. For 
example, VA could: 

* Establish or strengthen partnerships with community nonprofit 
organizations, state or local government agencies, and tribal 
organizations to increase transitional housing options for homeless 
women veterans with children—including those with older or multiple 
children. 

* Seek additional legislative authority from Congress to fund beds for 
children as part of its current spending on the Grant and Per Diem 
Program.
Page 40 

To ensure that women veterans are safely housed, the Secretary of VA 
should determine what gender-specific safety and security standards 
are needed for Grant and Per Diem programs, especially for those 
serving both women and men. 

* Such standards should be incorporated into Grant and Per Diem 
Program funding applications and annual program reviews. 

[End of section] 

Briefing Slides Footnotes: 

[1] Military sexual trauma (MST) is linked to homelessness among women 
veterans (“Risk Factors for Homelessness Among Women Veterans,” 
Washington, Yano, McGuire, et al. Journal of Health Care for the Poor 
and Underserved, 2010; 21(1): 82-92. VA uses the term MST to refer to 
psychological trauma resulting from a physical assault or battery of a 
sexual nature or sexual harassment which occurred on active duty. See 
38 U.S.C. § 1720D. Women are more likely than men to experience MST 
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-287]. 

[2] Young single mothers, in general, are vulnerable to being 
homeless. Women veterans are more likely to experience homelessness 
than similar non-veteran women. Fargo, Metraux, Byrne, Munley, 
Montgomery, Jones, Sheldon, and Culhane. 2011. "Prevalence and Risk of 
Homelessness among US Veterans: A Multisite Investigation," The 
Selected Works of Dennis P. Culhane. 

[3] Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Strategic Plan Refresh 2011-
2015, 21. 

[4] 38 U.S.C. §§ 2011, 2012, 2061, 2064. In FY 2011, VA obligated $ 
217.7 million under the GPD program. 

[5] See 73 Fed. Reg. 25,026 (May 6, 2008). HUD-VASH permanent 
supportive housing consists of case management provided by the VA 
coupled with rental assistance provided by HUD for housing selected by 
the veteran. In FY11, VA obligated $151.1 million for case management 
under the HUD-VASH program and HUD received a $50 million 
appropriation for rental assistance vouchers under HUD-VASH. 

[6] VA may identify women as homeless during outreach activities or 
when women contact the VA for services. Not all women veterans who 
contact the VA for services are automatically screened for 
homelessness. Fiscal years span October 1 – September 30. 

[7] Both surveys achieved a response rate of 80 percent and are 
generalizable. Homeless coordinators are responsible for oversight and 
monitoring of VA homeless programs for a given network of VA Medical 
Centers in a geographic region. 

[8] These sites were selected in part for geographic diversity, range 
of services offered, and the concentration of homeless veterans 
identified by VA. 

[9] Throughout this report, we use the term "veteran housing" to refer 
exclusively to the housing offered by the GPD and HUD-VASH programs. 

[10] Pursuant to 38 U.S.C. § 2002(1), both the GPD and HUD-VASH 
programs define “homeless veteran” in accordance with section 103(a) 
of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Other veterans may also 
be considered homeless under these programs; for the complete 
definition, as amended, see 42 U.S.C. § 11302(a). 

[11] VA homelessness prevention efforts include Supportive Services 
for Veteran Families and the National Call Center for Homeless 
Veterans (1-877-4AID VET). See appendix III for information on these 
programs and others. A complete discussion of these programs is also 
available in a report by the Congressional Research Service, Veterans 
and Homelessness (RL34024), July 2011. 

[12] 38 U.S.C. §§ 2011, 2012, 2061, 2064. VA also awards funding for 
supportive services. Under the per diem component of the program, VA 
is authorized to pay providers the daily cost of care per eligible 
veteran, subject to certain limitations. 

[13] 38 U.S.C. § 2061. 

[14] We determined there were about 178 GPD programs with a capacity 
to serve women based on data provided by VA. In the course of 
surveying programs, we found that some did not actually serve women. 
On the other hand, some programs that were not identified as having a 
capacity to serve women did, in fact, serve women. Therefore, the 
exact number of these programs remains unclear. The 178 programs 
include the 26 GPD programs that did not respond to our survey. See 
appendix I. 

[15] 38 U.S.C. § 2003(b). 

[16] Local public housing agencies use funding from HUD to administer 
Housing Choice/Section 8 vouchers that assist very low-income 
families, among others, to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing 
in the private market. See 24 C.F.R. § 982.1. 

[17] Veterans Health Administration Handbook 1162.05, 19-20. 

[18] Based on GAO analysis of VA data from HUD-VASH Referral 
Worksheets (fiscal years 2008-2011). 

[19] See S. Rep. No. 106-410, at 51 (2000), S. Rep. No. 109-109, at 
176 (2005). 

[20] HUD and other planners and policymakers use aggregate Homeless 
Management Information Systems (HMIS) data for information on 
homelessness over time. HMIS data are collected locally then reported 
to HUD in aggregate form. In addition to HMIS data, HUD also collects 
data from locally-administered Point-in-Time counts, which are one-
night counts of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons, and 
Housing Inventory Counts, which inventory beds for homeless persons. VA’
s GPD programs recently began to participate in HMIS and in the 
Housing Inventory Counts. 

[21] VA collects data on homeless veterans primarily through program 
intake or outreach forms. Unless otherwise noted, these analyses are 
based on individuals identified as homeless by VA through either an 
intake form referred to as Form X or the HUD-VASH Referral Worksheet. 

[22] VA uses disability ratings to set monthly disability compensation 
for eligible veterans. The rating is a percentage that increases with 
the severity of the disability. 38 U.S.C. § 1155. About 20 percent of 
the homeless women veterans with a disability rating had a rating of 0 
percent and therefore likely received no disability compensation. 
Analysis on disability ratings and associated conditions of homeless 
women veterans identified by VA between FY2006 and FY2010 is based on 
VETSNET data received from VA on May 31, 2011. 

[23] Because HUD does not collect data on unsheltered homeless women 
veterans, neither HUD nor VA know the total number of sheltered and 
unsheltered homeless women veterans. 

[24] VA’s annual Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education 
and Networking Groups (CHALENG) for Veterans report is the agency’s 
primary assessment of homeless veterans’ needs. 

[25] For more information on these standards and best practices, see 
the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 
2010 (GPRAMA), Pub. L. No. 111-352, 124 Stat. 3866 (2011), which 
amends the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 
103-62, 107 Stat. 285 (1993), and internal control standards in 
GAO/AIMD-00-21.3.1 and GAO-01-1008G. 

[26] See S. Rep. No. 106-410, at 51 (2000), S. Rep. No. 109-109, at 
176 (2005). 

[27] Beginning with the 2011 Point-in-Time counts, HUD required all 
participating communities to gather the veteran status of sheltered 
and unsheltered homeless individuals. Its guidance acknowledged that 
determining veteran status would likely require interviewing 
individuals-—as this status cannot be determined visually. Although 
HUD officials told us this requirement may be challenging and data 
quality could initially be problematic, they agreed that data on 
gender could likewise be gathered with minimal additional burden. 
Collecting gender specific data would likely require minimal 
modifications to HUD’s data system; however, as with any new data 
collection effort, HUD would need to ensure the data were cleaned and 
validated. Representatives of the two software companies we contacted 
told us the cost associated with modifying their data collection 
software and the challenges to making these changes would be minimal. 

[28] However, GPD providers must comply with general safety 
requirements, such as fire codes and state and local housing codes and 
licensing requirements. See 38 C.F.R. 61.80. 
 
[29] Stand downs are 1 to 3 day events providing services to homeless 
veterans including food, clothing, benefits counseling, and referrals 
to other services. 

[30] However, VA may consider those who served in combat or non-combat 
positions to be veterans. For the purposes of the GPD and HUD-VASH 
programs, a veteran is defined as a person who served in the active 
military, naval or air service, and who was discharged or released 
under conditions other than dishonorable. 38 U.S.C. § 101(2). 

[31] In a recent report on rural homelessness, GAO found that there 
were several challenges associated with providing homeless services in 
rural areas, including limited access to services and a lack of 
transportation. GAO, Rural Homelessness: Better Collaboration by HHS 
and HUD Could Improve Delivery of Services in Rural Areas, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-724] (Washington, D.C.: July 2010). 

[32] The Uniform Mental Health Services in VA Medical Centers and 
Clinics handbook (VHA Handbook 1160.01) establishes minimum clinical 
requirements for VA mental health services, which includes treatment 
of homeless veterans. VA has also issued general guidance on the 
referral and placement of homeless veterans in its HUD-VASH handbook 
(VHA Handbook 1162.05). 

[33] Based on GAO analysis of open-ended survey responses among VA 
Medical Center homeless coordinators. 

[34] Screenings for HUD-VASH may be performed only if vouchers are 
available, so this wait time does not include any additional time a 
homeless woman veteran may wait for availability of a voucher. In 
response to our draft report, VA told us that based on their 
calculations using more recent data, it took an average of 102 days to 
transition a veteran into HUD-VASH housing, as of September 1, 2011. 

[35] Waits ranged from 4 days to 1 year. 

[36] Lisa A. Goodman et al, No Safe Place: Sexual Assault in the Lives 
of Homeless Women (Harrisburg, Pa.: National Online Resource Center on 
Violence Against Women, 2011); Phoebe Soares et al, A Long Journey 
Home: A Guide for Creating Trauma-Informed Services for Mothers and 
Children Experiencing Homelessness (Rockville, Md.: Center for Mental 
Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration; and the Daniels Fund; National Child Traumatic Stress 
Network; and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2008); and Margot B. Kushel 
et al, “No Door to Lock: Victimization Among Homeless and Marginally 
Housed Persons,” Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 163, no. 20 
(2003). 

[37] We asked GPD programs with a capacity to serve women, "Based on 
your experience with this population, please describe unmet housing 
needs or service gaps, if any, for homeless women veterans."  

[38] Such reimbursements are subject to certain limitations. According 
to a VA official, there is no specific statutory prohibition against 
making these payments solely on behalf of veterans’ children, rather 
it is the lack of such authority in the GPD program statute which 
precludes VA from making such payments. 

[39] 38 U.S.C. § 2061. As with all GPD programs, VA lacks authority to 
make payments solely on behalf of housing veterans’ children, although 
funds may be used for child care and other costs. 

[40] Of the 9 programs reporting sexual harassment/assault of women: 7 
incidents occurred in mixed gender facilities, and 5 of these programs 
housed men and women on a common floor with gender specific rooms. 

[41] Both incidents were addressed: the staff member was fired and the 
male resident was discharged, according to these GPD programs. 

[42] The facility was designated as being all-male, but had housed 
some women veterans. 

[43] The VA OIG found that while the door had a lock, it was easy to 
use a credit card to open the door from the outside. 

[44] 38 C.F.R. § 61.80(b)(4). 

[45] Although providers applying for the special needs grants to care 
for women, including those with children, should include in their 
applications how they will address safety and security issues, see 38 
C.F.R. § 61.43(d)(4), there are no minimum gender-specific safety and 
security standards that must be met. 

[End of Briefing Slides] 

Appendix III: Selected Federal Programs Serving Homeless Veterans: 

Agency: VA; 

Program name: Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program; 
Type of program: Community-based transitional housing and/or 
supportive services; 
2011 Obligation: $217,639,000. 

Program name: Health Care for Homeless Veterans; 
Type of program: Outreach to homeless veterans and many programs, 
including contract housing; 
2011 Obligation: $135,932,000. 

Program name: Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans; 
Type of program: Residential rehabilitation and treatment services; 
2011 Obligation: $140,949,000. 

Program name: Compensated Work; Therapy/Vocational Training; 
Type of program: Job training and ongoing employment supports; 
2011 Obligation: $52,788,000. 

Program name: Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF); 
Type of program: Community-based supportive services to prevent 
homelessness; 
2011 Obligation: $50,560,000. 

Program name: National Call Center for Homeless Veterans (1-877-4AID 
VET); 
Type of program: Homelessness prevention and assistance; 
2011 Obligation: $3,000,000. 

Agency: HUD & VA; 

Program name: HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH); 
Type of program: Permanent housing with case management and supportive 
services; 
2011 Obligation: $151,069,000 (VA - obligation for case management); 
$50,000,000 (HUD - appropriation for rental assistance vouchers)[A]. 

Source: VA Volume II Medical Programs and Information Technology 
Programs Congressional Submission FY 2012 Funding and FY 2013 Advance 
Appropriations Request. 

Note: These programs are listed as examples only. This table is not 
intended to provide a complete list of all federal programs available 
to homeless veterans. 

[A] HUD-VASH appropriation based on Office of Housing Voucher Programs 
Implementation of 2011 Appropriations Housing Choice Voucher Program. 

[End of table] 

[End of section] 

Appendix IV: State-Level Data and Additional Information on Facilities 
for the Grant and Per Diem Program: 

Table 3: State by State Data on Number of GPD Programs and Beds for 
Women Veterans[A]: 

State: Alaska; 
Total number of programs: 2; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: *; 
Total number of beds: 50; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 30; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: *. 

State: Alabama; 
Total number of programs: 5; 
Number of programs serving women: 0; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 62; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 0; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 0. 

State: Arkansas; 
Total number of programs: 1; 
Number of programs serving women: 0; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 40; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 0; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 0. 

State: Arizona; 
Total number of programs: 9; 
Number of programs serving women: 3; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 305; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 46; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 6; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 8; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 26. 

State: California; 
Total number of programs: 100; 
Number of programs serving women: 28; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 8; 
Total number of beds: 2,833; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 707; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 404; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 139; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 319. 

State: Colorado; 
Total number of programs: 11; 
Number of programs serving women: 2; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 245; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 80; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 10; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 20; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 20. 

State: Connecticut; 
Total number of programs: 16; 
Number of programs serving women: 2; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 157; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 13; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 2; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 13. 

State: District of Columbia; 
Total number of programs: 3; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 126; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 12; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 12; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 2; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 12. 

State: Delaware; 
Total number of programs: 1; 
Number of programs serving women: 0; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 15; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 0; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 0. 

State: Florida; 
Total number of programs: 46; 
Number of programs serving women: 15; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 3; 
Total number of beds: 903; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 149; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 52; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 29; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 97. 

State: Georgia; 
Total number of programs: 7; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 228; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 20; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 20; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 4; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 20. 

State: Hawaii; 
Total number of programs: 1; 
Number of programs serving women: 0; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 98; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 0; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 0. 

State: Iowa; 
Total number of programs: 6; 
Number of programs serving women: 2; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 97; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 19; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 2. 

State: Idaho; 
Total number of programs: 5; 
Number of programs serving women: 3; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 55; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 23; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 2; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 20; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 23. 

State: Illinois; 
Total number of programs: 18; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 249; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 10; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 10; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 10. 

State: Indiana; 
Total number of programs: 9; 
Number of programs serving women: 3; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 226; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 85; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 30; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 6; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 75. 

State: Kansas; 
Total number of programs: 5; 
Number of programs serving women: 3; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 93; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 42; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 22; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 19; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 22. 

State: Kentucky; 
Total number of programs: 10; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: *; 
Total number of beds: 224; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 16; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: *. 

State: Louisiana; 
Total number of programs: 13; 
Number of programs serving women: 3; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 342; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 20; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 12; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 7; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 12. 

State: Massachusetts; 
Total number of programs: 24; 
Number of programs serving women: 6; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 623; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 140; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 43; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 10; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 35. 

State: Maryland; 
Total number of programs: 10; 
Number of programs serving women: 2; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 388; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 14; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 4; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 10; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 10. 

State: Maine; 
Total number of programs: 2; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 18; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 10; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 10; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 10. 

State: Michigan; 
Total number of programs: 10; 
Number of programs serving women: 5; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 348; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 80; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 42; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 42; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 46. 

State: Minnesota; 
Total number of programs: 6; 
Number of programs serving women: 3; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 46; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 25; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 1; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 20. 

State: Missouri; 
Total number of programs: 8; 
Number of programs serving women: 0; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 208; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 0; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 0. 

State: Mississippi; 
Total number of programs: 3; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 80; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 12; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 12; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 12; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 12. 

State: Montana; 
Total number of programs: 4; 
Number of programs serving women: 0; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 49; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 0; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 0. 

State: North Carolina; 
Total number of programs: 15; 
Number of programs serving women: 5; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 2; 
Total number of beds: 361; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 75; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 26; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 32; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 69. 

State: North Dakota; 
Total number of programs: 1; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 48; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 5; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 5; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 5; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 5. 

State: Nebraska; 
Total number of programs: 5; 
Number of programs serving women: 3; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 60; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 30; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 20; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 30. 

State: New Hampshire; 
Total number of programs: 4; 
Number of programs serving women: 2; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 2; 
Total number of beds: 96; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 85; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 85; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 85. 

State: New Jersey; 
Total number of programs: 6; 
Number of programs serving women: 0; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 166; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 0; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 0. 

State: New Mexico; 
Total number of programs: 4; 
Number of programs serving women: 2; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 90; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 10; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 10; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 2; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 10. 

State: Nevada; 
Total number of programs: 10; 
Number of programs serving women: 3; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 339; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 59; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 4; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 24; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 24. 

State: New York; 
Total number of programs: 28; 
Number of programs serving women: 11; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 2; 
Total number of beds: 936; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 128; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 53; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 18; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 32. 

State: Ohio; 
Total number of programs: 27; 
Number of programs serving women: 4; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 4; 
Total number of beds: 402; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 16; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 16; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 2; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 16. 

State: Oklahoma; 
Total number of programs: 4; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 62; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 6; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 2; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 6. 

State: Oregon; 
Total number of programs: 14; 
Number of programs serving women: 7; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 6; 
Total number of beds: 267; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 64; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 9; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 42; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 64. 

State: Pennsylvania; 
Total number of programs: 31; 
Number of programs serving women: 8; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 562; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 100; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 38; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 46; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 83. 

State: Puerto Rico; 
Total number of programs: 2; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 21; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 2; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 2; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 2. 

State: Rhode Island; 
Total number of programs: 4; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 61; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 6; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 6; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 2; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 6. 

State: South Carolina; 
Total number of programs: 11; 
Number of programs serving women: 4; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 2; 
Total number of beds: 263; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 42; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 19; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 10; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 35. 

State: South Dakota; 
Total number of programs: 3; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: *; 
Total number of beds: 82; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 12; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: *. 

State: Tennessee; 
Total number of programs: 16; 
Number of programs serving women: 5; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 331; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 34; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 15; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 28; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 30. 

State: Texas; 
Total number of programs: 17; 
Number of programs serving women: 8; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 475; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 75; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 55; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 23; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 54. 

State: Utah; 
Total number of programs: 11; 
Number of programs serving women: 5; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 4; 
Total number of beds: 173; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 60; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 13; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 60. 

State: Virgina; 
Total number of programs: 8; 
Number of programs serving women: 5; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 1; 
Total number of beds: 140; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 40; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 22; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 14; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 30. 

State: Vermont; 
Total number of programs: 4; 
Number of programs serving women: 2; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 0; 
Total number of beds: 62; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 43; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 23; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 23. 

State: Washington; 
Total number of programs: 17; 
Number of programs serving women: 10; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 2; 
Total number of beds: 319; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 147; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 0; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 63; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 119. 

State: Wisconsin; 
Total number of programs: 13; 
Number of programs serving women: *; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: *; 
Total number of beds: 346; 
Maximum number of beds for women: *; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: *. 

State: West Virginia; 
Total number of programs: 5; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: *; 
Total number of beds: 63; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 5; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 5; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: *. 

State: Wyoming; 
Total number of programs: 4; 
Number of programs serving women: 1; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: *; 
Total number of beds: 49; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 8; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: *; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: *. 

State: Total; 
Total number of programs: 599; 
Number of programs serving women: 178; 
Number of programs serving women with children[B]: 52; 
Total number of beds: 13,882; 
Maximum number of beds for women: 2,605; 
Number of beds exclusively for women[B]: 956; 
Number of beds for women with physical disabilities[B]: 805; 
Number of beds for women with mental disabilities[B]: 1,567. 

Source: GAO analysis of survey data and VA data on GPD program. 

Note: We have incomplete information on those states fields marked with 
* due to nonresponses to our survey. 

[A] The information in this table corresponds to the information in 
the pop-up boxes in the interactive map on page 26 of this report. The 
data on the number of beds for women with disabilities is not 
represented on the map. 

[B] Numbers in this column are based entirely on our survey, because 
no relevant VA data were available. 

[End of table] 

Figure 1: Types of living arrangements in GPD programs: 

[Refer to PDF for image: pie-chart] 

Women are housed in a women-only building: 37%; 
Women and men are housed on a common floor or wing of the building, 
but there are gender-specific rooms: 32%; 
Women and men are housed in the same building, but on separate floors 
and/or separate wings: 20%; 
Women and men are housed in a common area with a temporary separation–-
such as a partition or curtain–to divide beds by gender: 1%; 
Women and men are housed in a common area with no separation: 1%; 
Other: 15%. 

Source: GAO analysis of GPD survey data. 

Note: In general, respondents who reported "other" living arrangements 
generally described having apartments or rental units. 

[End of figure] 

[End of section] 

Appendix V: Characteristics of Veterans Identified by VA as Homeless: 

Female (N = 3,328)[A]; 
Male (N = 49,373)[A]. 

Characteristic: Age; 

18-29: 
Female: 14.5%; 
Male: 4.5%. 

30-39: 
Female: 20.3%; 
Male: 7.4%. 

40-49: 
Female: 30.4%; 
Male: 22.7%. 

50-59: 
Female: 30.2%; 
Male: 48.1%. 

60-69: 
Female: 3.9%; 
Male: 14.9%. 

70-79: 
Female: 0.4%; 
Male: 1.8%. 

80 and older: 
Female: 0.2%; 
Male: 0.5%. 

Characteristic: Ethnicity; 

Hispanic, white: 
Female: 6.3%; 
Male: 5.9%. 

Hispanic, black: 
Female: 1.3%; 
Male: 1.1%. 

American Indian or Alaskan: 
Female: 2.5%; 
Male: 1.5%. 

Black, not Hispanic: 
Female: 44.9%; 
Male: 42.9%. 

Asian: 
Female: 0.5%; 
Male: 0.5%. 

White, not Hispanic: 
Female: 41%; 
Male: 46.3%. 

Pacific Islander: 
Female: 0.8%; 
Male: 0.4%. 

Other: 
Female: 2.0%; 
Male: 1.0%. 

Characteristic: Marital status; 

Married: 
Female: 7.6%; 
Male: 7.6%. 

Remarried: 
Female: 0.2%; 
Male: 0.2%. 

Widowed: 
Female: 3.2%; 
Male: 4.0%. 

Separated: 
Female: 14.7%; 
Male: 13.3%. 

Divorced: 
Female: 45.1%; 
Male: 45.1%. 

Never married: 
Female: 28.0%; 
Male: 29.0%. 

Characteristic: Military period of service; 

Pre-WW II (11/18-11/41): 
Female: 0; 
Male: 0. 

WW II (12/41-12/46): 
Female: 0.1%; 
Male: 0.3%. 

Pre-Korean (1/47-6/50): 
Female: 0; 
Male: 0.2%. 

Korean War (7/50/-1/55): 
Female: 0.1%; 
Male: 0.2%. 

Between Korean and Vietnam Eras (2/55-7/64): 
Female: 0.2%; 
Male: 1.1%. 

Vietnam Era (8/64-4/75): 
Female: 3.9%; 
Male: 11.6%. 

Post-Vietnam (5/75-7/90): 
Female: 20.5%; 
Male: 36%. 

Persian Gulf Period or after (8/90-present)--includes conflicts in 
Iraq and Afghanistan: 
Female: 45.1%; 
Male: 36.7%. 

Veteran declined to answer: 
Female: 28.8%; 
Male: 13.3%. 

Characteristic: Employment status; 

Employed: 
Female: 21.2%; 
Male: 18.5%. 

Unemployed: 
Female: 77.4%; 
Male: 80.3%. 

Characteristic: Children[A]; 

Veteran has dependent children: 
Female: 45.4%; 
Male: 26.8%. 

Veteran has legal custody of children: 
Female: 38.9%; 
Male: 2.9%. 

Children reside with veteran: 
Female: 33.4%; 
Male: 8.1%. 

Homelessness data: 

Characteristic: Length of homelessness; 

Not currently homeless: 
Female: 20.2%; 
Male: 12.0%. 

At least 1 night but less than 1 month: 
Female: 14.0%; 
Male: 14.7%. 

At least 1 month but less than 6 months: 
Female: 23.9%; 
Male: 20.7%. 

At least 6 months but less than 1 year: 
Female: 13.9%; 
Male: 12.6%. 

At least 1 year but less than 2 years: 
Female: 11.0%; 
Male: 12.4%. 

Two years or more: 
Female: 15.9%; 
Male: 26.8%. 

Characteristic: Number of homeless incidents; 

0: 
Female: 11.2%; 
Male: 6.0%. 

1: 
Female: 53.1%; 
Male: 53.4%. 

2: 
Female: 17.0%; 
Male: 18.2%. 

3; 
Female: 8.1%; 
Male: 9.4%. 

4: 
Female: 3.7%; 
Male: 4.4%. 

5 or more:
Female: 5.6%; 
Male: 8.0%. 

Source: GAO analysis of VA data from Form X and HUD-VASH Referral 
Worksheet; information on children based on analysis of data from HUD-
VASH Referral Worksheet only. 

[A] The number of males (49,373) and females (3,328) apply for all 
analysis with the exception of the analysis for "Dependent Children." 
This analysis is based on 16,251 males and 1,592 females solely from 
HUD-VASH Referral Worksheets. 

[End of table] 

[End of section] 

Appendix VI: Comments from the Department of Veterans Affairs: 

Department of Veterans Affairs: 
Washington DC 20420: 

December 15, 2011: 

Mr. Daniel Bertoni: 
Director, Education Workforce and Income Security Issues: 
U.S. Government Accountability Office: 
441 G Street, NW: 
Washington, DC 20548: 

Dear Mr. Bertoni: 

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has reviewed the Government
Accountability Office's (GAO) draft report, "Homeless Women Veterans: 
Actions Needed To Ensure Safe and Appropriate Housing" (GA0-12-182) 
and generally agrees with GAO's conclusions and concurs with GAO's 
four recommendations to the Department. 

The enclosure specifically addresses GAO's four recommendations, 
provides an action plan for each, and includes technical comments. VA 
appreciates the opportunity to comment on your draft report. 

Sincerely, 

Signed by: 

John R. Gingrich: 
Chief of Staff: 

Enclosure: 

[End of letter] 

Enclosure: 

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Comments to Government 
Accountability Office (GAO) Draft Report "Homeless Women Veterans: 
Actions Needed To Ensure Safe and Appropriate Housing" (GA0-12-182): 

Recommendation 1: In order to help achieve the goal of ending 
homelessness among veterans, the Secretaries of VA and HUD should 
collaborate to ensure appropriate data are collected on homeless women 
veterans, including those with children and those with disabilities, 
and use these data to strategically plan for services. 

* VA could solicit information on the needs of homeless women Veterans 
from local VA staff and community service providers through its 
CHALENG survey. 

VA Comment: Concur. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) agrees 
with this recommendation and has included requests for information 
about gender specific needs and information for homeless programs in 
the 2011 Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education and 
Networking Groups for Veterans (CHALENG) survey. Also plans are 
already in place to collect gender specific information from community 
partners and local VHA staff in the 2012 CHALENG survey. 

While the CHALENG survey and report provide important data to the VA, 
VA has undertaken numerous other efforts to gather information about 
homeless female Veterans and their needs. For example, VA and the 
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have been working in 
coordination over the past 2 years to jointly collect data for the HUD 
Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the 2010 Annual 
Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. VHA, HUD, the Department of
Defense (DoD), and community agencies are also collaborating to gain 
greater access to the Homeless Management Information System and Post 
Deployment Health Assessment data to develop a more comprehensive 
definition for the prevalence and the unique needs of homeless female 
Veterans who may not currently access VA services. 

Other VHA efforts to further ensure that appropriate data are 
collected on homeless women Veterans have included: 

* Implementation of a Homeless Operations Management and Evaluation 
System (HOMES) in April 2011. HOMES is an online data collection 
system that tracks identified homeless Veterans as they move through 
VA's system of care; facilitates communication between VHA homeless 
program staff and leadership on the local, regional, and national 
levels; streamlines and centralizes data collection; and enables VA to 
efficiently and effectively collect, manage and access homeless 
Veteran data for evaluation and strategic planning purposes. 

* Use of VA Homeless Registry to identify rates of homelessness of 
female Veterans by state, VISN, and VA medical center (VAMC). The VHA 
Women Veterans Strategic Health Care Group has been actively involved 
in development of aspects of the registry tool relating to women 
Veterans. This information is currently used to strategically plan 
services, set priorities in funding notices, and measure progress of 
how VA is eliminating homelessness among Veterans; 

* Pilot of an at-risk screening tool for homeless Veterans who may 
enter VHA through VHA emergency rooms or specialty clinics (e.g., 
women, Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation 
New Dawn Veterans), to ensure that female Veterans have access to 
needed services that promote housing stability and improved quality of 
life; and; 

* Internal VHA collaborations among women's health clinicians and 
homeless program specialists to develop a more comprehensive tool that 
identifies risk factors for homelessness among our female Veterans. 
Targeted Completion Date: March 2012. 

Recommendation 2: In order to ensure homeless women veterans have an
appropriate place to stay while they wait placement in VA housing, the 
Secretary of VA should ensure implementation of VA's referral policies. 

* VA should provide technical assistance or guidance to its homeless 
coordinators to facilitate appropriate referrals for women. For 
example, a national director of programs serving women could be 
helpful. VA could create and distribute such to a director of GPD 
programs with information on the number of beds available to women and 
children, the housing environment, and services offered to help 
homeless coordinators make appropriate referrals for women. 

*  For more short term housing or when GPD beds are unavailable, VA 
should develop guidelines to ensure homeless coordinators have formal 
plans or processes to ensure homeless women Veterans receive 
appropriate referrals. 

VA Comment: Concur. VA agrees with GAO about the importance of 
ensuring that homeless women Veterans have appropriate places to stay 
while they wait for placements in Government-funded housing. It is 
important to note that while resources vary across the country, each 
VAMC is already required to provide homeless emergency residential 
services in the community for homeless Veterans. However, VA 
recognizes that gaps before placements in Government-funded housing 
exist. During such gaps, Veterans are often temporarily served in VHA 
short term treatment programs, Grant and Per Diem (GPD) transitional 
housing programs, or other community-funded programs. 

In order to strengthen existing processes, VHA Homeless Program 
leadership, clinicians, and staff, in coordination with mental health 
and women's health officials, will review and modify, as necessary, 
current national guidance and policy on referral processes for 
homeless Veterans. VHA-wide training will be developed for all 
homeless staff regarding this guidance to address how best to make 
appropriate referrals for women. How to address national coordination, 
as well as facility implementation for formal plans or processes to 
ensure homeless women Veterans receive appropriate referrals will be 
explored. The VHA homeless program office will report to the Under
Secretary for Health about its actions no later than June 2012. 

Recommendation 3: To better serve the needs of homeless women veterans 
with children, the Secretary of VA should examine ways to improve 
transitional housing services for homeless women veterans with 
children. For example, VA could: 

* Establish or strengthen partnerships with community nonprofit 
organizations, state or local government agencies, and tribal 
organizations to increase transitional housing options for homeless 
women Veterans with children, including those with older or multiple 
children. 

* Seek additional legislative authority from Congress to fund beds for 
children as part of its current spending on the GPD program. 

VA Comment: Concur. VA agrees that addressing the needs of homeless 
Veterans' children is important. At the national level, VA will work 
with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to examine how VA's 
Federal partners (i.e., HUD, Department of Health and Human Services, 
and the Department of Education) fund housing for homeless women and 
children to identify opportunities to share information and resources. 
Once opportunities have been identified, VHA will share information 
with VA providers, stakeholders and staff, including the facility 
Women Veteran Program Managers, on resources and options to support 
women Veterans and their children. 

While current statutory authority does not allow VA to pay per diem 
for children in transitional housing under the GPD Program, VA does 
have limited authority to pay for services for children through its 
GPD Special Needs Grants, which provides enhanced funding for special 
populations, including homeless women Veterans with dependent children. 

VHA will consult with VA officials about developing a legislative 
proposal to increase the authority for VA to fund transitional housing 
for children of homeless Veterans. Targeted Completion Date: June 2012. 

Recommendation 4: To ensure that women veterans are safely housed, the
Secretary of VA should determine what gender-specific safety and 
security standards are needed for Grant and Per Diem programs, 
especially for those serving both women and men. 

* Such standards will be incorporated into Grant and Per Diem Program
funding applications and annual program reviews. 

VA Comment: Concur. In August 2011, VA initiated national reviews and 
inventories of all operational transitional housing projects to 
ascertain each program's gender mix and scope of services. Further, 
the review resulted in VHA providing written guidance, as well as face-
to-face and national conference call training for both VHA homeless 
program staff and community providers regarding how to ensure safety, 
security, and privacy needs of all Veterans. 

As a result of this review process, VHA has set gender-specific safety 
and security standards, and has determined the gender-specific mix 
that can be appropriately served by each community provider for VA 
funded programs. 

VHA homeless programs officials will continue to monitor and address 
these standards and administer guidance as needed to ensure the 
safety, privacy and services for all Veterans. In addition, the GPD 
Handbook and the GPD inspections will be modified to include specific 
safety and security standards for serving women Veterans in 
transitional housing settings. The appropriate regulatory changes will 
be made to enforce these standards. Compliance with these standards 
will be monitored through a proposed national contract. Targeted 
Completion Date: September 2012. 

[End of section] 

Appendix VII: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments: 

GAO Contact: 

Daniel Bertoni 202-512-7215 or bertonid@gao.gov: 

Staff Acknowledgments: 

In addition to the contact named above, the following staff members 
made important contributions to this report: Melissa Emrey-Arras, 
Assistant Director; Nagla'a El-Hodiri, Analyst-in-Charge; Tarik 
Carter, Grace Cho, and Michelle Liberatore. Also, Walter Vance 
provided guidance on the study's methodology; Hiwotte Amare, Melinda 
Cordero, John Mingus, and Ruben Montes de Oca provided data analysis; 
Sarah Cornetto and Sheila McCoy provided legal advice; Mimi Nguyen 
assisted with report graphics; Susan Aschoff provided writing 
assistance; Almeta Spencer provided administrative support; and 
Theresa Lo, Lise Levie, and Ken Stockbridge verified our findings. 

[End of section] 

Footnotes: 

[1] Military sexual trauma (MST) has been linked to homelessness among 
women veterans ("Risk Factors for Homelessness Among Women Veterans," 
Washington, Yano, McGuire, et al. Journal of Health Care for the Poor 
and Underserved, 2010; 21(1): 82-91). VA uses the term MST to refer to 
psychological trauma resulting from a physical assault or battery of a 
sexual nature or sexual harassment which occurred while the veteran 
was serving on active duty or active duty for training. See 38 U.S.C. 
§ 1720D. Women are more likely than men to experience MST. See GAO, VA 
Health Care: VA Has Taken Steps to Make Services Available to Women 
Veterans, but Needs to Revise Key Policies and Improve Oversight 
Processes, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-287] 
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 31, 2010). 

[2] Young single mothers, in general, are vulnerable to being 
homeless. Women veterans are also more likely to experience 
homelessness than similar women who have not served in the military. 
Fargo, Metraux, Byrne, Munley, Montgomery, Jones, Sheldon, and 
Culhane, 2011, "Prevalence and Risk of Homelessness among US Veterans: 
A Multisite Investigation," The Selected Works of Dennis P. Culhane. 

[3] 38 U.S.C. §§ 2011, 2012, 2061, 2064. In fiscal year 2011, VA 
obligated $217.7 million for the GPD program. 

[4] See 73 Fed. Reg. 25,026 (May 6, 2008). Permanent supportive 
housing consists of case management provided by the VA coupled with 
rental assistance provided by HUD for housing selected by the veteran. 
In fiscal year 2011, VA obligated $151.1 million for case management 
under the HUD-VASH program and HUD received a $50 million 
appropriation for rental assistance vouchers under HUD-VASH. 

[5] The VA may identify women as homeless during outreach activities 
or when women contact the VA for services. Not all women veterans who 
contact the VA for services are automatically screened for 
homelessness. 

[6] Both surveys achieved a response rate of 80 percent and are 
generalizable. 

[7] These sites were selected in part for geographic diversity and the 
range of services offered. In addition, California and Texas are among 
the states with the highest concentration of homeless veterans. 

[8] For the past 2 years HUD and VA have been working in coordination 
to collect data on homeless veterans for an annual report to Congress 
on homelessness. 

[9] Beginning with the 2011 Point-in-Time counts (counts of homeless 
individuals), HUD required all participating communities to gather the 
veteran status of sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals. Its 
guidance acknowledged that determining veteran status would likely 
require interviewing individuals--as this status cannot be determined 
visually. HUD officials agreed that data on gender could be gathered 
during these interviews with minimal additional burden. 

[10] Throughout this report, we use the term "veteran housing" to 
refer exclusively to the housing offered by the GPD and HUD-VASH 
programs. 

[11] In response to our draft report, VA noted that it had used more 
recent data to calculate that as of September 30, 2011, it took an 
average of 102 days to transition a veteran into HUD-VASH housing. 

[12] According to a VA official, there is no specific statutory 
prohibition against making these payments solely on behalf of 
veterans' children, rather it is the lack of such authority in the GPD 
program statute that precludes VA from making such payments. Although 
VA lacks authority to fund beds for children, under the special needs 
component of the GPD program VA can provide some additional funding on 
behalf of women veterans with dependent children. See 38 U.S.C. § 2061. 

[13] Seven of the nine programs that reported incidents of sexual 
assault or harassment were mixed gender facilities. Reports included 
incidents involving both staff and other residents. 

[14] More details on these recommendations can be found in appendix 
II, pages 55-58. 

[15] Both agencies also provided technical comments which we 
incorporated in our draft as appropriate. 

[16] VA uses disability ratings to set monthly disability compensation 
for eligible veterans. The rating is a percentage that increases with 
the severity of the disability. 38 U.S.C. § 1155. 

[17] With the exception of the map and its corresponding appendix, GPD 
survey findings in the report are based on responses from the 142 
surveys (80 percent) that were submitted. 

[End of section] 

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