Understanding the Dynamics of Homelessness among Veterans Receiving Outpatient Care: Lessons Learned from Universal Screening

• Author: Ann Elizabeth Montgomery
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716221995161
• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Subject Matter: Evaluating Interventions

230 ANNALS, AAPSS, 693, January 2021

DOI: 10.1177/0002716221995161

Understanding

the Dynamics

of

Homelessness

among Veterans

Receiving

Outpatient

Care: Lessons

Learned from

Universal

Screening

By

ANN ELIZABETH

MONTGOMERY

995161ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYHOMELESSNESS AMONG VETERANS RECEIVING OUTPATIENT CARE

research-article2021

Addressing homelessness among veterans has been a

top policy priority for the U.S. Department of Veterans

Affairs (VA) since 2009. Part of the multitiered strategy

to prevent and end homelessness among veterans was

the implementation of a universal screen for housing

instability among all veteran outpatients at VA facilities.

Data from more than six million veterans responding to

this screen have provided insight into veterans’ housing

instability, as well as the characteristics of individuals

and structural forces that may influence housing inse-

curity among veterans; the current article synthesizes

these findings. Although the universal screen for hous-

ing instability has been effective at linking veterans

with needed resources, questions remain regarding the

best ways to ensure that they remain in safe, affordable,

adequate, and permanent housing.

Keywords: veterans; homelessness; universal screening;

health care

Homelessness among military veterans in

the United States has been present since

the middle to late nineteenth century but

became much more visible following the

Vietnam War, leading to intervention by the

federal government generally and the U.S.

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) specifi-

cally (Tsai 2019). The growth in veteran home-

lessness in the 1980s coincided with the increase

in homelessness overall; however, as new con-

flicts arose following September 11, 2001, new

ranks of service members became veterans, and

the number experiencing homelessness increased

(Culhane and Montgomery 2019).

Ann Elizabeth Montgomery is an assistant professor at

the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of

Public Health and an investigator with the National

Center on Homelessness among Veterans and the

Birmingham, Alabama Veterans Affairs Health Care

System. Her research identifies homelessness and risk

among veterans seeking health care and assesses related

interventions.

Correspondence: aemontgo@uab.edu,

ann.montgomery2@va.gov