HUD Awards City of Virginia Beach $39,000 in New Funding to Help End Veteran Homelessness

In an effort to end veteran homelessness, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) awarded $39,161 in new funding to the City of Virginia Beach Department of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation to provide a permanent home for five additional veterans experiencing homelessness in Virginia Beach.

HUD Region III Regional Administrator Joseph DeFelice joined Hampton VA Medical Center Chief of Staff Dr. Priscilla Hankins in presenting Andrew Friedman, director of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation, with the ceremonial check at a recent ceremony at Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Virginia Beach Housing and Neighborhood Preservation is one of 13 public housing agencies that was awarded new funding totaling $693,962 for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The supportive housing assistance is provided through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program, which combines rental assistance from HUD with case management and clinical services provided by the VA. The City of Virginia Beach uses HUD-VASH vouchers in partnership with the Hampton VA Medical Center to provide housing subsidies to homeless veterans and their families.

The new funding awarded is enough to support five new HUD-VASH vouchers, which will provide a year of housing subsidies for five veteran households. This will bring the total of HUD-VASH vouchers in Virginia Beach to 151.

The City of Virginia Beach has been an active participant in the national, state and regional effort to make veteran homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring. The Commonwealth as a whole was recognized as functionally ending veteran homelessness in 2015. This means that veterans who become homeless, once identified, can be housed within approximately 60 days.