Veterans Experiencing Homelessness In Orange County Has Increased

There has been a 12% increase in unhoused veterans in 2023 compared to last year in Orange County, according to United to End Homelessness, an initiative of Orange County's United Way.

The nonprofit hosts an annual state of homelessness event. This year’s event focused on veterans, using data collected by Orange County’s Continuum of Care Program, which coordinates countywide nonprofits and government agencies working to address homelessness.

Becks Heyhoe, executive director of United to End Homelessness, says that 525 veteran households so far have become homeless in the county this year. She says the increase is due to, “a growing and aging veteran population, an insufficient inventory of housing units at fair market rent, and inflation and financial pressures,” among other reasons.

“When we look at veteran homelessness in Orange County, 94% of those households are adult only,” Heyhoe says. “I think that's some good news, we don't have many children experiencing homelessness connected to veterans.”

Continuum of Care solutions

Eric Richardson is chair of the OC Continuum of Care Program’s Veterans Committee. He says one of the unique challenges in addressing the housing issue for unhoused veterans is that many continue to suffer from PTSD.

“There are a lot of injuries. There are a lot of long term mental health issues and concerns that are impacting on a lot of veterans that we directly work with,” he says. “It's also getting those veterans to engage, so we have a lot of veterans that their outlook is to not make other people have to do things for them. And they feel that they, you know, they should be out there doing this for themselves.”

Richardson says the committee works to connect unhoused veterans with beds in shelters and manages a registry of unhoused veterans that includes information on who is getting housed and who remains in a shelter.

“We're looking at three client groups: those veterans that are 62 years older or more, those veterans that have been 10 years or more homeless, and those veterans that are homeless with one minor,” Richardson says. “For 62 years or above, we've managed to get 50% of the veterans we work with into temporary accommodation and 8% housed. And for the veterans 10 years or more, we've got 27% housed and 27% in temporary accommodation.”

Another challenge in addressing veteran homelessness, he says, is having “landlords willing to house our veterans.”

Orange County, he says, has a shortage of affordable housing options. With the options available, unhoused veterans are usually lower down the list because, “they might not have the best track record around housing due to mental health,” Richardson says.

To address that, Richardson says, “we have programs that can offer incentives to landlords to make sure we can get some veterans housed.”

Programs such as United to End Homelessness, Heyhoe says, have helped address the problem by connecting veterans with landlords who accept federal assistance vouchers, which cover part or the full amount of rent.

As of late October 2023, 270 veteran households remain unhoused. Of this, over 50% have experienced chronic homelessness. Around 80% have a disabling condition and over 50% have a mental health disability.