Characteristics and Likelihood of Ongoing Homelessness among Unsheltered Veterans

Introduction. Unsheltered homelessness is an important phenomenon yet difficultto study due to lack of data. The Veterans Health Administration administers a universalhomelessness screener, which identifies housing status for Veterans screening positive forhomelessness. Methods. This study compared unsheltered and sheltered Veterans, assesseddifferences in rates of ongoing homelessness, and estimated a mixed- effect logistic regressionmodel to examine the relationship between housing status and ongoing homelessness.Results. Eleven percent of Veterans who screened positive for homelessness were unsheltered;40% of those who rescreened were homeless six months later, compared with lessthan 20% of sheltered Veterans. Unsheltered Veterans were 2.7 times as likely to experienceongoing homelessness. Discussion. Unsheltered Veterans differ from their sheltered counterpartsthey are older, more likely to be male, less likely to have incomeand may begood candidates for an intensive housing intervention. Future research will assess clinicalcharacteristics and services utilization among this population.