Screened Positive, Never Called: The Homeless-Veteran Follow-Up Gap

31,149 veterans screened positive for housing insecurity in six months; 18,250 asked for referral. At 42 of 140 facilities, between a quarter and ~71% got no follow-up within 30 days.

The VA screens veterans for housing insecurity and is supposed to act on a positive screen. The OIG audited whether the follow-through happens — and found a system that asks the question and then, at dozens of facilities, drops the answer.

Between January and June 2024, 31,149 veterans screened positive; 18,250 of them requested referral. At 42 of 140 facilities, between 25 percent and roughly 71 percent of those veterans received no follow-up action within 30 days. These are veterans who told the VA, in so many words, that they were losing their housing — and then heard nothing inside the month when intervention is cheapest and most effective.

VHA’s under secretary concurred with three of the OIG’s recommendations and concurred in principle with a fourth. The referral data failures documented by GAO in the HUD-VASH program are the same shape: the need is recorded, the record is filed, and the veteran waits.

"did not receive follow-up action within 30 days"
— VA OIG

Source: VA OIG — Audit of Homeless Screening Clinical Reminder Process (via Oversight.gov). Part of the VA Fraud library — see also the case files for the prosecutions these systems produced.