President Trump hasn’t ended veteran homelessness, but he signed legislation aimed at doing so

Tens of thousands of veterans were homeless around the time President Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to ensure no one who served in the U.S. military would be homeless by the time he left office. 

"I will make it a personal mission to totally eradicate veterans' homelessness in America by the end of the next term," he said in a November 2023 video on his presidential campaign website.

One year into his second term, Trump signed the "Disabled Veterans Housing Support Act," which amends a 1974 law to make it easier for veterans to qualify for housing programs. 

In the previous months, he enacted other policies aimed at ending veteran homelessness. But his administration has also cut jobs, grants and contracts in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which has historically provided benefits to veterans in need. 

According to the most current data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, about 5% of adults experiencing homelessness in the U.S. in January 2024 were veterans.

Nearly two years later, on Nov. 18, the Veterans Affairs Department announced that it permanently housed 51,936 homeless veterans across the country from October 2024 through September 2025. That means some of those veterans were housed under then-President Joe Biden, though the Trump administration claims it was responsible for housing 4,011 more veterans than the Biden administration. 

VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz  told PolitiFact that the agency relies on the U.S. Department of Urban Housing and Development's annual homeless survey to estimate the number of homeless veterans. HUD has not released numbers for 2025.

Kathryn Monet, a spokesperson for the National Coalition of Homeless Veterans, cautioned that the VA's estimates of homeless veterans are based only on veterans who are eligible for VA benefits.

"They do not include everyone else who might self-identify as having served in the military," Monet said. Such people could include veterans with dishonorable discharges, and guard and reserve members who were never called into active duty.

Trump signed an executive order in May establishing a National Center for Warrior Independence for Homeless Veterans to promote housing, substance abuse treatment, and more. The order directs Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins to create the center on the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center campus with the goal of housing up to 6,000 by 2028. The order says the center could help the 3,000-some homeless veterans in Los Angeles, and other homeless veterans around the country. 

The order says "funds previously spent on housing or other services for illegal aliens will be redirected to construct, establish, and maintain this center," but it otherwise doesn't specify where the money is coming from. 

The order further directs the Housing and Urban Development secretary to use "vouchers" to support homeless veterans. David Higgins, a spokesperson for the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, told PolitiFact this most likely refers to the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, which combines HUD rental assistance with VA case management for veterans experiencing homelessness. But the language in the order is vague enough to allow HUD to use other existing housing vouchers.

"Importantly, the order does not create new vouchers," Higgins said. "It directs HUD and VA to prioritize and use existing voucher programs to support veterans connected to this effort." 

In May, Veterans Affairs launched an initiative called Getting Veterans Off the Street, tasking each of its health care facilities with finding unsheltered veterans and offering them housing, health care, behavioral health services and VA benefits. According to the agency, this initiative helped move 25,065 unsheltered veterans to temporary or permanent housing by November.

Kasperowicz said that in August and September, the VA issued a combined $902 million to multiple organizations to help veterans who are homeless or at the risk of becoming homeless. In June, the VA also gave $42 million in grants to eligible organizations to provide such veterans with legal services. 

Amid these announcements, the Trump administration has also made budget cuts that could impact efforts to house homeless veterans. The administration ended at least 30,000 VA jobs in the previous fiscal year. A Jan. 22 report from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said 40,000 employees, including veterans, had lost their jobs. In 2024, a quarter of the VA workforce was veterans, according to Pew Research.

Collins, the VA secretary, said that by canceling wasteful contracts, grants, and leases, the department redirected $900 million "from programs and initiatives that do not directly benefit the Veterans we are privileged to serve." 

The National Coalition of Homeless Veterans has also criticized a March 2025 executive order carving away at the Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, saying it jeopardizes efforts to eradicate veteran homelessness. 

The Interagency Council on Homelessness helped state and cities to manage homelessness, and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund helped people in low-income areas access loans, financial education and community development services. 

In May, the administration ended the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase Program, which helped veterans facing financial challenges avoid foreclosure. Two months later, in July, Trump signed a similar replacement law, the "VA Home Loan Program Reform Act."

Although the administration has enacted several new policies aimed at reducing veterans homelessness, it also cut jobs and funds that could contribute to solving the problem. For now, this promise is In the Works.