Community Strategies to Understand and Reduce Veteran Inflow into Homelessness

Investigating pathways into homelessness among veterans

Communities cannot end homelessness among veterans if more veterans enter homelessness (“inflow”) than exit into housing (“outflow”). The Built for Zero initiative is guided by a desire to help communities create a lasting end to homelessness, which requires expanding the collective approach to homelessness beyond crisis interventions applied after someone becomes homeless.

This report produced by the Urban Institute seeks to describe how Built for Zero’s Veteran Inflow Pilot project helped communities identify upstream interventions (e.g., diversion and engagement with other systems) that prevent homelessness. With this project, Built for Zero sought to understand the role that systems have played in contributing to homelessness among veterans and to foster measurable action to reduce veteran inflow into homelessness.