Light Goes On at Congressional Hearing: 11,000 VASH vouchers Not Being Used.

A WSJ story HERE discusses a January hearing where VA and HUD acknowledge that a significant number of VASH vouchers previously allocated have not yet been used.  

I'm no expert but have made several posts that compare the known universe of VASH awards with the HUD VASH counts from HUD VMS reports. HERE is an April 2019 post I did that includes a state map showing VASH utilization rates as of Dec 2018. Since then there have been new VASH awards of 5,000 vouchers. 

It is a long standing "known knowable" that there is a significant problem. I suspected a primary cause is that VA was slow in hiring enough staff to provide the case management that is a key part of the VASH program. This was confirmed in VA testimony at the hearing that said that only 84 % of authorized VA case management positions were filled, with 659 positions vacant as of Oct 31, 2019.

Congressional hearing materials are HERE.

Video is embedded below:



Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.