WASHINGTON (AP) – Six years ago, the Obama administration set the ambitious goal of ending veteran homelessness in 2015 and ending the backlog in disability claims.
It appears likely the Department of Veterans Affairs will miss both targets even though it has made progress.
The latest count available showed about 50,000 homeless veterans on a single night in January 2014. That’s a decline of 33 percent from January 2010. Results from the January 2015 count are expected later this month.
The disability and pension claims backlog also is on a downward path, although not before the claims processing system became so overwhelmed that lawmakers and veterans groups demanded changes at the VA.
The number of claims pending for more than 125 days soared from about 180,000 at the start of 2010 to more than 611,000 by March of 2013. It now stands at about 76,000.