Noteboom The Law Firm

VA Wants To Track The Homeless Veteran Population

December 16, 2010 - Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Sec. Eric Shinseki made it the VA's goal to end homelessness among veterans within 5 years. The VA's latest plan to accomplish this goal is to use handheld computers to follow homeless veterans and transfer their information to the Homeless Operations Management and Evaluation System (HOMES), preferably in real time.

The VA wants the handheld computers to be commercially accessible so as to make tracking the homeless veterans as easy as possible on the VA staff members. The VA field staff currently use paper to record all their information during personal interviews. Fieldworkers are responsible for investigating areas known for attracting a homeless population, and conducting interviews at VA medical centers and community-based outpatient health centers.

Ideally the computers the VA wants for their fieldworkers would be able to digitally record veteran's identifying information, to include their pictures and voice recordings.  That information would then be sent to a central database. It is understandable there may be some serious privacy issue concerns with homeless veterans about the tracking and recording process. In those situations, field workers may find themselves in some dangerous situations, which is why the VA will hopefully train these field agents on how to delicately handle this important mission.  

Should the requested computers become available, the VA may be able to take another step towards getting all homeless veterans off the streets. The VA will be one step closer to Sec. Shinseki's goal.