Homeless Veterans in Michigan: Vouchers, Nonprofits, and MiVHPG

If you’re a veteran in Michigan without stable housing, two phone numbers will connect you to help right now: the Michigan Veteran Resource Service Center at 800-642-4838 and the VA’s National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-424-3838. From there, a mix of federal rental vouchers, transitional housing beds, rapid rehousing grants, and nonprofit case management is available across the state. This page walks through the help available for homeless veterans in Michigan, who runs each program, and how to reach them.¹²

Where to Call First

The Michigan Veteran Resource Service Center (800-642-4838) is staffed by MVAA technicians during business hours Monday through Friday and by trained 211 agents at all other times. The state also maintains the MiVeteran mobile app, which lists services across Michigan’s 10 veteran service regions, plus an online form for requesting resource assistance.¹

The VA’s National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-424-3838 operates 24 hours a day and can route you to your nearest VA Medical Center’s homeless outreach team. In Michigan, those teams work out of VA facilities in Detroit, Battle Creek (through the Lansing VA Clinic), Saginaw, and Iron Mountain, with Iron Mountain covering the entire Upper Peninsula.³⁴

Federal Housing Programs Available in Michigan

Three federal programs do most of the housing work for homeless veterans in the state.

HUD-VASH Vouchers

HUD-VA Supportive Housing pairs a federal rental assistance voucher with VA case management. In Michigan the vouchers are administered by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and other local public housing authorities, in coordination with the four VA Medical Centers listed above. The Iron Mountain VA uses HUD-VASH as its central tool in a Housing First approach — getting a veteran into stable housing before addressing mental health or substance use.³⁴

Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF)

SSVF provides rapid rehousing and homelessness prevention for low-income veteran families. It follows a Housing First model with three parts: help finding permanent housing, financial assistance for move-in costs and rent, and case management. Michigan SSVF grantees include Volunteers of America Michigan, Community Rebuilders in Grand Rapids, and MiSide in the Detroit and Macomb County area.⁵⁶⁷

Grant and Per Diem Transitional Housing (GPD)

GPD funds community organizations to run transitional housing beds with case management. Five Michigan providers held GPD awards for fiscal year 2024, totaling 142 beds:

Michigan Veterans Foundation, Detroit — 40 beds (30 bridge housing, 10 service-intensive).
Volunteers of America Michigan, Detroit — 40 beds (10 bridge housing, 10 low demand, 20 clinical treatment).
Community Rebuilders, Grand Rapids — 30 bridge housing beds, capacity for 5 minor dependents.
Boysville of Michigan, Grand Rapids area — 22 low-demand beds, capacity for 10 minor dependents.
My Brother’s Keeper of Genesee County, Flint — 10 bridge housing beds.

The bed types differ in how they operate. Bridge housing is a temporary landing while permanent placement is arranged. Low-demand beds accommodate veterans who struggle with rules-heavy environments. Clinical treatment beds integrate structured behavioral health or substance abuse support.⁸

Nonprofits That Provide Direct Help by Region

Most of the direct work happens through nonprofits. Which one you contact depends on where you are.

Detroit and southeast Michigan. The Michigan Veterans Foundation operates the Detroit Veterans Center in the Woodbridge district, offering transitional housing, life skills and employment training, PTSD counseling, substance abuse intervention, legal assistance, meals, and transportation. A SAY Detroit-funded upgrade added a kitchen, gym, guidance center, and computer learning lab; the facility serves more than 100 veterans.⁹¹⁰ MiSide serves Macomb and Wayne counties with SSVF rapid rehousing and employment services.¹¹

Western and central Michigan. Volunteers of America Michigan runs one of the state’s most diversified veteran service operations, combining transitional housing in Detroit, SSVF rapid rehousing and prevention, GPD clinical treatment beds, and employment training across nine western and central Michigan counties. The organization’s veteran services line is 877-509-8387.¹²¹³

Grand Rapids and Kent County. Community Rebuilders says it has met and maintained the federal benchmarks for ending veteran homelessness in Kent County, describing local veteran homelessness as “rare, brief, and non-recurring.” It operates seven veteran programs, from bridge housing to permanent supportive housing to an independent living apartment complex called Grandview Place, built with Woda Cooper Companies.⁷¹⁴

Flint and Genesee County. My Brother’s Keeper of Genesee County runs the Veteran Emergency Housing and Therapeutic Services program, offering residential recovery services, cognitive behavioral therapy, case management, and benefits navigation. In partnership with the Center for Higher Educational Achievement and the VA, the organization began moving veterans into a new housing community in early 2024.¹⁵¹⁶

Statewide security deposit help. Veterans Matter, a national program of 1Matters.org, pays security deposits for veterans who already hold HUD-VASH vouchers but lack move-in funds. A VA social worker submits a referral while meeting with the veteran and landlord, and a housing advocate approves qualifying referrals within minutes, with checks mailed the same day. The Michigan chapter, chaired by author Mitch Albom, has placed more than 450 veterans in permanent housing in the state.⁹¹⁷

Employment Help

The U.S. Department of Labor funds Homeless Veterans Reintegration Programs (HVRP) through Michigan grantees. MiSide, serving Macomb and Wayne counties, served 163 veterans in fiscal year 2024, placing 121 in employment and helping 88 find stable housing.¹¹ Volunteers of America Michigan runs an HVRP across nine counties in western and central Michigan, including Kent, Kalamazoo, and Muskegon, with $390,093 in annual federal funding.¹³ Community Rebuilders operates a similar program in Grand Rapids called Operation Employment, funded at $270,000.⁷

Stand Down Events

Stand Down events are one- to three-day gatherings where VA staff, local agencies, and volunteers provide food, clothing, health screenings, and referrals in one place. The VA’s 2026 Michigan schedule lists events in Berrien Springs, Saginaw, Hudsonville, Muskegon, Warren, Grand Rapids, Centreville, and Kalamazoo between June and October.¹⁸ Kent County Veterans Services hosts an annual stand down at Millennium Park in Walker, adding VA claims assistance, employment help, mental health counseling, and substance use treatment to immediate needs like food and haircuts.¹⁹

State-Funded Services Through MiVHPG

Beyond the federal programs, Michigan runs its own Michigan Veteran Homelessness Prevention Grant (MiVHPG). The MVAA awarded $2 million in fiscal year 2024 to 13 nonprofits, funding projects that included repurposing shipping containers into homes in Wayne County, renovating a 19-room shelter in Flint, building a four-unit transitional housing complex in the Upper Peninsula, and providing emergency hotel stays, rental assistance, legal counseling, and mental health resources.²⁰

In 2025 the MVAA awarded $1.5 million to six organizations: Barry County United Way, Center for Higher Education Achievement, Disability Network Eastern Michigan, 8Cap, Mid-Michigan Community Action Agency, and the Upper Peninsula Commission for Area Progress.²¹ For fiscal year 2025–26, the state Senate budget includes $2.5 million in one-time general fund money for MiVHPG grants, capped at $250,000 per nonprofit.²² If you live in a county served by one of the grantee organizations, contact them directly to ask what services their current grant supports.

Eligibility Barriers to Know About

Not every veteran qualifies for every program, and a few common obstacles are worth knowing in advance.

Discharge status. Many federal VA programs require specific discharge statuses, which effectively excludes veterans with “other than honorable” discharges from parts of the system.²³

Criminal records and justice involvement. Veterans with criminal records or active legal issues are categorized as difficult to house. Incarceration even once makes a person nearly seven times more likely to become homeless, and multiple incarcerations raise that figure to thirteen times.²⁴

Housing supply and rental history. Michigan lacks enough affordable rental units, many available units fail the inspections required for government voucher programs, and application fees add costs that veterans without income cannot absorb. In smaller communities, particularly in the Upper Peninsula, a veteran’s past rental problems are often widely known among landlords.²³⁴

Disability benefits. Standard SSI or SSDI applications from people experiencing homelessness are approved at roughly 10 to 15%. When a trained SOAR (SSI/SSDI, Outreach, Access, and Recovery) practitioner assists, the approval rate rises to about 75%. The 2023 Michigan Veteran Homelessness Report recommended that the state fund at least two veteran-specific SOAR practitioners; ask any nonprofit you work with whether they have SOAR-trained staff.²³

Federal Funding Uncertainty

The programs above are working today, but the federal picture is unsettled. The President’s FY 2026 budget proposal seeks to eliminate HUD’s funding for HUD-VASH vouchers and shift rental assistance and administration to the VA under a new program called Bridging Rental Assistance for Veteran Empowerment, funded at $1.1 billion; the proposal does not specifically address SSVF. The National Alliance to End Homelessness has said the approach creates “uncertainty in program funding for veterans experiencing homelessness.”²⁵ A July 2025 executive order also directs federal homelessness grant programs to move away from Housing First models, the approach used by the Iron Mountain VA and several Michigan communities.²⁴

If you need help, don’t wait for the policy debate to resolve. Call 800-642-4838 for the state resource center or 877-424-3838 for the VA’s homeless hotline, and a case manager can start working through what you’re eligible for today.

1
State of Michigan MVAA. Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency
2
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Supportive Services for Veteran Families
3
State of Michigan MSHDA. HUD-VASH Veterans Administration Supportive Housing Vouchers
4
VA News. Iron Mountain VA Fights Homelessness in Rural Michigan
5
Grants.gov. VA-SSVF-2026 Funding Opportunity
6
Volunteers of America Michigan. Veteran Services
7
Community Rebuilders. Veterans
8
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. GPD Award List — Per Diem Only
9
SAY Detroit. Veterans
10
Michigan Veterans Foundation. Michigan Veterans Foundation
11
MiSide. Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program
12
Volunteers of America Michigan. Detroit Veteran Transitional Housing
13
Volunteers of America Michigan. Veteran Employment and Training
14
Community Rebuilders. Programs
15
My Brother’s Keeper. Services
16
ABC 12. My Brother’s Keeper Helps Create Housing for Homeless Veterans in Flint
17
Veterans Matter. Veterans Matter National Summary
18
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Stand Down Events
19
Kent County. 2026 Homeless Veteran Stand Down
20
State of Michigan. $2 Million in State Grants to Help Homeless Veterans
21
WILX. MVAA Awards $1.5 Million to Fight Veteran Homelessness in Michigan
22
Michigan Legislature. House Analysis of SB 175 — FY 2025-26 Budget
23
Michigan House Fiscal Agency. 2023 Michigan Veteran Homelessness Report
24
Michigan Advance. Trump Administration’s War on Homeless People Harms Veterans
25
National Alliance to End Homelessness. The President’s FY2026 Budget Proposal — Potential Impacts on Efforts to Prevent and End Homelessness