Frances Murphy, M.D., M.P.H., deputy undersecretary for health policy coordination at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), testified before a congressional committee in March 2000 that the VA is "the only federal agency that provides substantial hands-on assistance directly to homeless persons.... [Its] major homeless programs constitute the largest integrated network of homeless assistance programs in the country." These are among its programs:

Taken as a whole, the VA's programs are designed to provide a continuum of care for homeless veterans. That care includes outreach and clinical assessment, rehabilitation in community-based contracted residential treatment, and case management that supports independent living.

Through the Northeast Program Evaluation Center, the VA conducts the country's most extensive and long-standing program of monitoring and evaluating data concerning homeless individuals and the programs that serve them, according to Murphy.