Last week, our team had the opportunity to attend the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV) conference in Washington, D.C.—an annual gathering of grantees, service providers, and frontline partners working to end veterans homelessness nationwide. The passion in the room and the urgency in conversations among the people doing this work every day was energizing.
At Civic Roundtable, we’re proud to support efforts like Bringing Veterans Home in New Jersey—a statewide initiative to reach functional zero for veterans experiencing homelessness. Through our platform, we help knit together the ecosystem of agencies and organizations doing this work. As Roundtable continues to partner with organizations fighting homelessness, we wanted to reflect on themes that surfaced again and again, in conference presentations, group discussions, and hallway conversations.
Veterans homelessness isn’t the responsibility of a single agency, program, or provider. The most effective responses are built on cross-sector collaboration; local housing authorities, state agencies, VA partners, nonprofits, shelters, and outreach teams all moving in sync. This level of cooperation helped drive the 55% reduction in veteran homelessness from 2010 to 2024—an outcome that wouldn’t have been possible without collective ownership and unified direction. But coordination at that scale is hard—especially when partners use different systems or lack shared visibility into goals and progress. Making collaboration easier and more consistent remains one of our biggest opportunities.
From veterans with lived experience to tribal partners and rural providers, the diversity of perspectives at NCHV was a powerful reminder: we must continue to listen deeply and often. But listening alone isn’t enough— we also need to respond. That means creating durable feedback loops between front-line workers and leadership, and ensuring that field-level insights shape policy and practice. One lesson from the veterans space is that progress happens when the people closest to the work are empowered to lead and adjust strategies. Sustaining that kind of two-way engagement over time, especially across large networks, requires more than intention. It requires systems that make responsiveness routine.
The field has benefitted from experienced leaders and staff who have worked through multiple waves of federal and local investment. But as many of these leaders prepare to transition or retire, the risk of losing hard-won knowledge is real. Ending veterans homelessness took years of learning what works—and what doesn’t. To sustain momentum, we must make that knowledge accessible to the next generation. That means capturing local context, program history, and partnership dynamics in ways that are easy to pass on, especially in high-turnover environments. Systems that make it easier to onboard new staff and help them navigate systems, services, and the wider community will help them make an impact faster.
This conference confirmed what many in the veterans homelessness field already know: success takes coordination, communication, and continuity. Building the connective tissue between partners, ensuring frontline voices are heard, and helping organizations retain institutional wisdom are not just best practices—they’re essential.
The progress in the veterans space shows what’s possible when these elements come together. The question now is how we bring those lessons—and that infrastructure—to the broader fight against homelessness.
States, counties, and non-profit organizations fighting homelessness across the United States partner with Roundtable to improve coordination, share information, and preserve institutional knowledge. To learn more, reach out here.
