As one of Georgia’s largest Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) programs, Hope Atlanta helps veterans move toward stable housing. With support from The Home Depot Foundation, Hope Atlanta is bridging critical gaps in care for veterans experiencing homelessness.
The Gaps
Many veterans enrolling in Hope Atlanta’s SSVF program need emergency lodging right away. However, government funding requirements prevent us from providing financial assistance until intake is complete. This process can take up to a week as staff gather required paperwork and verify vital documents, such as birth certificates and Social Security cards, leaving clients with an urgent need for a safe place to stay during that gap.
Other barriers include past due balances from previous housing situations. The veteran’s ability to correct these arrears payments could hinder them from receiving new leases, negatively affect their credit scores, and more. Yet support with these payments are not allowed through government funding.
On the back-end, there are times when veterans are nearing the end of their allowable time in SSVF care, but case managers have concerns that though their veteran clients have shown progress, they worry about their ability to remain stably housed in their current circumstances. However, federal SSVF funding only allows nine months of case management and housing support. Anything beyond this time frame is not allowable, regardless of the circumstances of the veteran at the time that program discharge is required.
For some higher need veterans, an extra three months of intensive case management and the accompanying rental assistance would be transformational to increase their income, manage their budget, connect to vital resources, and ultimately improve their likelihood of stability and self-sufficiency after exiting the program.
The Bridge: The Home Depot Foundation
In 2025, Hope Atlanta and The Home Depot Foundation entered a pilot program to provide extended services for veteran clients on the front- and back-end of government-approved funding through Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF).
Through the Foundation’s financial support, Hope Atlanta launched the SSVF-Extended Services program in summer 2025. The program offers financial assistance on the front-end of enrolling for services – allotting funds for one-time payment assistance. Rather than disrupting the clients’ progress, the program also extends case management services, up to an additional three months, for clients who need a little more time and support to more fully improve their resiliency and self-sufficiency.
For 15 years, The Home Depot Foundation has worked to improve the lives and homes of U.S. veterans, recently announcing a pledge to invest $1 billion in veteran causes by 2032.
The Impact
Hope Atlanta launched the program in July 2025, dedicating one case manager to overseeing the full case load for the pilot program. From launch through January 2026, the program served:
- 24 clients with gap lodging support
- 22 clients with financial support for arrears payments
- 22 clients with extended case management services
- 100% of these clients received the care they needed as they worked toward self-sufficiency.
When clients enrolled in the program, entry assessment data indicated that participants entered with significant housing instability, financial stress, and elevated homelessness risk. At program exit, outcome data from clients who successfully completed both pre and post assessments showed that:
- 93% of clients reported improved housing situations
- 100% of clients developed a financial management plan
- 73% of clients reported better management of income and expenses
- 93% of clients were satisfied with programming
- 100% of clients were ready for positive change
The Partnership
The Home Depot Foundation devotes critical resources to serving and housing the veteran community. Since 2020, Hope Atlanta and the Foundation have partnered to support more than 3,000 veterans.
We are grateful to partner alongside community pillars such as The Home Depot Foundation, which allows its partners to be innovative in the work they do and provides funding to ensure our veterans are successful.
For more information about Hope Atlanta, visit hopeatlanta.org
This is sponsored content.
