Objective-There has long been concern that public support payments are used to support addictive behaviors. This study examined the amount of money homeless veterans spend on alcohol and drugs and the association between public support income, including VA disability compensation, and expenditures on alcohol and drugs.Methods-Data were from 1,160 veterans from 19 sites on entry into the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program. Descriptive statistics and nonparametric analyses were conducted.Results-About 33% of veterans reported spending money on alcohol and 22% reported spending money on drugs in the past month. No significant association was found between public support income, VA disability compensation, and money spent on alcohol and drugs.Conclusions-A substantial proportion of homeless veterans spend some income on alcohol and drugs, but disability income, including VA compensation, does not seem to be related to substance use or money spent on addictive substances.Substance abuse has been identified as one of the main risk factors for homelessness (1, 2). Many homeless adults continue to purchase and use substances while homeless (3, 4), even though they lack money for food, housing, and other basic necessities. It is not well understood how much money and what sources of income homeless adults are using to fund their substance use. Moreover, there has been concern about the possibility that public support payments, and disability payments in particular, may be a trigger that facilitates substance use and that disability income is used to purchase alcohol and drugs. One wellcited study of nonhomeless adults with schizophrenia who abused cocaine found that patterns of cocaine use were associated with the timing of disability payments, referred to as the "check effect" (5). There is a longstanding policy debate about whether public support or disability payments made as in-kind provision of goods or services, instead of cash transfers, would reduce this risk. This debate has been concerned with who decides how to spend such transfer payments (the state or the client), because even in-kind provisions are fungible (6, 7).The authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
VA Author ManuscriptVA Author Manuscript
VA Author ManuscriptThese issues are of special relevance for U.S. veterans who receive disability compensation from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for service-related injuries and illnesses, some of whom are returning from recent conflicts in the Middle East. Although there has been nearly universal support for providing disability benefits to veterans, examination of the link between benefits and substance use may be important for homeless services and research.Studies have shown that disability and public support income do not appear to contribute to overall levels of substance abuse among homeless veterans (8-10). These findings largely suggest that homeless veterans do not use their d...