VA Eyes Handhelds To Track Homeless Vets

The Veterans Affairs Department would like to acquire handheld computers to help track the fluid population of homeless vets, as part of a project supported by Secretary Eric Shinseki to house all veterans now living on the street in five years.

VA says it wants commercially available handheld devices to assist its staff in both capturing information about homeless veterans and then wirelessly transmitting the data to the Homeless Operations Management and Evaluation System (HOMES) in real time when possible.

Currently VA field caseworkers capture information on paper during face-to-face interviews at VA medical centers, community-based outpatient centers, and while canvassing areas frequented by homeless persons.

VA said it is looking for keyboard equipped handheld PCs that can digitally capture veterans' ID information as well as pictures and voice recordings, and then transmit this information to a central database.

From my experience as a volunteer at the Clean and Sober Streets drug and alcohol rehab for the homeless in Washington, VA may face real problems when its case workers start taking videos of homeless vets, who though they lack shelter, still have some pride and a sense of privacy.