The Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial in La Jolla. Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The San Diego Workforce Partnership has landed a three-year, $1.2 million federal grant to help veterans who are homeless or at risk of losing their housing find steady work.
The money comes from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service through the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program, the partnership announced Tuesday. The program pays for job training, apprenticeships and placement help aimed at veterans in or near homelessness.
Why it matters here
San Diego County is home to about 174,000 veterans. The partnership’s 2026 Veterans Workforce Update found 47% of them are in the labor force, compared with 63.5% of county residents overall, and their unemployment rate is 5.3%, above the countywide 4.7%. The partnership also cited a count that found 643 veterans experiencing homelessness in the county.
“For some, the lack of a stable income can lead to homelessness or housing insecurity,” the partnership said in its announcement.
What veterans can get
The partnership already gives veterans priority at its four career centers around the county. “When a veteran walks through the door, they get first in line,” president and CEO Rachel Bereza told CBS 8.
Services include individual employment plans, skills training, registered apprenticeships, paid work-based learning and connections to employers. Veterans can also get help paying for transportation, work clothes, tools and certification costs, along with referrals to housing and other community resources. The new funding is meant to add specialized support for veterans in or near homelessness, reach parts of the county where veteran employment services are harder to find, and help veterans leaving the justice system get back into the workforce.
Retired Marine Col. Jim Gruny, who sits on the partnership’s workforce development board, said veterans bring leadership and discipline to a job and pushed back on the idea of the “broken veteran.” “It’s the strength of the veteran that comes out,” he told CBS 8.
Part of a national round
The Labor Department opened the latest round of the grant program in January, making about $23 million available nationally. Grantees can receive up to $500,000 a year, or $1.5 million over three years, according to the department’s announcement. Workforce boards, local governments, nonprofits, tribal governments and colleges were eligible to apply.
The program is run in coordination with the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care and the VA’s homeless programs office.
Veterans can find career center locations and sign up for services at workforce.org.
By 
