Blog: Homelessness Ends Here

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, chaired by Congressman Bob Filner, held a hearing this week on “A National Commitment to End Veterans’ Homelessness.”  In opening remarks at Wednesday’s hearing, Chairman Filner noted that the Committee and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who is also the current chair of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, have made ending Veterans homelessness a priority and encouraged the four panels of  witnesses to tell the Committee “what’s working, what’s not, and what you need”  to accomplish this goal.

The Committee received testimony from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Labor officials, national and community based organizations, and researchers on the effectiveness of service and treatment programs being provided to homeless Veterans directly by the VA and in partnership with other federal agencies, local governments, and community based organizations.  During the hearing, attention was also focused on the special needs of homeless and at risk women Veterans and on expanding outreach/marketing and early intervention efforts to prevent homelessness. Witnesses widely praised the VA’s Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem program, the VA’s largest collaborative effort with local communities that has resulted in the development of nearly 14,000  supportive transitional housing beds for homeless Veterans with funding for another 1000 beds due to be awarded later this summer. Several recommendations were made for improving administration of the program, including the calculation and payment of the per diem rate, and increasing the program funding level to $200 million a year.

. . . until we reach a day when not a single Veteran sleeps on the street, our business is unfinished.” -- President Obama remarks during a March 26, 2009 online town hall meeting.

Testifying on behalf of the VA, Homeless Programs Director Pete Dougherty told the Committee that Secretary Shinseki’s goal is to eliminate homelessness among Veterans in five years.  Mr. Dougherty spoke of the “unprecedented commitment and collaborative relationships at the Federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local government level . . .  and the more than 500 community, non profit and faith based service providers working in tandem with the VA’s health care and benefits staff.”

Mr. Dougherty told the Committee the VA has estimated from local data that there were approximately 131,000 homeless Veterans on any given night in 2008, a 33 percent reduction in homelessness over the last three years. “This progress demonstrates to us that this scourge of homelessness, while difficult to address, is not impossible,” he said. He reviewed with the Committee members progress being made through existing programs  and new initiatives being developed, particularly those focused on homelessness prevention including a congressionally authorized VA-HUD pilot prevention program for at risk Veterans and their families and a VA-Department of Labor pilot effort which will begin in FY 2010 to demonstrate effective homeless prevention approaches for Veterans being discharged from institutional settings.