Legislation to Eliminate Veteran Homelessness Introduced

Statement

As Ranking Democratic Member (D-CA) of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I reintroduced legislation that would further the goal of ending veteran homelessness in five years.

We know the Department of Veterans Affairs has many programs to address currently homeless veterans, and they do a great job. However, the most important piece to ending homelessness among the nation's veteran population is to prevent it in the first place. It is unacceptable that even one of our veterans sleep on the streets or in shelters after risking their lives on behalf of this country. H.R. 806 will go a long way in strengthening our efforts to ultimately end homelessness.

According to recent reports, approximately one-third of the adult homeless population served in the Armed Services. Population estimates also suggest that about 131,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year.

This bill increases funding to successful programs for homeless veterans; requires each VA medical center that provides supporting housing services to provide housing counselors; requires housing counselors to conduct landlord research; strengthens permanent housing programs, and pays special interest to the needs of homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children.

Source