U.S. Rep. Ron Barber Welcomes $2.2 Million to Help Homeless Veterans in Southern Arizona

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Ron Barber today welcomed an announcement that two Southern Arizona organizations will receive more than $2.2 million to help homeless veterans and their families.

"The men and women who stepped forward to serve our nation should never struggle to find a place to live," Barber said today. "I have worked hard in Congress to address homelessness among our veterans and these grants will provide important funding to help our veterans and their families."

The Southern Arizona Chapter of the American Red Cross will receive $1,138,871 and Primavera Foundation will receive $1,071,011 from the VA to help veterans and their families who are either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

The funds will pay for outreach, case management, assistance in obtaining VA benefits and assistance in receiving other public benefits. The money also can be used for temporary financial assistance for veterans' rent payments, utility payments, security deposits and moving costs.

The grants are part of about $300 million in funding that the VA distributed this week to 301 community agencies nationwide.

Under the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, the Department of Veterans Affairs awards grants to private non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives that provide services to very low-income veteran families living in -- or transitioning to -- permanent housing.

Those community organizations provide a range of services that promote housing stability. The grants will fund the fourth year of the SSVF program.

There are an estimated 60,000 homeless veterans in the nation -- with another 1.4 million veterans at risk of homelessness due to poverty and lack of support networks.

Barber represents about 85,000 veterans in Southern Arizona. One of his first actions in Congress after taking office in mid-2012 was to urge his colleagues to add $75 million to the budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help homeless veterans.

Last month, Barber and his wife Nancy donated to three Southern Arizona charities that assist homeless veterans an amount equal to what that the federal government spent to subsidize the congressman's health insurance premiums.

"Members of Congress must play by the same rules as other Americans," Barber said at the time. "So I have pledged to donate the full amount of the Affordable Care Act government subsidy to Southern Arizona charities each month during 2014."

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