Senator Criticizes Decision to Scrap Funding for Homeless Veterans Program

Press Release

During a joint hearing of the Senate Appropriations subcommittees that fund our nation's housing and veterans programs, U.S. Senator Kit Bond today called on Administration officials including Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Shawn Donovan and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Eric Shinseki to fund critical, proven, and successful programs that support homeless veterans, like the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, rather than create new programs in a time of record budget deficits.

"This funding approach is pure Alice in Wonderland," Bond said. "We have an Administration that wants to spend billions of dollars on new programs and on the other hand warns that the resulting deficits may prove disastrous. We are drowning in debt and buying our way out isn't working. I urge you to think hard about what your and other agencies funding requests will mean to the nation."

During today's hearing, Bond urged the Administration to reconsider abandoning the critical homeless veterans assistance program. Despite the proven success of the HUD-VASH program, a vital safety net in helping our veterans avoid the pitfalls of homelessness, the Administration included no funding for the program in its proposed fiscal year 2011 budget. Unfortunately, the Administration chose to zero out funding for the HUD-VASH program at a time when recent government estimates indicate nearly 15 percent of the homeless using shelters in the U.S. are veterans.

Bond stressed that in addition to housing assistance, the HUD-VASH program is providing veterans, many with invisible injuries like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with the tools, counseling, and supportive services they need to lead happy, healthy and fruitful lives.

Created in 1992, the VASH program faded under bureaucratic malaise until Bond, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, secured $75 million in federal funds with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) in the fiscal year 2009 Transportation-Housing spending bill to start this new partnership between HUD and the VA. The Senator also pointed out that the program is supported by many veterans and veterans groups as the program uniquely focuses on not just the veteran, but his or her family as well.

"This program is too important to our veterans to push aside for another day or in order fund another new initiative," Bond said. "HUD has too many new and expensive initiatives now and none are as important as finding the right solution for assisting homeless veterans."

Bond a long time leader in the fight to end homelessness and improve care for our veterans, has worked to better meet the needs of homeless veterans since he served as chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds the VA. As the then-chairman, Bond reactivated the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness in 2000 to improve federal coordination of homeless assistance programs, increased funding for VA programs to prevent and end homelessness, and worked with Senator Murray to provide permanent housing through the HUD-VASH program. While these measures were important steps, the Senator stressed that the VA, HUD and their federal and local partners must continue to improve and make more efficient these programs so vital to getting homeless veterans off the street.

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