VA Secretary Eric Shinseki Vows To End Veteran Homelessness By 2014
Tuesday November 3, 2009 4:51 p.m.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Tuesday unveiled a plan to end veterans' homelessness in five years, saying that without action the improvements of recent years could be lost because of the bad economy.
Shinseki said the VA will spend $3.2 billion next year to reduce homelessness among veterans and is working to strengthen partnerships with other government agencies and service organizations. He said he recognizes that a goal of zero homeless veterans is ambitious but that he wants a high target so that everyone puts in their best efforts.
"My name is Shinseki and I'm here to end veteran homelessness," he said at the beginning of a speech to 1,200 service providers at a VA summit.
In the past, the VA focused largely on getting homeless veterans off the streets, but Shinseki said he wants to prevent them from ever going homeless. One area for potential improvement, he said, is finding jobs and homes for the estimated 56,000 veterans who leave prisons each year.
About one-third of all adult homeless men and nearly one-fifth of all homeless adults served in the military.
About 3 percent of the overall homeless population served in Iraq or Afghanistan. About 3,700 from the recent wars have been seen in VA homeless outreach programs and more than 550 have been treated in a VA-connected residential program.
It is estimated that 130,000 veterans are homeless on a typical night in the U.S. Shinseki said that is down from 195,000 six years ago. But, because of the poor economy, he said up to 15 percent more veterans could be on the streets in five years.
"That's not going to happen. We're going to go the other way," Shinseki said. "You all didn't work for the past six years to see things reversed."
Shinseki added: "Even in tough economic times this is still the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world and no veteran should be living on the streets without care and without hope."
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Veterans Affairs: http://www.va.gov/
There is 1 comment
I appreciate what he is trying to accomplish. It is disgusting that he has this to deal with in the first place.
Everything intertwines, however. If vets with the equivalent of a high school diploma have no living wage jobs still left in this nation when they leave the military, they become poor just like civilians. They are also discriminated against based on age and health like regular civilians. Age and health status are the new "black" in the work place.
We let millionaires write legislation and enter into trade agreements in which a lack of tariffs make it possible to exploit oversees slave labor wages that Americans trying to support a family cannot afford to work for. Our law requires domestic business at a minimum to pay more than what Chinese workers are paid. So by law Americans could not out compete the low overseas wages, not to mention money saved on national healthcare in every other industrialized nation on planet earth other than the USA.
Our government refuses to tariff the imports of products Americans use to make here, but are now made in China and for what? Larger profits= higher stock prices= higher dividends. It is how we would expect millionaires to represent millionaires in Washington, while forsaking 99% of us.
Until we have campaign finance reform and real lobbyist reform, those of you on the right and left can wallow in your trivial election time issues that have little bearing on whether you end up at a home foreclosure or bankruptcy hearing. Give your thumbs up to Pelosi while she panders to the prochoice and gays among us, or give those thumbs up to Boehner and Cantor should thay outlaw abortion and gay marriage. That will do you alot of good when you can legally underbid Chinese laborers.
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