Listen to Senator Murray discuss the need to end
veterans homelessness and the challenges we face.
Listen to formerly homeless Walla Walla veteran
Mike Brown describe his journey from the streets to counseling veterans.
Listen to Senator Murray question Veterans
Secretary General Eric Shinseki and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan.
Listen
to Senator Murray
question Mike Brown, King County Housing Authority Executive Director Stephen
Norman, and the U.S. Interagency Council on
Homelessness Executive Director Barbara Poppe.
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U.S. Veterans Secretary Gen. Eric Shinseki, Walla Walla Corps of Recovery Discovery (CORD) Program Manager Mike Brown, Senator Murray, and U.S. Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan before a hearing today on ending homelessness among veterans. |
(Washington,
D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) questioned Mike Brown a
formerly homeless veteran from Walla Walla and Stephen Norman
the Executive Director of the King County Housing Authority on ending veterans
homelessness in Washington state. The discussion came in a unique joint
Appropriations Committee hearing on addressing veterans homelessness for
chronically homeless veterans and improving prevention efforts to keep those
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan off the streets.
“Every
night, as many as 100,000 veterans experience homelessness,” Senator Murray said at today’s hearing. “Many
of these veterans have lived on the street for years and are plagued by
significant challenges such as mental illness and substance abuse. In
order to heal and remain in stable housing, these veterans will need a great
deal of support. But there is no question that they have earned that
support.”
At the hearing Mike Brown, a Vietnam-era veteran from
Walla Walla told his own story of going from homelessness and meth addiction to
now helping other veterans find stable housing:
“Since
2005 I have gone from living on the streets, eating out of dumpsters to living
independently, working full time and this past weekend I was able to give my
daughter away at her wedding which was one of the proudest moments of my life,” Brown said at today’s
hearing. “Through a lot of hard work I now am an assistant program manager
and case manager helping other veterans regain their lives back and navigating
the same road.”
King County Housing Authority Executive Director Stephen Norman also discussed the challenges that he is
seeing locally in Seattle and the surrounding region. The hearing also included
testimony from U.S. Veterans Secretary General Eric Shinseki and U.S. Housing
Secretary Shaun Donovan.
The full text of Senator Murray’s statement
at the hearing follows:
This morning we are holding a joint hearing with the
Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. I want to
thank Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Hutchison, as well as my own Ranking Member
Bond for joining me today and for being such great partners in the effort to
end homelessness among our nation’s veterans.
Every night, as many as 100,000 veterans experience
homelessness. Many of these veterans have lived on the street for years and
are plagued by significant challenges such as mental illness and substance
abuse. In order to heal and remain in stable housing, these veterans will
need a great deal of support. But there is no question that they have
earned that support.
At today’s hearing, we have the opportunity to discuss
how to provide our veterans with the services they need to be successful. I
want to welcome VA Secretary Shinseki and HUD Secretary Donovan to discuss the
efforts of their two departments in ending homelessness among the nation’s
veterans.
I also want to welcome our witnesses on the second
panel. Including, Barbara Poppe (POPPY), executive director of the United
States Interagency Council on Homelessness who has been working to bring
federal agencies together to end homelessness.
I also want to extend a welcome to Stephen Norman, the
executive director of the King County Housing Authority in Washington
State. He has done so much to help place homeless veterans in housing,
and I thank him for traveling all this way to provide some insight into the
challenges he and successes he has seen locally.
And finally, I want to welcome Mike Brown from Washington
State. I am honored that he is with us today to share his own story of
moving from a life of homelessness and addiction to one of independence.
Mike has lived many of the challenges we will discuss today and is now a case
manager providing assistance to homeless veterans who face the same daunting
task of rebuilding their lives that he did.
The road from homelessness to permanent, stable housing
is not easy. But the good news is that we understand the solution.
Over the past decade, we have gained a great deal of
experience in successfully housing the chronically homeless, many of whom are
veterans. There have been multiple studies published that demonstrated the
effectiveness of the permanent supportive housing model—in terms of improving
outcomes for the chronically homeless and saving money for the taxpayer.
The need for a solution for the veterans living on the
street was why we restarted the HUD-VA Supportive Housing or HUD-VASH program
three years ago. It was clear that we needed permanent housing and services for
veterans if we were truly going to end homelessness among
veterans.
By bringing together HUD and the VA, we tapped into the
expertise of both of these federal Departments to bring veterans the housing
and services they need. And now, we can look to the experience of veterans
using HUD-VASH as a measure of the program’s success.
Veterans like Terry Donscheski, a homeless veteran from
Washington State coping with addiction, who received a HUD-VASH voucher.
He is now employed and in June, will graduate from Walla Walla Community
College with an Associates Degree.
Stories like those of Mike and Terry remind us that we
can end homelessness for veterans. It simply requires the right
tools and leadership.
I want to commend Secretary Shinseki and Secretary
Donovan for demonstrating the leadership and the commitment to ending
homelessness among the nation’s veterans. We have a good start, but there
is still a great deal of work to be done.
After years of talking about ending veterans’
homelessness, the Administration has set a goal and put forth a plan.
However, it is not enough to have a goal or a plan; any plan must be
implemented well and achieve results to be successful. It is imperative that
these programs be run effectively. The taxpayers and the veterans that
need these services deserve nothing less.
At the outset of the resumption of the HUD-VASH program,
the VA was slow to hire case managers, delaying assistance to veterans.
And possibly more difficult was the challenge of instituting a new program and
new way thinking at dozens of VA Medical Centers across the country.
Relationships had to be built in many communities between
housing authorities and the VA. In some cases, old program rules and
comfort with the usual way of doing business in each program impeded effective
collaboration.
This resulted in delays in getting veterans off the
streets and into housing.
While we have made progress since the program began in
2008, challenges persist. I remained concerned about low leasing
levels—only 25 percent of the vouchers from 2009 are now in use housing
veterans.
HUD and the VA must impose performance measurement for
These challenges have been identified and solutions have
I think HUD-VASH is a key tool to achieving this
Many of these veterans have lived on the streets for
Many have significant wounds from recent conflicts—both
Last year, 1 in 5 young veterans returning from Iraq and
As we work to address these needs, we must also be aware
The changing face of our veteran population requires that
Our two subcommittees pushed for increased efforts around
So today, I look forward to hearing from all of our
With that I turn it over to Chairman Johnson.
PHAs and VA Medical Centers that hold them accountable for their ability to use
these vouchers well. This includes targeting the veterans most in need
been suggested. Now it’s time to get to work to implement these
solutions. Increasing the supply of permanent supportive housing for our
neediest veterans is central to achieving the goal of ending homelessness among
veterans within five years.
goal. So, I was both surprised and disappointed that no funding was
included in the President’s fiscal year 2011 budget for new HUD-VASH vouchers.
I agree that we need to make improvements to this program, but I don’t think
halting the program for a year is the answer.
years. They shouldn’t have to wait any longer, not when we know what
works. As we continue to work to end homelessness for those veterans that have
been homeless for years, or even decades, we cannot ignore the many challenges
facing returning veterans.
physical and emotional. And all of them are returning to an economic
climate with limited job opportunities.
Afghanistan were unemployed. We must stay focused on this population and
address their challenges early. Many of these new veterans home from war
are at-risk of homelessness, and sadly, some have already begun to appear at
our homeless shelters.
that many of these veterans have different needs than earlier generations of
veterans. There is an increasing number of female veterans and veterans
with families.
we change practices at the VA to meet these needs. We will only be
successful if we have the appropriate tools to meet veterans where they are. If
we are going to avoid the mistakes that we made with veterans of prior wars, we
needed to identify those most at-risk of homelessness early and work on
prevention strategies. This includes ensuring access to medical care,
affordable housing, and education and jobs.
prevention by funding a pilot program in 2009 to examine how to prevent veteran
homelessness, particularly among those now returning from overseas. And I
am pleased to see that the Administration has brought greater focus to
prevention.
witnesses on how we can use all of these strategies—from prevention to
permanent supportive housing—to achieve the goal of ending homelessness in five
years.
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