Senator Murray: “We as a nation have a responsibility to take care of our veterans once they return home after sacrificing so much for our freedoms and safety—and making sure veterans have access to safe and supportive housing is at the top of that list.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced $1.2 million in additional funding for the Seattle and Spokane Housing Authorities to help homeless veterans and their families find and sustain permanent housing. The grants are administered through the Department of Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program, which combines HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance for veterans experiencing homelessness with case management and clinical services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Senator Murray helped restart the HUD-VASH Program in 2008 and the grants are funded by the Fiscal Year 2023 government spending package Senator Murray helped to pass.
“We as a nation have a responsibility to take care of our veterans once they return home after sacrificing so much for our freedoms and safety—and making sure veterans have access to safe and supportive housing is at the top of that list,” said Senator Murray. “I helped to restart the HUD-VASH program years ago because it plays a critical role in providing support and stability to veterans who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness, and as Appropriations Chair, I’m fighting for the strongest possible funding for HUD-VASH in our annual funding bills because this program is absolutely essential to ending veteran homelessness nationwide.”
HUD-VASH grants are designed to help veterans experiencing homelessness and their families find and sustain permanent housing and access health care, mental health treatment, substance use counseling, and more. The grants awarded to Washington state include $285k for the Seattle Housing Authority and $935k for the Spokane Housing Authority. That funding will support an additional 170 vouchers for veterans and their families in Washington state.
Thanks to the joint efforts of HUD, VA, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), along with the sustained funding championed by Senator Murray, the number of Veterans experiencing homelessness has fallen by 52% since 2010.
Senator Murray has long fought for federal investments in housing to help veterans and their families keep a roof over their head and successfully helped to restart the HUD-VASH program in 2008, fighting to fund the program every year since. She helped secure $72.1 billion in discretionary spending for HUD in the Fiscal Year 2023 government funding package, including $50 million in additional HUD-VASH vouchers.
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