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New VA Campaign Touts Toll-Free Number to Help Veterans Combat Homelessness
by Chris Birk
The Veterans Administration launched a new awareness campaign this week that will promote its toll-free hotline to help homeless veterans and those on the brink.
The “Make the Call” campaign will hit about 30 cities nationwide starting today in Anchorage, Alaska. The VA urges families and community members to learn about the services it provides to homeless veterans and how they can help combat the growing problem. About 135,000 veterans will spend at least one night in a shelter this year, and more than 75,000 are homeless on a given night.
The VA created a toll-free hotline in March 2010 that’s staffed around the clock by trained homeless prevention specialists. Veterans, family members and the community at large are encouraged to call 877-424-3838 (877-4AID-VET) if they know of a veteran at risk or in need.
“Those who have served this nation as veterans should never find themselves on the streets, living without care and without hope,” VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said in a news release. “Working with our partners in state and local government, the nonprofit and the private sectors, we can restore our homeless veterans and their families to the lives of dignity they’ve earned.”
The “Make a Call” campaign will hit 22 states and the District of Columbia over the next few weeks.
The VA has altered its approach for combating homelessness among veterans in recent years. The agency now focuses more on prevention and on providing housing vouchers and other permanent solutions rather than on temporary solutions and shelters.
To learn more about the agency’s homelessness programs, visit www.va.gov/homeless.
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Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=150523
Posted by Chris Birk on Oct 12 2011, With 0 Reads, Filed under Veterans Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Hmm.. Don’t waste your time calling if you are married, have a pet or are victim of a fraudulant Bank of America home loan. There is NO PLACE, nor will anyone try to assist you. Oh, they will make plenty of suggestions that lead to other people that make plenty of suggestions, that lead to other people thatmake plenty of suggestions….You can receive these handy dandy suggestions for as long as you wish to hear them. However; NOTHING and I seriously mean, NOTHING will be done to assist you. In fact, when I inquired, I received a letter from the VA wherein it states that my 100% Disability Benefit was going to be reduced because VA, “..learned that I had recently been divorced..” !!!! Yes sir, just because I needed and still need housing (have been living in the streets for over a year now with MY WIFE!! and our Dachsund) since BofA ripped me off. BofA used the entire allotment of my Home Loan Eligibility ALL 417,000.00 to give themselves a lil’ added bonus while it “sold” me a property package that consisted of, 1. A stolen manufactured home. 2. Two lots of land that HUD had predetermined to be UNINHABITABLE! It is saturated with raydon and is built over a pre-existing solid waste (human excrement) sewage treatment ponds. Yeah, I need a place to live. But hey fuck it, I am just a crazy Vet with PTSD and A WIFE!