Washington, D.C. - On Wednesday, June 3, 2009, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Bob Filner conducted a hearing to address America’s commitment to end veterans’ homelessness.  The hearing focused on four specific programs operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA): Grant and Per Diem, outreach to veterans, Special Needs Grants, and prevention efforts. 

According to recent VA reports, approximately one-third of the adult homeless population served in the Armed Services.  Population estimates also suggest that about 131,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year.  Male and female veterans continue to be over-represented in the general homeless population.  Specifically, male veterans were 1.4 times as likely to be homeless as male nonveterans while female veterans were between two and four times as likely to be homeless as their nonveteran female counterparts.  Studies have shown an indirect connection between combat exposure and homelessness. 

“Most of the VA’s existing programs are targeted to veterans who are currently homeless, by providing employment opportunities and housing assistance to help prevent repeat episodes of homelessness,” said Chairman Filner.  “There is an urgent and immediate need to address homeless prevention, target high risk veterans with early intervention programs, and provide on-going evaluation and support.  We need to strengthen our efforts nationally to prevent our heroes from becoming homeless in the first place.” 

VA’s largest program involving local communities is the Grant and Per Diem (GPD) program.  GPD was authorized in 1992 to provide grants and per diem payments to help public and nonprofit organizations establish and operate supportive transitional housing and service centers.
Eligible grantees are those who operate programs with supportive housing (up to 24 months) or service centers which offer such services as case management, education, crisis intervention, counseling, and services targeted towards specialized populations including homeless women veterans.  Today, VA partners with more than 500 community organizations and has authorized 15,000 beds through the GPD program.

Witnesses discussed the need to increase the annual authorization for the GPD program in order to increase the number of beds available for veterans as well as to enhance the supportive services offered.  Service providers also reported that the current mechanism used to determine the per diem amount is outdated and inequitable.  The current per diem rate is $34.40 per veteran per day.  This number is significantly insufficient and does not take into account regional cost issues.  Also, per diem payments are made months after the services are provided, which creates a financial strain for the non-profit and community organizations providing services.

In the area of prevention, VA works with other Federal agencies to prevent repeat episodes of homelessness.  For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides Section 8 vouchers for homeless veterans with severe psychiatric or substance abuse disorders to rent apartments in the private rental market while the VA medical centers provide case management and clinical services.  Since 1992, the HUD VA Supported Housing (HUD VASH) program has received funding for about 1,753 Section 8 vouchers.  The Department of Labor also operates the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP) to help veterans gain meaningful employment and to help develop a service delivery system to address the problems facing homeless veterans. 

In 2006, HVRP grantees served a total of 13,346 homeless veterans, of whom 8,713, or 65%, were placed in employment.  Finally, the 2009 Appropriations Act provided $10 million for HUD to conduct a demonstration program on preventing homelessness in coordination with the VA and DOL.  The demonstration project will provide housing and services to prevent homelessness or reduce the length of time veterans are homeless.  Up to three of the pilot sites will have a high number of service members separating from military service and up to four of the sites will be located in rural areas with veterans who served in the National Guard. 

Director of the VA Homeless Veterans Program, John Dougherty, offered the following testimony at the hearing regarding efforts to improve the effectiveness of VA’s commitment to end homelessness among America’s veterans: “Last month Secretary Shinseki announced VA will partner with the University of Pennsylvania and the University of South Florida to create the first Center that will give our Department the research capacity to improve our programs and become more effective in the future.  The National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans’ primary goal is to develop, promote, and enhance policy, clinical care research, and education to improve homeless services so Veterans may live as independently and self-sufficiently as possible in a community of their choosing… The new Center will allow us to use much of the data systems within VA and across the country to improve VA and community service providers’ effectiveness in reaching out, treating and improving long term discharge outcomes of the Veterans we serve.”

Filner concluded: “There remains an unknown number of veterans who are considered near homeless or at risk for homelessness because of poverty and lack of support from family and friends.  An increasing number of veterans of Operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are falling into this category and we must be vigilant in providing support to this population.  I am heartened by President Obama’s zero tolerance policy for homelessness among veterans.  We owe our veterans a debt of gratitude – and it will take a bold national commitment to make sure that the words ‘homeless’ and ‘veterans’ never appear in the same sentence again.” 

Witness List

Panel 1

*       John Driscoll, Vice President for Operations and Programs,
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans

*       Dwight A. Radcliff, Sr., President and Chief Executive Officer,
United States Veterans Initiative, U.S. VETS

*       Marsha (Tansey) Four, RN, Chair, Woman Veterans Committee,
Vietnam Veterans of America

*       CWO James S. Fann, USA (Ret.), Director, The Manna House

*       Phil Landis, Chief Executive Officer, Veterans Village of San
Diego

Panel 2

*       Carol L. Adams, Ph.D., Secretary, Illinois Department of Human
Services

*       Robert V. Hess, Commissioner, New York City Department of
Homeless Services

Accompanied by Ronald Marte, Veteran, Bronx, New York

Panel 3

*       Carol L. Caton, Ph.D., Professor of Clinical Sociomedical
Sciences (in Psychiatry), Director, Columbia Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies

*       Brendan O’Flaherty, Ph.D., M.A., Professor of Economics,
Columbia University, Executive Committee Member, Columbia Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies

Panel 4

*       George P. Basher, Chairman, VA Advisory Committee on Homeless
Veterans

*       Peter H. Dougherty, Director, Homeless Veterans Programs, U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs

 Accompanied by Paul E. Smits, Associate Chief Consultant, Homeless and Residential Rehabilitation and Treatment Programs, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

*       John M. McWilliam, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Veterans’
Employment and Training Service, U.S. Department of Labor

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Prepared testimony and a link to the webcast of the hearing are available on the internet at this link:
http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/hearing.aspx?newsid=404