Positive news! Officials of Connecticut announced last Thursday that the state has officially become the first in the nation to provide housing for every one of its chronically homeless veterans.
No doubt national and state officials are celebrating the monumental achievement after having set a goal earlier on to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015.
The Connecticut Department of Housing, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH), and other nonprofits and volunteers who spent time on the streets identifying homeless veterans played a major role in the state’s coordinated efforts.
Said Lisa Tepper Bates, executive director of CCEH:
This means that all known chronically homeless veterans are housed or are on the immediate path to housing and any veteran who newly enters homelessness will be rapidly put on the path to permanent housing.
Nearly 300 veterans previously experiencing chronic homelessness have now been gifted permanent – or at least temporary – housing. Chronically homeless is defined as “those with a disabling condition who have been continuously homeless for a year or have had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.”
According to a joint report conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs along with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, veterans account for 16% of all homeless adults nationwide – even though they only make up 10% of the population. It is a travesty, indeed.
But this positive news is affirmation that homelessness – especially chronic homelessness among veterans – can be eradicated. “This proves to everybody that you can do it … You can end homelessness, you just need to go one person at a time,” said Bates.
As the Hartford Courant reports, Connecticut was supplied with the means to reach it goal through significant increases in funding for permanent housing vouchers and additional funding targeted to provide rapid rehousing to veterans carried out on a federal level.
Connecticut’s state Department of Housing has also invested at least $3 million in rental subsidies and special services for Connecticut’s homeless veterans. In many states, there is no such investment.
The positive news doesn’t end there…! Government Malloy of Connecticut has set a goal to provide housing and support services for all homeless people in the state by the end of 2016.
What are your thoughts on this news? Share the positivity and comment below.
This article (Connecticut Becomes The FIRST State To End Chronic Homelessness Among Veterans) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com
This is best news I have heard in years. Huge compassionate accomplishment. As a strong advocate for the homeless this is an historic , proud moment in a state and U.S. history. Congratulations to all and thank you!!
Now how about we stop having wars of aggression on sovereign nations who have done nothing to the US. Then we do not make more veterans that the bunch of chicken hawks in Sodom and Gommora on the potomac do not want to take care of.
exactly right John. The U.S. military budget is upwards of a trillion dollars a year. Just think what America would look like if we spent that money on improving the lives of all of us and our infrastructure. Instead of slaughtering millions abroad.
It is so very simple, but the American sheep do not get it.
Well, is it really up to us, the people?? I haven’t sent the US military to any country! Nobody I know has done that. But politicians do! So how do we make the politicians stop sending military to other countries?? It’s not like the politicians are there for us, they all work for the big corporations and the war industry, everybody knows that.