Emily Button of U.S. VETS, and the Legion's Mark Walker visit a newly renovated apartment for homeless vets in D.C.
It has been almost two years since Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki spoke at The American Legion national convention in Louisville and pledged to end homelessness among vets within five years. It is estimated that on any given night, approximately 106,000 military veterans are without permanent shelter.
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Veterans’ homelessness is among the major concerns of The American Legion and one of the primary focuses of its Economic Division, headquartered in the Legion’s Washington, D.C., office. It offers testimony to Congress periodically on the topic and monitors both government and private efforts to address the problem. For instance, Deputy Economic Director Mark Walker recently visited newly renovated, attractive and affordable housing for homeless veterans provided by the United States Veterans Initiative (U.S. VETS). U.S. VETS bills itself as “the nation’s largest non-profit provider of services to veterans facing challenges in their transition to civilian life.” It was organized in the early 1990′s.
According to Walker, “U.S. VETS in the District of Columbia began providing services in 1997 through the National Collaboration for Homeless Veterans AmeriCorps Program. The D.C. location serves 43 veterans daily. Nationwide, the organization operates programs at 11 sites in five states, as well as D.C., with beds to accommodate more than 2,100 veterans every day.”
Representatives from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Labor and Veterans Affairs will be among those participating in a Homeless Veterans Roundtable during The American Legion National Convention in Minneapolis this August. Despite Shinseki’s pledge to end the problem within five years, the challenge is expected to grow, not diminish, as more and more American troops come home to a weakened economy and diminished job market.
This article was first published in full on the American Legion website at www.legion.org on July 16, 2011. Read the full article here.
