Darryl Vincent, Chief Operating Officer and Hawaii State Director for U.S.VETS, recently participated in a news conference about the new program, called Housing First.

Click to view the story on KOHN Channel 2 News

For some homeless veterans, comprehensive rehabilitation programs like those offered by U.S.VETS may not be their only option. The Housing First program seeks to give homeless people another source of support and assistance to get back on their feet.

Mayor Jerry Weiers of Glendale spoke and thanked our veterans for their service. Mayor Weiers also announced his upcoming “Stand Up” event to be held in the City of Glendale at the Glendale Community College, which will focus on preventing homelessness.

Alex Newton, an alumni of the VIP program and newest VSA employee for U.S.VETS – Phoenix, told her story during the opening ceremony for the event. She spoke about hope, and how U.S.VETS-Phoenix did not allow her to lose hope in herself. At the conclusion of her speech Mayor Weiers presented Alex with the Mayor’s Coin, and commended her for not giving up and for being a beacon of light to other homeless veterans.

After the opening ceremony it was time for fun! There was a BBQ with live music, and a variety of games like Bingo, ping-pong, dominoes, Texas Hold ‘Em, and a billiards tournament. The bravest souls in attendence even participated in a karaoke competition! Bingo prizes were handed out by special guests, the Vintage Vixens. In all over $1,500 in Wal-Mart gift cards were awarded. Many of our veterans said that it was the best event that they had attended.

Thanks to everyone who came out and joined us, and special thanks to the Arizona Relocation Alliance, Rinaldi’s, and Brookfield for sponsoring such an amazing event. We look forward to doing it again next year!

See a photo gallery of the event:
Click to view slideshow.

The 3rd Annual Female Veterans Stand Down is coming soon to Long Beach, California! If you are a veteran, registration is now open to attend. You can also register now to become a vendor, sponsor or volunteer.

Click here to visit our events calendar for more details or to register.

U.S.VETS is breaking ground on a new facility that will provide housing for 85 veterans in SE Washington D.C., becoming the largest veterans program of this nature in the area. The program will serve more than 200 veterans annually, significantly reducing the number of veterans on the streets of Washington D.C.

Each year, The Home Depot Foundation hosts 12 Community Building Invitationals that give participants an opportunity to volunteer and make a difference for a local nonprofit organization. This year, U.S.VETS – Long Beach was selected as a beneficiary of one of these invitationals.

The large-scale service project included improvements to several areas around the site. Some of the improvements include:

• Fresh coats of paint for the administration building and permanent housing
• New and improved outdoor seating areas, landscaping, and barbeque stations throughout the 26-acre campus
• New window coverings, kitchen storage, outdoor furniture, and play equipment for the women and children staying in the ADVANCE program. A new gazebo was also built for comfortable outdoor socializing.
• A complete overhaul of the community garden. The new garden has individual plots that U.S.VETS clients can care for, including raised beds for handicap access, as well as a new vegetable garden.

Thank you to the Home Depot Foundation and volunteers for helping make such a huge difference in the lives of the veterans at U.S.VETS – Long Beach. Throughout the day, veterans and volunteers were able to share their stories and express their appreciation for the work being done.

Please enjoy a few pictures from the event!

About The Home Depot Foundation: The Home Depot Foundation is dedicated to improving the homes of U.S. military veterans through financial and volunteer resources to help nonprofit organizations. The Foundation has committed $80 million to these efforts over five years.

Through Team Depot, the company’s associate-led volunteer program, thousands of Home Depot associates volunteer their time and talents to positively transform neighborhoods and perform basic repairs and modifications to homes and facilities serving veterans with critical housing needs.

Since its formation in 2002, The Home Depot Foundation has granted more than $340 million to nonprofit organizations improving homes and lives in local communities. To learn more, visit www.homedepotfoundation.org.

This year, U.S.VETS – Houston is kicking off the celebrations with our 6th Annual Patriot Fun Run/Walk at the Downtown Aquarium from 8-10 a.m. There is an Armed Forces Day Celebration scheduled immediately after across the street at Baker Common & Sesquicentennial Promenade along Buffalo Bayou until 2 p.m.

Come out and show your support for our troops, past and present. Rolling Thunder will roll through to kick off the 5K event. Color Guard will be present as well as representatives from all Branches of U.S. Military Service. Immediately after the 5K, it’s time for some sunshine along Buffalo Bayou where there will be live music, entertainment for the kids, informational booths and vendors.

Sign up to run or walk for our veterans, and stay to honor all those who serve or have served in our armed forces!

For more information about the event and how you can get involved, please contact Jennifer Austin at jaustin@usvetsinc.org.

(from left to right) Willie Gittens, Dallas Cowboys; Mike Biggs, Veteran Service Assistant for U.S.VETS – Phoenix; Mike Richardson, Chicago Bears; Eric Swinney, U.S.VETS client; Ron Washington, Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers

They were given an overview of our programs as well as a short tour of our facility. As stated, they were very appreciative of the efforts of U.S.VETS-Phoenix to house veterans. Although impressed with all our veterans, they were particularly interested in services provided to our returning troops.

They took this opportunity to speak with some of the veterans residing at Grand Veterans Village, but more importantly, they took the time to personally thank veterans for their service.

Thank you all for coming out to U.S.VETS to show your support!

If you would like to arrange a visit to a U.S.VETS site near you, please check our directory for contact information.

Homelessness doesn’t just affect Vietnam-era veterans, however. More than 35% of post-9/11 veterans in Los Angeles County do not have enough employment to provide a sustainable level of income. Most these veterans are rent-burdened, spending between 30-50% of their monthly income on rent alone, and nearly a third spend more than half of their income on rent. As the wars in the Middle East continue to wind down, more and more veterans are returning home to a country that doesn’t have jobs waiting for them.

The high cost of living in California prevents tens of thousands of these veterans from fully reintegrating with civilian life. In fact, more than 25% of the nation’s homeless veterans live in California.

On Tuesday, April 9, Stephen Peck addressed these concerns to the California State Senate. Funding through SB 391 (the California Homes and Jobs Act of 2013) could be used to provide housing and services to California’s large veteran population. “We would like to see this bill honor the special commitment we have made to veterans by putting some focus on this population,” said Peck.

As President and CEO of U.S.VETS, which is based in Los Angeles and is the nation’s largest nonprofit provider of comprehensive services to homeless and at-risk veterans, Peck is well aware of the challenges facing homeless veterans. Over the last 20 years, U.S.VETS has been part of a movement that has reduced the homeless veteran population by two-thirds. “But that doesn’t tell the whole story,” said Peck. There are still 19,000 homeless veterans in California alone. Every effort must be made not only to reduce the number of older veterans already living on the streets, but to prevent young vets from ever ending up there.

Peck wants SB 391 to have stronger language about the impact of the bill for homeless veterans, so that “an appropriate amount of this funding can be used to help those who have served our country.” The funding would provide safe, clean housing for veterans who would not be able to afford it otherwise.

No matter where or when they served, veterans deserve the funding support for affordable housing in California. “There is a national effort to end homelessness among veterans and the creation of affordable housing with support services is a key part of that effort,” said Peck. “If we are going to give these young veterans a chance, if we’re going to enable disabled veterans to live a life of dignity, if we’re going to give struggling veteran families a chance, we have to create housing that they can afford, otherwise we risk the danger of creating a permanent lower class, locked out of the American dream. We have to make inroads on this vulnerable population. No veteran who served our country should live the indignity of substandard housing or homelessness.”

For the past two months, 25 U.S.VETS clients were hired by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to conduct in-person surveys with homeless people across Los Angeles County. Every two years, LAHSA – the lead homeless agency in the region – conducts a comprehensive count of homeless people in the county, which helps Congress and other stakeholders understand the extent of homelessness in our region. LAHSA then follows up the count with interviews with homeless individuals to find out more information about why they are homeless, where they come from, their age and other vital demographic information. As LAHSA’s Executive Director Michael Arnold says, understanding the problem is the first step to solving it.

Our vets did amazing work on the two-month job. They started early, worked long days (rain or shine) and showed the professionalism, dedication, compassion and persistence needed to get more than 3,000 homeless people to participate in the interviews.

But LAHSA didn’t stop there. The agency then wrote up a summary of each of the veterans who had worked on the project and sent out a request to hundreds of their service providers, stakeholders and sister agencies, asking them to consider hiring the veterans in permanent jobs. With the boost of support from LAHSA, many unemployed vets are well on their way to finding meaningful employment again.

For more information about LAHSA and the homeless count, please go to www.lahsa.org.

The story below originally appeared on nbcnews.com on March 29, 2013.

Can Washington get vets off the streets? Tens of thousands homeless despite billions in spending

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

Despite funding that has reached $5.8 billion annually and a slew of innovative community partnerships, the Obama administration is lagging in its goal to end homelessness among veterans – or, as federal veterans’ leaders like to say, “drive to zero” – by the end of 2015.

If the current rate of progress is maintained, roughly 45,000 veterans would still be without homes when the deadline passes — a big improvement since the drive was launched but also evidence of how difficult it is to eradicate the problem.

“I don’t truly think you can end homelessness,” said John Scott, who heads the Phoenix office of U.S. Vets, a national, nonprofit service provider to homeless and at-risk veterans that receives some federal funding. “Things happen that can precipitate homelessness for anyone, and it can happen quite rapidly. However, we can effect change in veterans who have been chronically homeless.”

Scott, a former Marine Corps sergeant, was a keynote speaker at the November 2009 summit where Veterans Administration Secretary Eric Shinseki proclaimed that he and President Obama were “personally committed to ending homelessness among veterans within the next five years.” (The VA now cites the end of 2015 as its target.)

That crusade thus far has housed 12,990 veterans, an average of 361 per month. At the last count, which took place in January 2012 and was released in December, some 62,000 veterans still were homeless, meaning the campaign would need to average about 1,300 per month to meet its mark.

“While there may have been those who did not think ending veteran homelessness was possible (when Shinseki made his 2009 vow), it brought much needed attention to the matter,” Scott said. “And it has, in turn, created many new funding opportunities for veterans experiencing homelessness.”

Scott hammers at the problem in a state VA officials hold out as a shining prototype, where in 2012 veterans accounted for just 13 percent of the adult homeless population — down from 20 percent in 2011. He oversees a tangible symbol of that drive, a former Howard Johnson hotel refurbished into apartments meant to shelter more than 130 homeless veterans. It’s called Grand Veterans Village…

Read the rest of the story at nbcnews.com.