[House Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EVALUATING FEDERAL AND COMMUNITY EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE VETERAN
HOMELESSNESS
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2014
__________
Serial No. 113-96
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
JEFF MILLER, Florida, Chairman
DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine, Ranking
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida, Vice- Minority Member
Chairman CORRINE BROWN, Florida
DAVID P. ROE, Tennessee MARK TAKANO, California
BILL FLORES, Texas JULIA BROWNLEY, California
JEFF DENHAM, California DINA TITUS, Nevada
JON RUNYAN, New Jersey ANN KIRKPATRICK, Arizona
DAN BENISHEK, Michigan RAUL RUIZ, California
TIM HUELSKAMP, Kansas GLORIA NEGRETE McLEOD, California
MIKE COFFMAN, Colorado ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire
BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio BETO O'ROURKE, Texas
PAUL COOK, California TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota
JACKIE WALORSKI, Indiana
DAVID JOLLY, Florida
Jon Towers, Staff Director
Nancy DoLan, Democratic Staff Director
Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of rule XI of the Rules of the House, public
hearing records of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs are also
published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the
official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare
both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process
of converting between various electronic formats may introduce
unintentional errors or omissions. Such occurrences are inherent in the
current publication process and should diminish as the process is
further refined.
C O N T E N T S
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Thursday, December 11, 2014
Page
Evaluating Federal and Community Efforts to Eliminate Veteran
Homelessness................................................... 1
OPENING STATEMENTS
Hon. Jeff Miller, Chairman....................................... 1
Prepared Statement........................................... 57
Hon. Michael Michaud, Ranking Member............................. 5
Prepared Statement........................................... 58
WITNESSES
Baylee Crone, Executive Director, National Coalition for Homeless
Veterans....................................................... 6
Prepared Statement........................................... 60
Steve R. Berg, Vice President for Programs and Policy, National
Alliance to End Homelessness................................... 8
Prepared Statement........................................... 63
John F. Downing, Chief Executive Officer, Soldier On............. 9
Prepared Statement........................................... 66
Phil Landis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Veterans
Village of San Diego........................................... 11
Prepared Statement........................................... 68
Casey O'Donnell, PsyD, Chief Operating Officer, Impact Services
Corporation.................................................... 13
Prepared Statement........................................... 69
Jon Sherin, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Vice President for Military
Communities and Chief Medical Officer, Volunteers of America... 15
Prepared Statement........................................... 72
Lisa Pape, Executive Diretctor, Homeless Programs, VHA, U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs................................. 41
Prepared Statement........................................... 86
Accompanied by:
Thomas O'Toole, Acting Director, National Center for
Homelessness Among Veterans, U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs
Jennifer Ho, Senior Advisor on Housing and Services to the
Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.... 43
Prepared Statement........................................... 101
Hon. Keith Kelly, Assistant Secretary of Labor, Veterans'
Employment and Training Service, U.S. Department of Labor...... 45
Prepared Statement........................................... 109
FOR THE RECORD
Friendship Place................................................. 114
National Rural Health Association................................ 122
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness................ 135
Vietnam Veterans of America...................................... 143
EVALUATING FEDERAL AND COMMUNITY EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE VETERAN
HOMELESSNESS
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Thursday, December 11, 2014
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Washington, D.C.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m., in
Room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Jeff Miller
[chairman of the committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Miller, Lamborn, Bilirakis, Roe,
Denham, Benishek, Coffman, Wenstrup, Walorski, Jolly, Michaud,
Brown, Takano, Brownley, Titus, Kirkpatrick, Ruiz, Kuster,
O'Rourke, and Walz.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JEFF MILLER
The Chairman. If I can take chairman's prerogative just a
minute. I appreciate the members' indulgence. I have already
apologized to the ranking member for not being able to be at
the reception that was held in his honor that Ms. Brown hosted
for him. I was, unfortunately, attending a funeral in The
District.
But, you know, in the nature of this business, we see
members come and we see members go. Sometimes some members are
a little bit harder to say goodbye to because they have been an
integral part of what has been going on in this process. So I
would say that those of us who have been lucky enough to have
worked with Mike Michaud, the ranking member, inside this
committee and outside, will always remember him for his jovial
nature and his constant willingness to bring both Democrats and
Republicans together. This committee, I think, has been better
because of Mike's leadership.
The work that he has done in this very room provides a
perfect illustration of Mike's commonsense, bipartisan approach
to getting things done. So, in an era that has been plagued by
hyperpartisanship, Mike deserves great credit for his work to
keep the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs one of the few
places that is virtually immune from the way Washington has
come to work. Our committee has lead the charge on uncovering
the largest scandal in healthcare issues in VA history. During
that time, Mike has been relentless in his pursuit of the truth
in getting to the bottom of the all of the questions that our
committee has answered.
This past summer, when it was time for the Senate and the
House conference committee to get together to reach a deal on
our reform bill, Mike played an integral role to bringing both
sides together to find common ground and that is why that piece
of legislation was able to pass by such a wide margin in both
the House and over in the Senate as well.
He is as serious as I was about seeing meaningful reform at
the VA. His leadership was critical to helping all of us
achieve our goals. I have served on this committee with Mike
for over a decade now. I think you could probably count the
number of committee hearings he has missed on one hand, and I
think that is a testimony to his dedication to those that he
serves and the passion that he has. Mike is a passionate,
pragmatic member of this committee as anyone who has ever
served on it has seen. America's veterans are losing a powerful
voice in Washington, and this institution is saying goodbye to
one of its finest Members.
So, Mike, thanks for your years of exemplary service to our
committee, this Congress, to our Veterans, and to this country.
I know I speak for everyone here saying you are going to be
sorely missed.
Do have any comments?
Mr. Michaud. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for that
very kind and very generous remarks. I really appreciate it
very much. As you know, this does mark my last hearing as
member of this committee and this Congress. Although I am
looking forward to the opportunity and the challenges that lie
ahead of me, the years ahead, I definitely will miss this
committee and the work that this committee has done over a
number of years.
And to the incoming ranking member, Ms. Brown, I know you
have spent 22 years on the committee. You have been a strong
voice for our veterans, you know, here in this committee. I
hope that you enjoy the ranking membership position as much as
I have over the last, you know, several years.
And to my fellow Democrats, I want to thank you as well. I
can't thank you enough for the work that you have done on this
committee. You have made my job as a ranking member a very easy
job, working together, particularly during these turbulent
times over the last couple of years dealing with the VA. And I
appreciate the energy and the excitement that you brought on
the Democratic side. And I hope you will continue to with your
efforts in the next Congress in the years ahead.
And to our Republican colleagues, I want to thank you very
much. I have been on several CODELs with a lot of you over the
years. I really appreciate the efforts that you have done to
make this committee a bipartisan committee, and I cherish the
friendship and the camaraderie that we have had over a number
of years. And this committee definitely is a special committee.
And although there are times that--when we differ on
perspectives and how to best serve our veterans, we work
together without regard to party. And that is what it is all
about.
And I hope that the American people will look at this
committee as a model and look at you, Mr. Chairman, as a leader
and insist that their representatives do what we have done here
over a number of years in this committee working together. And
we can't do it alone. I want to thank Nancy and my staff on
this side of the aisle for your tireless effort. I want to
thank Jon Towers and the Republican majority staff as well. The
committee staff has done a phenomenal job over the last couple
of years. And I really appreciate the work that you have done,
especially the administrative staff. You keep everything on
time and make sure that we have what we have to do, you know,
as well. So I want to thank you very much.
And, in closing, Mr. Chairman, I really do appreciate our
friendship over the years. And as you mentioned, you know, we
meet a lot of individuals here in Congress. A lot we consider
friends. There are some we consider friends in a more, you
know, special way. And I consider you a very good friend. We
have switched roles over the time as Members of Congress; so me
being chair, you being ranking member and visa vera. And I
really appreciate that, your openness, your willingness to
listen to me as a minority member and as a ranking member and
move forward in that regard. So I want to thank you very much.
And this time, in closing, I know you have talked on the
House floor, you have talked in this committee about coming to
the State of Maine, how you want to be able to shoot a moose.
Unfortunately, I was not able to win the governorship. But,
hopefully, you will not forget that--and I will not forget your
efforts to try to shoot a moose in the State of Maine. So I do
have something I would like to present to you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. That is cool.
Mr. Michaud. Actually, in Maine, in the woods, moose, they
do lose their antlers. And I have a constituent actually that
goes through the woods to try to get moose antlers to carve out
an eagle head in the moose antler. So this is the half of a
moose antler.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to present it to you in your
drive to actually get a full moose in the State of Maine. And I
would like to present this to you as a parting gift for your
friendship, your loyalty, but, more importantly, your work that
you have done for veterans over a number of years, putting
aside partisan politics to do what is right for our veterans.
So here is a freedom antler with an eagle from the State of
Maine. So----
The Chairman. Thank you, Mike, very much. If you ever go to
Maine, you have to drink the state drink of Moxie when you come
there. So it has been a great, great run. And I thank you.
I also want to say thank you to the departing members of
our committee that won't be returning to this committee and we
are going on to other assignments. We appreciate your
diligence, especially over the last couple of years and
understand that your work is just the beginning. We have a long
way to go working with the Department, and I had a great
conversation with the Secretary a couple of nights ago. We were
on the same flight as I was leaving Washington. I do believe he
is committed to making some changes, but he has got a lot of
work to do. We are going to try to help him in every way we
can.
So, with that, the committee will come to order. We are
going to have a hearing this morning--it is actually the last
hearing of the 113th Congress--evaluating Federal and community
efforts to eliminate veteran homelessness. At this time of
year, perhaps more than any other, the thought of anyone,
particularly anyone who has served our Nation in uniform,
without a home or a safe place to sleep is unconscionable and
heartbraking. Unfortunately, homelessness or the constant
threat of it has become a way of life for far too many of our
Nation's veterans.
In 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs initiated a 5-
year plan to eliminate veteran homelessness. As that deadline
fast approaches, I am pleased to report that the VA has
succeeded in reducing veteran homelessness by approximately 33
percent. Yet, as long as a single veteran struggles with
housing instability or homelessness, our work remains.
Troublingly, a VA Inspector General report issued just last
week found that VA's national call center for homeless veterans
missed well over 40,000 opportunities to link homeless veteran
callers to VA medical facilities and to ensure that they
received their needed services. Some of these missed
opportunities resulted from the unavailability of call center
staff during peak business hours when veteran callers were
transferred to answering machines, instead of call center
employees. I think you will agree this is unacceptable for any
government program, but particularly--particularly a population
that is as vulnerable as this one is, a population that, for
some, the ability to merely make a phone call is a logistical
challenge. I look forward to hearing today how VA is correcting
the serious deficiencies that the IG found and holding those at
fault accountable for their management or mismanagement and
oversight failures.
Unfortunately, the call center is just one concern that I
have with VA's homeless programs. Based on the information from
the VA, the Department has roughly 20 different programs
designed to get homeless veterans off the streets and provide
them with housing, healthcare, and employment assistance. The
Departments of Housing and Urban Developments and Labor also
have programs aimed at achieving the same goals. So I am
encouraged to see the level of cooperation between these
government agencies.
I understand that homeless veterans are a varied and
complex group, and one program alone cannot effectively treat
the unique needs of all of them. However, the plethora of
different programs that are in place today beg the question of
whether significant overlaps exist that both waste taxpayer
money and limits the effectiveness of any single program's
ability to effectively care for a veteran that may be in need.
I also have concerns about the increasingly insular focus
the Department is placing on permanent housing. Except for the
very few veterans for whom housing instability may be a
lifelong concern due to underlying health conditions, the
foremost goal of every program serving homeless veterans should
be providing a bridge to an independent, a purpose-filled life,
not a permanent, government-sponsored home.
Over the last several years, the American taxpayer has
devoted record amounts of their tax Dollars to eliminating
veteran homelessness, with funding for targeted homelessness
programs increasing by almost 300 percent and funding for
healthcare for homeless veterans increasing by more than 80
percent since fiscal year 2009. Despite this considerable
investment, veteran homelessness will never be completely
eliminated so long as veterans struggle with the underlying
health conditions and are in an economic crisis.
Quickly and effectively diagnosing and treating those
underlying health conditions and providing veterans who are
able with job training and placement services is critical to
empowering homeless veterans to successfully re-integrate into
stable community environments. To truly honor and respect the
service of a homeless veteran is to provide him or her with a
pathway to a life of dignity and self-sufficiency, not just
four walls and a roof.
With that, I now yield to the ranking member, Mr. Michaud,
for an opening statement.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Jeff Miller appears in
the Appendix]
OPENING STATEMENT OF RANKING MEMBER MICHAEL MICHAUD
Mr. Michaud. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
The VA's goal of ending veterans homelessness by the year
2015 is an ambitious goal. A remarkable progress has been made
by the VA to meet this challenge, but there is much more that
still has to be done that we have to focus on.
As we all realize, VA cannot meet this goal alone. It will
take the concerted effort and actions of the Federal Government
and the assistance of organizations and individuals all across
the country. And I look forward to the hearing today so that we
can evaluate the effectiveness of this effort and applaud the
real progress that has been made.
According to reports, homelessness among veterans has
declined by 33 percent to roughly 50,000 since 2010. This is an
accomplishment we all can be proud of, but we have still a lot
of work to do in dealing with our homeless veterans. And it is
simply unacceptable that any of our veterans do not have a roof
over their head. I am also concerned that we are not taking
adequate steps to address special populations, such as homeless
woman veterans and those who need serious and sustainable
assistance.
Today's hearing provides us with the opportunity to
continue this discussion. It provides us the opportunity to
discuss how we define the goals of ending veterans
homelessness, the resources needed for that, and work that
remains to be done in the years ahead.
And, with that, Mr. Chairman, I would ask for my full
comments to be included in the record and look forward to
hearing the panel's discussion this morning.
[The prepared statement of Ranking Member Michael Michaud
appears in the Appendix]
The Chairman. Without objection, your statement will be
entered into the record. I would ask the first panel, if you
could, come and take your seat. As you are taking your seats, I
will introduce everyone.
Joining us on the first panel today is Baylee Crone, the
executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless
Veterans; Steven Berg, the vice president for programs and
policy for the National Alliance to End Homelessness; John
Downing, the chief executive officer of Soldier On; Phil
Landis, president and chief executive officer of the Veterans
Village of San Diego, of which several of us have had a chance
to visit; Dr. Casey O'Donnell, the chief operating officer of
Impact Services Corporation; and Dr. Jon Sherin, the executive
vice president for military communities and chief medical
officer of Volunteers of America.
Thank you all for being here this morning to share your
expertise.
Ms. Crone, you are first up. You are recognized with your
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF BAYLEE CRONE
Ms. Crone. Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Michaud, and
distinguished members of the House Committee on Veterans
Affairs, thank you for the opportunity to appear before this
committee today. My name is Baylee Crone, and I am the
executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless
Veterans. On behalf of the more than 2100 community and faith-
based organizations NCHV represents, I would like to thank all
of you for your steadfast commitment to serving our Nation's
most vulnerable heroes.
This testimony will focus on our understanding of the
progress made to end veteran homelessness in this country,
including efforts to match services to the needs of homeless
and at-risk veterans through permanent housing, transitional
housing, employment, and prevention initiatives.
National declines in veteran homelessness since 2009 are
without precedent, as we have heard this morning. The successes
we have seen to date and our future successes rely on the
strength of VA's front lines, the community providers, and VA
case managers who fight the daily battle to do more, better,
and faster. The momentum is on the side of rapid change, and we
are closer than ever to achieving our mission of effectively
ending Veteran homelessness. However, any veteran homelessness
is not a moment. It is a moving target.
Looking at one measure, the 2014 point-in-time count tells
an important part of this story. On a single night in January,
49,933 veterans were homeless. This 33 percent decline since
2009 is more than a statistic. It represents a real measurable
downward trend in homelessness among veterans. These
significant drops happened as community organizations and VA
medical centers have improved outreach and targeted their
services to those with the most significant barriers. To make
progress toward our mission, we must see drops in the point-in-
time count, but that is not the only aspect of change we need
to see.
Across the country, community organizations and VA partners
are stepping in with the safety net and a hand up to self-
sufficiency and independence. We are fostering empowerment. We
are halting cycles of abuse. We are educating and protecting.
These activities may not show up in any official point-in-time
count, but they are and will continue to being the actions
protecting against homelessness for many veterans.
The PIT count is a snapshot. Other data build out a more
robust scene of the challenges we face in the road ahead. In
2014, 80 percent of unsheltered veterans moved out of
unsheltered status in 3 days. In that same period, over 50,000
veterans achieved permanent housing through the supportive
services for veteran families program, far outpacing the VA's
goal of 40,000. These are some of the data points that show us
that fuller picture. Veterans are engaging when they need help.
They are moving rapidly off the streets, and they are
successfully moving into permanent housing.
The VA updated its homeless gaps analysis and launched the
25 cities campaign to promote community-based solutions to
ending veteran homelessness in high-need areas. The picture
gains more clarity. Results are being meticulously and
consistently tracked to improve targeting to meet specific
local and individual needs. The system has improved, and it is
working. At NCHV, we demand that individual needs match
specific services. We do not have a homeless veteran
population. We have individual veterans who are homeless and
have specific and unique needs profiles to be addressed through
a coordinated system of care.
Wherever chronic, episodic, or at-risk homelessness exists,
the VA and its community partners must be ready and armed. We
can end chronic homelessness. We are already doing it through
HUD-VASH and Housing First. We can functionally end episodic
and recent homelessness. Rapid rehousing infrastructure,
transitional housing, and income interventions are joining
together to make this happen.
We can get ahead of homelessness through prevention. SSVF
serves more veterans and their families more cost-effectively
every single year.
The full picture is complicated, but it is lit up with
hope. Ending veteran homelessness starts with the veteran, and
people are complicated. Some individuals with complex needs
profiles will be served by several programs. This does not mean
that the services are being duplicated, but rather the
organizations and programs are working together to address
specific barriers to permanent housing. We believe in and will
defend effective deployment of targeted resources to field
research-based interventions when and where they are needed. As
the number of veterans on the streets and in temporary shelter
goes down, we will need to be more, not less, diligent in
ensuring that we provide that hand up to those who remain on
the streets.
We will end veteran homelessness, but reaching that
benchmark happens when the systems in place are ready and able
to immediately meet a veteran's needs should he fall into
homelessness or be at high risk. As we make progress, resources
will need to be redeployed, not withdrawn. We believe a surge
is still needed now, not because we set a goal for 2015 and
want to check a box, but because we have the momentum now to
make it happen for veterans. This requires full funding HVRP, a
surge in SSVF resources, and maintenance of current eligibility
for veterans served through VHA homeless grant programs.
Thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony
today. It is a privilege to work with this committee to ensure
that every veteran in crisis has access to the support services
they have earned through their service to this country. Thank
you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Baylee Crone appears in the
Appendix]
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Crone.
Mr. Berg, thank you for being here. You are recognized for
your opening statement.
STATEMENT OF STEVEN R. BERG
Mr. Berg. Thank you for having me. Thank you for all the
members of the committee to come here. This is the end of this
Congress today, it looks like, and I hope that this hearing
will mark the beginning of a final push to achieve something
very important in this country that is long overdue.
I have a lot of wonky things I can talk about about
homelessness. At the National Alliance, we make a point of
being experts on what it takes to end homelessness. But I sort
of feel like, for 5 minutes, I really need to make this point:
Once in a rare occasion, our country has a chance to do
something that is really great, and that happens on the even
more rare occasion when people in leadership positions
recognize that that is what they are facing, that they are
facing that kind of opportunity. And that the appropriate thing
to do is to put aside business as usual and instead come
together and focus on what we can be doing to make this result
more likely to happen.
And if nothing else happens in this hearing, if no other
message gets across, I hope people will leave with an
understand that, when we are dealing with veterans
homelessness, that is the situation we are facing. For way too
long, veterans have been overrepresented among the homeless
population. When modern homelessness first emerged in the
economic crisis of the early 1980s, people would come back from
Vietnam. A certain number of them were having a very hard time,
and they became homeless in droves, and we let it happen. We
didn't really understand what homelessness was all about then.
We didn't know what the--what the right interventions were, but
we didn't do anything to stop it. And since that time, veterans
homelessness has been a bigger part of the problem than it
should be. It shouldn't be any part of the problem.
So, right now, we have, I think, what we have seen going
beyond the numbers, just--a 33 percent reduction is an
important thing. But that didn't--it is important to understand
that didn't happen by coincidence, it didn't happen by luck. It
happened because a lot of people have been doing the right
thing, including people in this committee, have been doing the
right thing to make it happen. So I want to spend a couple of
minutes talking about why this is working and a couple--and
then a quick rundown of what we need to do next.
It is working for a couple of reasons. One, I think there
has been leadership at the Federal level. I think the VA, after
sort of skirting around the issue for a number of years, has
embraced the idea that they are going to have to be the leaders
on this. They can't look to anybody else. VA is going to have
to be the leaders on this from the Federal Government's point
of view.
They have understood, also, however, that they need to work
with many others within the Federal Government, with HUD, with
the Department of Labor, with other departments, with nonprofit
communities all over the country to make these things happen.
The VA set up the National Center on Homelessness Among
Veterans. This has been very important. A joint project with
the University of Pennsylvania where there is some--at the
University of Pennsylvania happens to be where some of the real
experts on homelessness around the country teach there. Dr.
Dennis Culhane, if any of you have never met him, if you can
sit and talk with him about homelessness for a little while,
you will feel like you are a smarter person than before you
started talking to him. I guarantee it.
The VA has put the right kind of program models in place
with the help of Congress. Congress has authorized new
programs, both more intensive programs that are more about
long-term housing and supports like the HUD-VASH program. But
then, as Mr. Miller started by saying, most homeless veterans
don't need long-term intensive help. They need short-term help
to deal with a short-term crisis, and that is what this rapid
rehousing model and the SSVF program are all about.
Tremendously effective.
And, finally, communities are seizing control of this issue
and taking it upon themselves, through the leadership of
mayors, through the leadership of veterans healthcare
directors, to use the tools that Congress and the VA have made
available and really put them to work and try to get results.
VA is helping with that with various technical assistance
initiatives. Other people need help as well. We are trying to
do our part at the National Alliance to End Homelessness to
spread that information.
There is some work that Congress needs to do. I have
outlined that in my written testimony. There are some short-
term fixes to a couple of the programs that would be very
important. We are going to have a longer-term need, as veterans
homelessness gets down close to zero, to redesign the homeless
programs to be about preventing homelessness. That shift from
intervention to prevention will be a very important work for
this committee in the next Congress. And we are looking forward
to working with you all at that time. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Steven Berg appears in the
Appendix]
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Berg.
Mr. Downing, it is good to see you and you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF JOHN F. DOWNING
Mr. Downing. Good morning, Mr. Miller. It is a privilege to
be here with your committee.
Congressman Michaud, it is great to be with you, a fellow
New Englander, and the fellow that really, if you lived in New
England, has really revived the Togus Medical Center and made
it a facility that is really much more interactive with all the
other facilities in the area.
I am honored to be here today on behalf of Soldier On and
the 3,800 veterans we have served last year. We have become the
largest provider of supportive service grants of veterans of
the United States of America. Soldier On operates eight SSVF
grants throughout five Eastern States. This was accomplished
with the assistance of Congressman Richie Neal and James
McGovern from Massachusetts; Congressman Chris Smith from New
Jersey; Congressman Chris Gibson from New York.
In addition to that, we serve 76 counties in Mississippi;
23 counties in Pennsylvania; and we now do the 4 western
counties in Massachusetts. Next year, we are slated to increase
the breadth and depth of our services and assist more than
5,300 veterans and family members with special focus on the
chronically homeless veterans whose lives are reduced by an
average of 20 years when compared to their stably housed
brothers and sisters.
The Department of Veterans Affairs' goal to end veteran
homelessness by 2015 was not a goal that could take place
without examining and combatting the underlying effects that
cause poverty and which really is the cause of homelessness.
The lack of safe affordable housing, with services on site, has
allowed veterans in poverty and those suffering from untreated
and undertreated mental health and addiction disorders to be
left forgotten and alone in their prolonged states of
homelessness.
Eliminating homelessness requires a society to look at
these causes of poverty, which in a capitalistic society are
rooted in income and cultural enrichment that we translate to
mean education. As a result of that, the lack of those
opportunities, the reality is that our goal has been to bring
each homeless veteran back to the center of their life.
With great help from the national director of homelessness,
Lisa Pape, Soldier On became a leading grant per diem shelter
bed provided for the VA. And we house every night 265 men and
women in western Massachusetts homeless veterans, every night;
13 of them are women. And for 13 years, the 13 women--every
woman that has ever come into our care--and we need to hear
this--70 percent of the homeless women that come into our care
experienced sexual trauma before they enlisted in the military;
100 percent of the women in my care have suffered military
sexual trauma. It is a dynamic that we can't deny, and it is
one that we must face more effectively in the Department of
Defense on how we treat this issue. And we must begin to put
women in charge of this issue and allow them to review and
establish the standards by which we are going to be held
accountable. And until we do that, we will continue this
tragedy.
I also want to make sure that we understand that safe,
sustainable affordable housing is one of the keys to ending
homelessness. But housing itself doesn't do it. We need to
deliver services to the housing. How can we continue to expect
men and women who are chronically mentally ill, addicted, don't
have transportation, are underemployed, to keep three or four
or five appointments a week? How can we expect them to find
medical centers 30, 40, 50 miles from where they live? We must
find them. We must go out and seek them.
And we have been motivated by the SSVF work we do and by,
really, the push from Vince Kane, when he was the director at
the Center for Excellence, to get out there and do it. Not to
have excuses. And so we have really worked hard at SSVF, and we
are looking to continue to develop beautiful, affordable
housing that veterans own and live in and deliver services to
them.
So, with the VAi2, we were awarded $6 million. And at the
North Hampton VA in Massachusetts, we are now building 44 units
of limited equity co-op for homeless veterans to own, live in,
and have the services delivered to them there, and 16 units for
women and children. And women and children, when we talk to
them about moving to the community or moving to staying on the
hospital grounds, they chose to stay on the hospital grounds
because they felt safe and secure there.
So we need to understand that this--that the Housing First
model really works, but it only works when we deliver services
where people live and we must be mobile. The VA has got to get
mobile, and we have got to stop funding this incompetent--
skilled incompetent bureaucracy and begin to make it
accountable by going out and identifying the veterans
delivering the services where they live. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. John Downing appears in the
Appendix]
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Downing.
Mr. Landis, thank you for being with us today. You are
recognized.
STATEMENT OF PHIL LANDIS
Mr. Landis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the
committee. My name is Phil Landis. So I am a president and a
chief executive officers of Veterans Village of San Diego. And,
sir, thank you for visiting us last year.
As a matter of disclosure, you should be aware that I am a
member of the VA Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans and I
am neither speaking for the VA, nor for the advisory committee
today.
Veterans Village of San Diego is a nationally recognized
nonprofit that has served veterans since 1981. Using six
pillars of prevention, intervention, treatment, aftercare,
employment services, and housing, VVSD assists veterans who
have substance abuse and mental health issues, including men
and women recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Working with addiction case managers and mental health
professionals, residents have an opportunity to rebuild lives,
repair relationships, and return to society as productive
citizens. Housing First is an admirable and reasonable idea for
many homeless veterans. In fact, since October of 2013, we have
placed over 550 Veterans into permanent housing. However, for
veterans with co-occurring disorders, housing without treatment
is a major risk factor and, if left untreated or unmanaged,
becomes progressive and life threatening.
VA is putting a preponderance of their homeless Dollars
into repaid rehousing and VASH. They have eliminated new
funding for grant and per diem. Grant and per diem funding
focuses on treatment and employment for transitional housing.
And there is a need for both. To substantially reduce or
eliminate grant and per diem beds would be short-sighted and,
quite frankly, disastrous.
Since the inception of our Supportive Services for Veteran
Families, SSVF, program in 2013, we have assisted 263 veteran
households who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless
into stable housing. This program is a great tool in fighting
homelessness amongst the veteran population. The program
prevents homelessness amongst veteran families and works with
those who are homeless to rapidly enter permanent housing and
utilizing the Housing First model.
This model works very well for many of the post 9/11
generation who only need a hand up. One of the benefits of the
Housing First model is the singular focus on addressing the
participants' housing crisis. However, we have seen that the
SSVF participants and others who are not ready to address their
primary cause of homelessness, whether it is substance abuse or
mental health issues, are not ready to maintain long-term
housing stability. Therefore, having the option to be in a
formal treatment setting or transitional housing program
benefits them in the long run and gives them the opportunity to
work on their barriers prior to obtaining permanent housing.
Our experience indicates that when a homeless veteran is
denied the opportunity for a rehabilitation program or
prematurely departs from a rehabilitation program in the VASH
housing, unless intensive services continue, the risk of
relapse, ending up in prison, or death occurs far too often.
And here are just a few recent examples from our program: A
veteran is placed into VASH housing that experienced severe,
unintended consequences. Danielle, age 30, combat vet, within 2
weeks in VASH apartment, relapsed on heroin. She is now in
jail. Michael, age 57, relapsed a short time after moving into
VASH housing, lost his home and is now in prison. Thomas, age
41, was very active in a recovery program and community.
Transitioned into VASH housing. Relapsed on methamphetamine
within 3 months. Vernon, age 63, transitioned into VASH
housing, relapsed on drug, now in prison. Phillip, age 33,
combat vet going to school on the GI bill, school funding fell
through due to low grades, relapsed on alcohol. He is currently
awaiting transfer to a State prison. Walter, age 51, worked in
active recovery program, found dead in VASH apartment in August
of 2014. The medical examiner reported cause of death was
alcohol related. Scott relapsed and lost apartment within 2
months. James, age 56, relapsed 1 month later, now in jail.
You kind of get the idea.
Now, here is one that we really need to pay attention to
because it seems to be under the radar: Joe Vaughn, age 27,
combat vet, was in a long-term residential treatment program.
Doing extremely well. When he received his VA 100 percent
disability rating, the HUD income cap rule forced us to exit
him from the program. We are seeing more and more of that. It
might be something you would like to focus on.
Homeless veterans who have lost their way due to substance
use and/or mental health issues have also lost their job. And
they have lost their community, their identity, their support
system, their sense of camaraderie, their mission in life, and
their financial stability. Programs that would provide housing
but fail to address these underlying unmet needs will set
veterans up for failure.
For those who are situationally homeless due to a recent
family crisis, job loss, or medical condition, the Housing
First model is truly ideal.
For those who are chronically homeless due to mental health
issues, substance use, long-term medical conditions and/or
criminal justice involvement, it is imperative to implement an
assessment protocol that could triage the neediest, most
vulnerable, high-risk, and disenfranchised veterans for whom
residential treatment is essential.
Our goals at VVSD is to break the cycle of homelessness
among veterans and their families. In order for us to succeed
in our efforts, we think it is crucial that we address the
various reasons veterans become homeless in the first place.
Not all veterans are ready to sustain themselves in housing.
Not every veteran will have substance abuse or mental health
challenges.
But having both an SSVF and a veteran treatment center in
the same agency allows us to make a substantial difference in
the veteran community. One size does not fit all. And Housing
First, at the exclusion of everything else, is just plain
nonsense.
In conclusion, at Veterans Village of San Diego, we believe
intensive services leads to self-sustaining independence and a
maximizing of human potential and a meaningful, fulfilling
life. Our veterans are worthy of nothing less. Thank you, sir.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Phil Landis appears in the
Appendix]
The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Landis.
Dr. O'Donnell, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF CASEY O'DONNELL, PSY.D.
Dr. O'Donnell. Good morning, Chairman Miller, Ranking
Member Michaud, and esteemed committee members. Thank you for
the opportunity to offer this testimony.
My name is Casey O'Donnell. I am currently the chief
operating officer of Impact Services Corporation in
Philadelphia. For the last 20 years, Impact has been providing
both housing and employment-focused programs to homeless
veterans who suffer from both mental illness and substance
abuse.
Impact's current continuum of housing includes 150 beds of
both transitional and permanent housing. Impact's program was
one of the first and was one of the few programs in the Nation
exclusively serving dually diagnosed formerly homeless
veterans.
Since 1994, Impact has also been providing employment
services through the Department of Labor's Homeless Veteran
Reintegration Program. In addition to these programs, Impact
has recently received surge priority one funding.
Finally, Impact will break ground on 26 units of affordable
permanent housing for low-income veterans and their families,
focusing on females, on Monday, December 15th. You are all
welcome to join us for the groundbreaking.
We are working in close collaboration with the VA National
Center on Homelessness Among Veterans to provide all of these
services from a trauma-informed care model. I was invited to
participate in the National Center's work group to implement
trauma-informed care across the nation, both within the VA and
among community-based providers.
The national center has been an invaluable collaborative
partner in the provision of care to homeless veterans, and the
center's work related to training and implementation will be
critical to success. Men and women who have proudly served our
country through military service should not be allowed to
suffer in addiction and mental illness on the streets of any
city for one night longer. It is all of our jobs to find
veterans safe places to live, recover from trauma and substance
abuse, and improve the quality of their lives.
In fact, it is believed by those of who us who are
providers that trauma informed care is necessary to eradicate
homelessness among veterans.
Setting the deadline of December 31, 2015, to end
homelessness among veterans has become a critically important
milestone for our country. Impact has been extremely active in
the 25 Cities Initiative to end veteran homelessness in
Philadelphia. The deadline is producing hard work,
determination, and teamwork.
Over the last 11 months, with our many collaborative
partners, we have placed 556 homeless veterans in permanent
housing in Philadelphia. We have approximately 540 veterans
left to house before the deadline of December 31st, 2015. The
goal of ending veteran homelessness in Philadelphia is within
our sights. We are ending veteran homelessness in Philadelphia
by developing a safety net system that catches veterans before
they become homeless, provides intervention, when necessary, to
keep them housed, and gets them housed again if they have
slipped back into homelessness. This safety net is important as
we look at veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan who are
potentially vulnerable and may be headed toward homelessness.
Research provided by the National Center on Homelessness
Among Veterans suggests that this rapid safety net approach is
allowing approximately 80 percent of veterans to stay housed
after 90 days of case management and temporary financial
assistance through SSVF. Recent data provided by the City of
Philadelphia's Office of Supportive Housing also shows that the
number of actual homeless veterans on the streets and in many
programs in Philadelphia have decreased by 15 percent in the
last year. We expect that percentage to dramatically decrease
in 2015 and come to functional zero by January of 2016.
The safety net system has only been possible within the
context of real partnerships that are being forged between the
community and the VA as part of the 25 Cities Initiative in
response to the deadline. These partnerships have brought HUD,
the VA, local municipalities, housing authorities, and
community organizations like Impact to a common table where
systems have been changed by bringing two continuums, the city
and the VA, into alignment on outreach and assessment and
eventually on placement and retention to ensure that veterans
are being moved into housing.
Further, I would like to say that housing without jobs or
increased benefits is only a short-term strategy. Supportive
housing, integrated with programs to get vets into jobs and/or
access to benefits or increased benefits, provides a long-term
recipe for self-sufficiency. We would like to see the VA and
the Department of Labor work closely to integrate community-
based job training and job development into current housing
activities funded for veterans. A good place to start would be
a pilot with community-based veteran organizations like Impact
to better integrate SSFV, grant and per diem, HUD-VASH, and
housing with HVRP programs.
Finally, Impact currently operates four grant per diem
programs that move homeless veterans through various stages of
recovery to self-sufficiency according to their needs. Our
program is currently full. It is full because there remains a
critical need for grant and per diem to provide stable housing
and services for veterans. Impact is extremely interested in
working with Congress and the VA to test out several additional
models of housing, utilizing the VA's grant and per diem
program as the foundation of funding. Specifically, we would
like to see a percentage of grant and per diem vets converted
to provide supportive services and permanent housing, as
opposed to only transitional housing, for formerly homeless
veterans with mental health and substance abuse issues that
require a higher degree of support than independent living can
provide.
In conclusion, on behalf of my colleagues at Impact,
myself, and the veterans that we serve, I would like to thank
the members of the committee for this opportunity to testify.
Thank you for listening.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Casey O'Donnell appears in
the Appendix]
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Dr. Sherin, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF JON SHERIN, M.D., PH.D.
Dr. Sherin. Thank you, Chairman Miller, Ranking Member
Michaud, and the committee for convening today's hearing. My
name is Jon Sherin. I am a psychiatrist and neurobiologist by
trade. Though not a veteran myself, I have spent my entire
professional life serving veterans of the United States
military.
It was just 5 months ago that I testified in this same
forum on the issue of suicide in the veteran community, and it
honors me deeply to be here again testifying on homelessness,
another true emergency confronting too many former
servicemembers.
As a reminder, I worked for over a decade in VA, last as
chief of mental health at the Miami VA. Three years ago, I left
that post to join Volunteers of America, a large nonprofit
whose legacy in this arena dates back to serving Civil War
veterans. Today, providing for veterans is Volunteers of
America's top priority. Alongside VA, this past year alone, we
housed and supported roughly 20,000 homeless veterans in
communities across the Nation.
Let me begin my testimony by making clear that ending
veteran homelessness will require more than finding shelter for
all homeless veterans. It will also require making sure that
they have timely access to both a full range of services,
including family support, mental healthcare, addiction
treatment, legal aid, benefits assistance, and financial
coaching, as well as a full range of opportunities, including
education, training, and meaningful jobs.
At present, there are a number of Federal programs that
have been very effective at bringing homeless veteran numbers
down, due in large part to congressional support. Further
success will rely upon Congress continuing to provide
unprecedented resource and oversight to these efforts within
Federal agencies--within Federal agencies but also in relation
to multisector partnerships. To this end, I applaud the
committee for inviting input from the partners on this panel.
In the remainder of my testimony, I will summarize
recommendations for select Federal programs and suggest adding
a peer-to-peer strategy that could bolster our efforts.
Regarding select Federal programs, the following
recommendations are made based on my own personal experience
and input from numerous colleagues in both the VA and in the
community. They are meant as guidelines to more effectively
help homeless veterans. In markets where VA's grant and per
diem transitional housing inventory is not fully utilized, it
should be repurposed to better match local supply with local
demand and funded accordingly. No inventory should be
dismantled, shelved, or otherwise deactivated until we end
veteran homelessness. The VA's safe haven transitional program
is highly effective for chronic, recidivistic homeless veterans
and has changed the life trajectory of many veterans for whom
all other interventions have failed, some over the course of
decades. These programs tend to be full and, as such, more safe
haven inventory needs to be developed.
HUD and VA's HUD-VASH permanent housing program is highly
effective but only when adequately enriched by services
alongside housing, in accordance with the Housing First model.
In markets where VA is not equipped to provide adequate
services, it is recommended that community partners be
leveraged to do so.
The Support Services for Veteran Families program, SSVF,
created and administered by VA's National Center for
Homelessness Amongst Veterans in Philadelphia, is a game
changer that has successfully served a massive number of
veterans in a short period of time through a streamlined
partnership process. It makes sense to expand the scope and the
reach of this program by including mental health as well as
employment offerings and by loosening eligibility requirements.
In terms of a peer-to-peer strategy, it would make sense to
activate a robust, community-based workforce of trained and
certified peers who can drive outreach resource navigation and
advocacy for homeless veterans. Peers could be deployed to
suitable VA campuses, housing facilities, and service centers
and charged to connect homeless veterans to both VA and
community resources. They could also be leveraged for the same
purpose through the homeless crisis line, 211 exchanges, and
Web-based portals such POS REP. Resource to fuel this workforce
could be generated by approving veteran and peer-support
training for VA work study and/or by enrichment of the support
services grant.
In conclusion, we must actively embrace a philosophy,
create a culture and insist on policies that hold us
accountable for addressing the vast array of challenges known
to emerge for some veterans in the context of civilian life
because it is these challenges that predictably precede the
loss of a place to call home, something all of us need for
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is through your
informed legislative stewardship that our country can promote
conditions in which all sectors come together to form cohesive
American communities that welcome veterans home, ensure they
receive the services they need, and provide them ample
opportunities to thrive. Thank you very much for hearing my
testimony.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Jon Sherin appears in the
Appendix]
The Chairman. Thank you all for your testimony today. We
appreciate it, and any parts of your statement that were not
read will be entered into the record as well.
I think we all believe that ending veteran homelessness is
an important goal. It is a laudable goal, but getting to zero
is very difficult. I think, Dr. O'Donnell, you had remarked
about functional zero. Can you tell me what ``functional zero''
really means?
Mr. O'Donnell. So there is actually an equation. I am sure
someone in our audience can identify what that equation is. It
is based on an average number of veterans housed for 3 months
as compared to the number that are left. That is not the--the
whole equation.
For us, it is ensuring--it is a more functional definition
to ensure that there are enough slots of the appropriate kind
of housing available for those that are left. Right. So as we
decrease that number--so for Philadelphia, I believe it is 540
veterans, ensuring that each of those folks have the
appropriate space to come to. So I personally don't ever
believe that we will be at zero. Right. It is about the safety
net. But functional zero is ensuring that each person has the
appropriate level of care, hopefully, that that would indicate
that they would stay there for longer with the appropriate
level of services.
The Chairman. Those of you that provide group housing or
housing in large numbers, how many or what percentage of your
residents will never be able to get over that final hump, and
will always be with us, with you?
Mr. Landis, then Mr. Downing, both.
Mr. Downing. Thank you. Go ahead.
Mr. Landis. Our population may be a subset of those that we
treat at our rehabilitation center. Two-thirds of our residents
have diagnosable chronic mental illness by the time they find
us; 70 percent of the population have already been
incarcerated; of the younger generation, the post-9/11 men and
women, the statistic for incarceration is about 85 percent. We
know that, for the vast majority of these men and women, many
will be able to deal with their demons. They will be able to
move forward, but they are not going to do it in isolation. It
is only going to happen after intensive long-term residential
treatment. It is not going to happen if that does not occur
simultaneously, either with housing or with some form of a
long-term treatment center. There is a subset of this
population that will require our assistance for the rest of
their lives, perhaps 25 percent.
But the rest, you know, if we do it right, what they should
look forward to is a life that is balanced and a life where
they have employment, because employment is a key factor in, I
believe, happiness. They should be able to be self-sustaining.
And they should be able to get on with the world as the way
that we do in our own normal lives. But I would say, to answer
your question, sir, a good 25 percent of this population is
going to require our care for the rest of their lives.
The Chairman. Mr. Downing.
Mr. Downing. We look to shut down approximately 80 percent
of our per diem beds over the next 5 years. We think about 80
percent of the men and women we serve can really function and
grow living in their own dwelling with services delivered to
them. And there are various levels of services people need.
On the average, in the community where we are working, what
we are finding is veterans, essentially 50 and over, who have
been homeless and chronically mentally ill for extended
periods, can work about 15 or 20 hours a week when they are
really back to the center of their life. So if you look at
those type of entry-level, limited-income jobs, with some
supportive services and some small benefits, either from Social
Security or the VA, somebody can have a comfortable life in
supported housing with services delivered. So we think that
that is a reasonable number.
We also believe that trauma-informed care, which has been
mentioned here this morning, is an extremely important training
that we all need to be continuously growing in because everyone
that is in our care benefits from that. And what we have found,
as we--we did some training with the National Alliance on
Homelessness on trauma-informed care for the past year in our
facilities--and all our staff has gone through it--and what we
are finding is that where much people are much--feeling much
safer discussing things that previously were kind of glossed
over, pushed to the side. And I think that that is the type of
thing that we need to get better at.
So, to me, I don't think we are ever going to end
homelessness. I think about 20 percent of the people are either
in the category of we don't have the skill or ability to figure
out how to manage their needs better or we have some folks who
somehow seem comfortable in that lifestyle. So, you know, we
accept that. We would like to change that, but I don't think we
can.
I don't know how you feel there, big guy.
The Chairman. I apologize. I need to move to Mr. Michaud.
Mr. Landis. I am sorry.
The Chairman [continuing]. We have other questions, but
thank you.
Mr. Michaud.
Mr. Michaud. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
This is for each of the panelist. Do you see any overlap
between the three major programs funded by the VA, VASH, GPD,
SSVF? And we will start with Ms. Crone.
Ms. Crone. Mr. Berg here will probably laugh at me because
I always say that there are four critical programs when we are
talking about programs essential for ending veteran
homelessness, and I would include HVRP in that mix. I know it
is funded through Department of Labor.
Like I mentioned in my statement, we don't look at the
programs that exist and the people we are going to push into
those programs. We look at each individual veteran and what
their specific needs are. If you have--if you have a veteran
who comes into a program and is in need of intensive services,
multiple co-occurring disabilities, that person might be in
transitional housing for a short period of time and move into
HUD-VASH housing, using a HUD-VASH voucher. In that case, they
are using both of those resources, but there are stepping
stones to get that person into permanent housing.
On the other side, you may have someone who comes in who
needs a short-term intervention and assistance with employment
and services because they are unemployed, but they want to go
back to work. They may be enrolled in SSVF to help them pay for
their security deposit, and they may get employment services
through HVRP. In that case, they are using two programs, but
they are using the best practices of what those programs are
meant to provide in order to get themselves----
Mr. Berg. Yes. Thank you.
I would say one of the real advances that people who work
on the issue of homelessness all over the country have made is
understanding this idea that different homeless people need
different levels of care and to set up a system with an array
of interventions that are designed for that. And I think the
three programs you mentioned, not to leave out HVRP, but those
are the three big housing programs, and there are aligning
themselves in many cities with that in mind. And SSFV deals
with people for whom a short-term intervention is most
appropriate. HUD-VASH is for the people with long-term
permanent disabilities. GPD works well for people in sort of a
middle group, really concentrating on recovery housing. There
is always some overlap. You are never sure because people, once
they get in a program like this, a lot of times, they improve
tremendously. But I think that array of programs is the right
one, and it is working well.
Mr. Downing. I would agree with that, Mr. Michaud. Also,
just from my viewpoint, I think the HUD-VASH case manager
should all be outsourced to community-based groups. I think
they are much more geared to housing search. They are much
better at working at it. There are professional agencies in the
community that they should partner with to do that. I think
trying to train people and bring them up to speed on that is
just kind of insanity when there are so many groups--especially
if you look at what has happened with CAP agencies in the
Community Action Programs, have really done housing search
extremely well in our communities. And we should be funding
them with the VASH money to do it for our veterans, I believe.
The GPD program, I believe, has done a great job. And I
think downsizing everybody can see coming. For SSVF, I really
think this is what we have to get in our head: SSVF leverages
tremendous amounts of community assets to work along with the
VA Dollars. So what we have discovered is the average veteran
who we serve in SSVF, we are spending somewhere between $2,400
to $4,400. Somebody in GPD for a year costs us $42,000. But
when we do the 24 to 42 in the community, we are also bringing
in community-based addiction services, we are bringing in
finance management agencies, we are bringing in mental health
agencies to work to help us stabilize, all at a different cost
center and all available to other citizens. So that leveraging
has really made, I think, that program much more effective. And
I think it is why we are seeing the tremendous results with it.
Mr. Landis. If you develop a continuum of care within an
agency, each one of these three programs complement the other
and seem to work very well together.
Dr. Sherin. There is definitely an overlap, but not
redundancy, and I think that is the key element here.
Mr. O'Donnell. I think that these are distinct programs. I
would beg to differ with the concept of deactivating any grant
per diem inventory, as I said in my testimony. I believe that
that is critical inventory around the Nation that can be used
to do things in addition to grant per diem housing, including
bridge housing, rescue housing. In addition, it could be used
for permanent housing or permanent supportive housing. It could
even be used for assisted living down the road, depending on
the needs of the local community. I would also reiterate one of
my co-panelists comments about HUD-VASH case management.
Communities are very well-equipped to do this actually in a
more efficient and cheaper, less expensive rather, manner.
The Chairman. Mr. Bilirakis, you are recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it. I
want to thank Ranking Member Michaud for his advocacy on behalf
of our veterans and being a great friend to our true American
heroes over the year. It is been an honor to serve with you,
sir.
The first question is for the entire panel. Last week, the
Virginia Inspector General issued a report that found serious
problems with VA's national call center for homeless veterans.
The report found that the VA missed 40,500 opportunities to
engage homeless veteran callers with needed services due to
lapses in management and oversight, and I know the chairman
mentioned this in his opening statement.
Furthermore, the IG's audit found that the majority of
messages were left between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. during the day.
The report also stated that counselors spent significant
amounts of time unavailable to answer calls during peak calls.
This is during peak time periods. This is unacceptable. For the
panel, were you surprised by the IG's findings regarding the
call center? What are your personal experiences? I would like
to hear from you. How would you suggest VA improve the call
center's performance, and who do you think should be
responsible for operating and overseeing the call center, and I
guess we will start with Ms. Crone.
Ms. Crone. NCHV has said publicly when this came out that
we take this report very seriously, and it is completely
unacceptable that any veteran in crisis, any veteran in need
reaching out to something that should be operating 24/7 should
go to voice mail. We are going to be following the progress on
addressing these steps very closely because it is meaningful to
us on a national level and to our members. We believe that the
steps that are laid out to address the various issues with the
call centers seem reasonable. We are going to be watching those
very closely to make sure that they happen and that the
timelines are stuck to. But what is important to remember with
the call center is that it is a small piece, or it is a piece
of the overall outreach effort that we have to homeless
veterans within communities. The providers on this panel and
the organizations that we work with, those are the people who
are going out on the streets, that are under bridges, that are
in shelters, that are looking for veterans in need of services.
So it is important to keep this in that bigger context,
that these veterans are likely receiving services, and it is
thanks to the community providers that are doing that through
funding resources like SSVF. But, again, we will be watching it
really closely.
Mr. Berg. I think the steps the VA appears to be taking to
address the findings in here seem like the right thing to do. I
think the IG is doing the IG's job, which is good. That is why
they are there. We need to have things like this work. We need
to also not get distracted from the major goal of what is going
on. When something like this comes up, this is important, get
it fixed; or if it is just not going to work, then get rid of
it, and keep moving forward with stuff that works. That is our
view.
Mr. Bilirakis. Mr. Downing.
Mr. Downing. Well, this was run by VHA, and it kind of
boggles your mind that we have the 800 number for homeless and
people in need going to VHA and not running it through the
homeless program that has a lot of community partners and is
used to contracting with community partners to provide service.
Because I would suggest to you, again, that agencies like
myself and others that operate 800 numbers are very good at
responding to people 24 hours a day, are very good at getting
the information to where it has to go so people get the
critical intervention that we need to prevent a tragedy.
So I think that what we really have to do is challenge the
VA again to look within itself and look at where is the
competency in this group, and let that group of competent
individuals operate it. And I think it is shameful that we just
put it out there and say because we have done it and we have
all this information flying around, it is going to work. I
operate an 800 number for SSVF. I operate it with homeless
veterans answering the phone 24 hours a day, and when you call
and you are in one of our areas, we have a veteran, a case
manager, in your home within 48 hours, any of the five states
you are in that we work in. But we have learned that we have to
get the information, respond to it, and have backups, and you
need to have community partners that respond where you are
weak; and that is what we are not doing with the VA. And I
know, and I just can't believe with the history of the homeless
program and its ability to contract, that that is not the
perfect thing that should have been moved through them to do
the outreach to veterans.
Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, and now to the incoming
ranking member, Ms. Brown, you are recognized.
Ms. Brown. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of
all, I think this is a great day to talk about the fact that we
have cut out one-third of the homelessness and we are moving in
the right direction, and I have been on this committee for 22
years, and we have been working and discussing it for 22 years,
and I do think there is a lot more we need to do, and certainly
working with those stakeholders is extremely important. Our
partners, like you said, the mayors, the different groups and
organizations, we are moving forward, and I am very pleased
with that.
I guess what is still very disturbing to me is the number
of homeless veterans' families, when I see the children of just
the veterans and the children and when I run into a mother and
she can't have the children because there is not adequate
housing. Can you address that for me, please? Either one of
you.
Mr. O'Donnell. If I may, this is exactly the reason we are
opening these 26 units, and they will be available in September
2015. It took us 5 years to get where we needed to be to have
the support to do this, but you are right. One of the problems
is, especially in Philadelphia, there is very few places--I
know of one--for a woman to find shelter with her children.
There are single fathers also with children, and we welcome
them into the program, so many of those women have a fractured
family for no other reason than their being homeless. So
programs like ours will offer the opportunity to partner with,
in Philadelphia it is DHS, Department of Human Services, to
reunite moms and their kids. And there is a growing need.
Twenty-six units isn't nearly enough.
Dr. Sherin. Just a comment on that. At Volunteers of
America, we have a great deal of a commitment to homeless
families. We have facilities around the country that are
focusing on this. We just are in the process of opening up a
78-unit facility in San Pedro called the Blue Butterfly Village
specifically for homeless female veterans and their families.
We also just opened one in Chicago called Hope Manor II.
This is a critical issue, and when you think about the
stressors on family of serving, it is no surprise that we have
this challenge. And I think when we look to funding through the
Federal Government, we need to create the flexibility to create
these programs. I can tell you that the Blue Butterfly Village
in San Pedro took almost 15 years to get developed, and one of
the reasons for that is that we couldn't get easements due to
interference from the DoD.
Ms. Brown. The key is there is a multiplicity of things. We
cannot sit here and think that just getting a person a house is
the answer. The homeless person had a house, but they need the
counseling. They need the support services. They need the
employment. So it is really us working with the stakeholders.
It is not just getting a person temporary housing. They have
really fallen through the safety net.
Mr. Downing. You are absolutely right, Ms. Brown, and I
think that the issue again, and I want to go back to what Doc
said. We need to be able to build affordable housing more
rapidly, and we need to create priorities. And one of the
issues is we are forced, because veterans are not a protected
class under the Fair Housing Act, we have to compete with every
other community of need for affordable housing money. There
have been some special, the areas done on tax credits where
there have been set-asides for stuff built in a medical zone,
and we can get veterans housing lined up. I am doing that in
Mississippi. And we are looking at models and we are working on
models where we can utilize tax credits and integrate them with
the affordable housing money to make it happen more rapidly.
I have four projects under construction right now, and the
fastest one is 3\1/2\ years from the day we started. So it has
been a long run. In the 5 years that I have been at it, I have
got 39 units completed with people living in them for 3 years.
It operates beautifully, but it is going to take a long time,
and so there is a whole structure on the housing issue that we
need to work on.
Ms. Brown. Mr. Downing, I think you said something very
important. Many of these programs are already in the community.
It is just how do we partner with them, with these
stakeholders. They are very good at finding housing and that
supportive services that is needed.
Mr. Downing. Yes, ma'am. One of the things that has made me
a great fan of Jeff Miller is that he absolutely attacks
bureaucracy for the sake of the consumer. We need to be doing
that on these issues because the tragedy is this, and this is
the hard part. What motivates me to do the work is simply this:
8 or 9 percent of the American people are veterans. Every one
of them that put on that uniform for a day said to all of us, I
will die for you. We need to clearly hear that that sets that
community apart for services and opportunity ahead of every
other group in America; and we need to make that sacred, and
this committee has done more, I think for that, than any other
group in America in bringing it to light and in getting the
government agencies focused on that, and I really thank you all
for that. I think it allows us to do our work with more
dignity, and also with a sense of hope that we might not have
had 10 years ago.
Ms. Brown. Thank you very much. I yield back the balance of
my time.
The Chairman. Thank you. Dr. Roe, you are recognized.
Dr. Roe. Thank you, Chairman. I also associate my remarks
with what you said about Mr. Michaud. It has been a pleasure.
I think probably part of the VA and the bureaucracy, Mr.
Downing, you share, Dr. O'Donnell, and I share with all of you.
Setting up an 800 number doesn't fix anything if nobody answers
the phone. So I think the people that solve the problem, I am
sitting here looking at right here. Let me share with you a
little bit of my frustration. At the Blue Butterfly Village, it
may actually be about as long as that VA hospital in Florida
that Ms. Brown has talked about since I have been here to get
done. We had a flood in our area three years ago, tremendous
flood. It took out about 100 homes. We weren't big enough for
FEMA to help us. We took the local mayors, private-public
partnerships, and we built 35 homes for these people in a year,
had them in the homes, ready to go.
We are beginning to do that for veterans now, and we are
using the Appalachian Service Project in East Tennessee. We are
using private funds. We are using public funds. We can build a
home for cheaper than the VA can rehab a house where we are.
The biggest problem we are having, and I was going to ask Dr.
O'Donnell this, the biggest problem we have with the HUD-VASH
program and others is there is not enough housing stock. That
is the biggest problem we have got. If we had more housing
stock, we have got the vouchers; we just don't have a place to
put the veterans. We just broke ground on several--it will make
a little dent like you. In 8 or 9 months we will have seven
apartments where we are for veterans. But that's the biggest
challenge we have.
And the other challenge Mr. Downing brought up is this case
management. It takes the VA forever to get a case manager.
Those assets are already in the private community if they would
just unleash them. And everything you have heard, I have heard
in my own community. The VA needs to be a little less
paternalistic and work with people like you all that are able
to go out and do these services rapidly. Because somebody
living under a bridge tonight is freezing. It is cold, and we
need to get them off the street now and get them in this not
just 6 months from now, but it is an emergency. I will start
with in Philadelphia, how are those 500-plus folks going to
get, what are you going to do with that? That would be the
biggest challenge I see is where do you find 500 safe places
that are approved for them to live in?
Mr. O'Donnell. So collaboration with landlords, not my
doing. It is a collaborative effort and there are landlords
that, you know, want to do well and do good. So they are
private owners that get approved to provide HUD-VASH housing,
so having direct contact with landlords, but again, the 25
cities initiative--in Philadelphia it is called a boot camp. I
don't know if it is called that elsewhere, but people get
together in a room regularly. There is Mr. Steve Culbertson who
else in the audience there helps lead this effort. They get
together and they identify every name on the list. So in truth,
there are more than 540 homeless veterans left in Philadelphia.
Those are the names on that list that get reviewed regularly
with benchmarks that we need to hit constantly. And that group
holds themselves accountable and it is about partnership, and
clarity, and communication, and also about transparency, which
is at the heart of some of this.
Dr. Roe. Let me ask this, a little more global question.
Are all the VA programs that we have, are they interconnected
enough or do we need to have a review and say okay, let's make
it simple and easier for organizations like you that are on the
outside looking in? Is there a way to do that?
Dr. Sherin. What I would say is that in the past several
years that the National Center For Homelessness Amongst
Veterans has created a new paradigm for partnership with
community, which is one of the reasons why the SSVF program is
so effective. When we talk about issues like the call center,
communities are set up to do this type of work. We are set up
to do intensive case management for HUD-VASH. I would strongly
recommend that the VA consider leveraging the National Center
For Homelessness Amongst Veterans to establish a larger
continuum of services with communities around the Nation
because it can do it in a much more streamlined fashion than
through the VISNs and the medical centers.
Dr. Roe. There are local housing authorities that already
has that case management set up. All you have to do is let them
do it. I mean, they are already doing it right now. It would be
really simple. But now you go and find a case manager. They got
to be trained. They got to do all this--I don't know whether
you all have run into that or not. I certainly have.
Mr. Downing. We would find the same thing. Look it, the
bottom line is, the VA is going to continue to do these things
unless it is demanded otherwise, you know. And we deal with all
types of issues. But the reality for me is this: If I look at
veterans and where they live, and as I go into rural areas, I
am shocked at Vietnam veterans that we are identifying, 30
percent of the Vietnam veterans we identify in the five States
we are in in rural America are at 30 percent of median income
or less; 60 percent are at 50 percent of median income or less.
So, you know, we have to see that individuals left unserved,
unhoused, and not being cared for continuously have diminished
power to help themselves.
Dr. Roe. Yes.
Mr. Downing. So we need to rethink that, and I have become
more and more convinced, at some point, we have to give every
veteran his card with his benefits loaded up in it and let him
choose to go to the VA or choose to go to a community provider
or a community hospital, because until we do that, I don't
think we are going to utilize the resources that are available
that we all continuously refer to.
Do you know what I am saying? I just think we need to
somehow manage that out, and I don't know how else to manage it
out without leveraging the Dollars. And it is frustrating
because we watch the same thing you watch, sir, that there is
services here, and we are sitting with people being trained
over here while people dwindle out of their housing voucher
based on the fact that they can't get services.
I mean, it is difficult, so I would like to see that
change.
Dr. Roe. I yield back.
The Chairman. Mr. Takano, you are recognized.
Mr. Takano. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is for any of the
panelists. I have heard from providers in my district that most
funding available for creating new housing options for homeless
veterans and homeless people in general is for capital costs,
in other words, for startup and construction costs, rather than
operations and maintenance. And while funding for capital costs
is obviously very important, the providers in my district say
they have trouble funding operations and maintenance.
Do you believe this is a problem, and do you think that
funding for this type of housing should be more flexible? For
any of you, Mr. Landis, Mr. Downing.
Mr. Landis. In my experience, planning the capital cost to
build a project, although it is difficult and complex, pales in
comparison to your point in that the funding for services is
just not there, or there isn't much of it. And the two go hand
in hand. You can't just have a place to live, and without being
able to provide extensive services to the veterans that are in
place, as I mentioned earlier, you are going to have veterans
that fail in their housing and they lose their stable housing.
So the operational funding is critical to maintaining the
stability of the vast majority of these men and women whom we
are placing into housing.
Mr. Takano. Mr. Downing.
Mr. Downing. We found that operations were an issue until
we got involved with SSVF and learned to build partnerships
better with other community-based agencies, and it also gave us
personnel in the area where we were doing housing. So you have
staff with that. So what we have developed in our SSVF grants
is we employ in all of our SSVF grants approximately five to
seven veterans who work as peers, who do nothing but provide
transportation for you to your appointments, or bring your
appointments to you, depending on what the need is.
And what we have found, again, is that is really where it
works. What causes the cost to go up in services is when you
have to rely on a source, and I would assume all of us have
learned that the more we can partner this out, we can do it.
The second thing is, in building, I build nothing but limited
equity cooperatives for the veterans to own and manage. The
reason I do it is twofold. Number one, they pay taxes to the
community we build them in, so I don't have that pushback that
it is more non-taxable property. The second thing is, our cost
of operations of maintenance is at 40 percent of the national
average because people who own where they live, when we say to
our vets, you can go out and help us shovel the sidewalk, or we
can pay guys 15 bucks an hour to do it, and they say, oh, no,
if you are paying them 15, that is less income for us and our
cooperative. Our costs go up. They get that. So we are finding
that model works. There is ways to do these things. We just
have to do the partnerships. I think if we can get the housing
up, we will maintain it. Okay, I believe that.
Mr. Berg.
Mr. Berg. I think an analogy is to look at the private
sector. In the private sector landlords don't get grants for
operating costs. They collect rent. And from the rent, they pay
the operating costs. Congress has put a lot of money on the
table for rent subsidies for homeless veterans through the HUD-
VASH program and through the SSVF program. I think what is
starting to happen is, people who do veterans' housing, do
site-based housing, are starting to change the way they do
business a little bit in order to figure out how to use the
rent subsidies as ways to finance that. I think it is realistic
and it seems to be working.
Mr. Takano. Well, Mr. Berg, can you explain to me more in
detail your suggestion to put in place a system that will find
vulnerable veterans before they ever become homeless and
prevent their homelessness entirely. Do you think the VA is
heading in that direction already?
Mr. Berg. I think they are starting to head in that
direction. And this is the long term vision. We need to end
veterans' homelessness. And we are on track to do that. But
then once we do that, we need to make sure it never comes back,
and really transform into a prevention system. I think VA is
already starting to do things like veterans who come into the
health services facilities get asked certain questions to try
to assess what their housing stability is, and then that
information gets, at least the way it is supposed to work, and
it does work this way in the places where it works well, that
information gets transferred to people who can do something
about it.
Mr. Takano. I mean, there seems to be certain higher-risk
folks who are servicemembers, people who have been trained to
disarm IEDs and who we know have been in more intense battles.
It seems to me DoD should be able to provide data on these
individuals and we can track these individuals as they move
into--it ought to be that we are identifying more high-risk
individuals.
Mr. Berg. Exactly. This is a future challenge. DoD knows a
lot about people who are in the military, and it would be very
helpful if they would share key information like that with VA
as part of a sort of a----
Mr. Takano. They don't currently share that information?
Mr. Berg. There is some efforts underway to do that. I
think there needs to be more.
Mr. Takano. Thank you, sir. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you. Dr. Benishek.
Dr. Benishek. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you all for
being here today. I have got some great information from it.
Mr. Downing, in particular, I really appreciate your passion--
--
Mr. Downing. Thank you.
Mr. Benishek [continuing]. And your frustration with the
bureaucracy of the VA as I share that very much as well. And I
guess one of the first things I think of when I hear about the
difficulty in coordinating the VA with the community-based
services that are available and that, it seems to me that each
community has a different set of community-based services, and
I am not sure if there is enough flexibility within the VA to
be able to deal with that. I mean, how does the coordination
occur? Do you know at what level the VA makes these decisions
to get into partnership with the VA?
Mr. Downing. Speaking for SSVF and the grant per diem
program that I work with, they absolutely encourage community
partnership. They work with us in working it out. We regularly
would call Lisa Pape and her staff and talk about, hey, how do
we pass money through here? Can we make that work? Does that
pass the sniff test?
Dr. Benishek. Is that happening just in your--my concern
is----
Mr. Downing. I am doing that in all the States I am in. I
have no trouble all. I find the veterans' services in
communities very willing to interface and work. With SSVF, we
can sometimes pay first month, last month, and do some things
to assist so we can work the veteran's service officer and
extend out benefits, and stabilize better, so all of that
works----
Dr. Benishek. What I am saying is, there is obviously a
failure somewhere because of the fact that this--for example,
this phone-in service was not working.
Mr. Downing. But that was VHA, not the VA per diem. So it
is done out of that big bureaucracy of healthcare and not under
the little unit that just dealt with homelessness, the grant
and per diem office and the homeless program.
Dr. Benishek. So do you feel as if that--why is the VHA
taking care of this when it should be the homeless people?
Mr. Downing. You know what, Doc, or Mr. Congressman, I
really can't answer that. I am befuddled by how they think. I
have come to describe the VA as a bureaucracy that excels at
skilled incompetency.
Dr. Benishek. I agree with you.
Mr. Downing. I don't know how they do it. I know this, that
when I work with my community partners, when I deal with the
grant and per diem folks or the people at the Center For
Excellence in Philadelphia, I get answers. I get responses. I
get frustrated sometimes, but I generally get, you know, I
generally get supported in trying to move forward.
Dr. Benishek. Well, hopefully, the VA will----
Mr. Downing. The VA healthcare, they are the enemy to me.
Even at the hospital that I house 225 homeless vets every
night. Okay. They don't cooperate with me.
Dr. Benishek. All right, thank you for your answer, Mr.
Downing.
I would just like to ask Mr. Berg a question sort of
following up on Mr. Takano's question, and that is, how we can
best, you know, and we didn't really breach about how to
prevent this in the beginning when the person transitions from
the DoD. I think there should be a better way of not waiting
for somebody to reach out to the VA, but to make sure everybody
on their discharge gets some follow-up. And can you maybe
comment on that a little bit more, Mr. Berg?
Mr. Berg. Sure. And just to go back to the previous
question, I would just say, I work with several different
Federal agencies and what I found with all of them, HUD, HHS,
and VA, whatever you think about the agency in general, and
people have different ideas, one of the good things about
working on homelessness is in all those agencies the part of
the agency that deals with homelessness seems to attract people
who are very capable, very smart and very committed to getting
things done. So I think that supports what Mr. Downing is
saying.
On the prevention issue, what we see as an important long-
term piece of the homelessness prevention system is exactly, as
I said before, the DoD knows a lot about people who are in the
military, and we know more and more about what the risk factors
for homelessness are, both for people in general, and
particularly for people who have been on active duty, depending
on the kind of duty they had, the kind of injuries they have,
what sort of medical conditions they have, what experiences
they had while they were in the military, what characteristics
they had before they ever joined the military. These are risk
factors for homelessness in all of that. DoD knows a lot about
that. VA doesn't have really any ready access to that kind of
information, but that wouldn't have to be the case.
I could foresee a system where the homeless services part
of the local VA Medical Center had a list of veterans who were,
who had been identified as having these risk factors, that they
could check on once in a while, not in any sort of intrusive
way, but just as part of the normal course of business. We are
a long way from having such a system, but I don't see--I think
we have got the know-how to make a system like that work.
Dr. Benishek. Thank you. My time is expired.
The Chairman. Ms. Brownley, you are recognized.
Ms. Brownley. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Downing, I
wanted to follow-up with you on your comments on military
sexual trauma. And I am just interested to know if there are,
you know, sort of model programs for that and if it is
consistent across the country. Do you have any idea of what the
success rate is? Do any of our men and women who experience
military sexual trauma, do they fall into the category? I think
there were two of you who talked about 20 to 25 percent of
veterans will need services for a lifetime and sort of not have
the recovery that we all would hope for. Can you comment on
that?
Mr. Downing. Well, first of all, I can comment on the women
that we serve. It is hard for me to project it out nationally.
Think about this: In 13 years, every night we are at 100
percent capacity for 12 beds for our women, every night. I have
never had a woman with custody of children present. It kind of
runs counter to all the thoughts I would expect to have take
place.
So the first thing we found out is that women will live in
horrific situations where they are absolutely horribly violated
and everything rather than show up in a shelter with children
because they don't want the children identified and then going
into special care units in most States.
The second thing that we found is that we had to change how
we operated our women's program. There is no male authority in
our women's program. It is run all by women. No man has any
power, has anything there. We pay all the bills. That is what
we do. Soldier On pays the bills. We found out that was another
issue was male authority, trust of men, that type of thing.
Finally, we found out the approaches we were taking really
changed when we went to trauma-informed care into wellness. We
got a grant for $150,000 from Newman's Own Foundation and we
started a wellness program in our women's program. And we
started to deal with the spirit, the mind and the body, and we
started to see some real change. Now, I can only express the
change in how people appear and then how women started to--our
women never participated in any program that involved our men.
We now have former homeless women who are employees working
on the call center, working as outreach workers, working as
peers. We have women going to school. But the issue is, they
want women-specific services, and it is very difficult because
the VA does not accommodate that at all. At the rural VA center
that I am at, there is no OB-GYN services at all. If a woman
has a mental health break and needs to go to a unit, she goes
on a unit with male patients; completely unacceptable to her.
So we have to, in our facility, we dual register all our
women in Mass Health so they can choose to go community-base
where they can see doctors that they are comfortable with and
they can go to units for treatment where they feel safe.
Doesn't make sense to me that we have--so that is that.
Finally, in the piece about recovery, I think the women
generally recover because there is much more support in their
community for one another than there is with the men. They tend
to care for one another very much and they tend to look out for
one another, so that even as they have moved into the community
and established their lives, they come back and visit. They
come back and help the women decorate their new apartment, just
a number of those things. So I think there is more hope for us
there. But the shocking part to me is that we continuously read
about this in DoD. And you know, it is not run by women--do you
know what I am saying?
Ms. Brownley. Yes.
Mr. Downing. And it is like somehow we are going to get
there. Well, I want to tell you something. When I first ran the
women's program, I ran it like we ran the men's program. And in
fact, they shared some space in the building where the men
were. And I was very frustrated with it and women were coming
and going, and it really wasn't working. And I went home one
night and I am sitting with my wife and I have a daughter who
is a special-needs teacher who happened to stop at the house,
and I am talking about the women's program.
My daughter looks at me and she says, what the hell are you
doing running a women's program. You stunk as a father. If it
wasn't for mom, we all would have left you. And I am really?
And I had to really--she wasn't joking. She was dead serious.
Okay, and that is when I realized, my God, yeah, what do I
know? And how do I--I didn't understand. Do you know what I am
saying?
Mr. Brownley. Yes.
Mr. Downing. So that is what we need to do, and we need to
really say that across the board. I am sure Dr. Sherin has some
other insights on women like that because I would assume in
your practice, there has been a lot that you face.
Ms. Brownley. Yes, sir, I think my time is up, but I would
like to hear from other members maybe, you know, off time here
about----
The Chairman. If we could do it off line because they are
about to call votes, and I would like to go ahead and continue
the questions. But thank you very much, and thank you for your
spontaneity, Mr. Downing.
Mr. Coffman.
Mr. Coffman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Sherin, I have
got a question for you. You were talking about how we calculate
homelessness, and I think you had, if I can quote you, you said
certain homeless veterans populations, and then you went on to
say, elude current methods of calculation. What populations are
you referring to, and what do you think the true number of
homelessness is?
Dr. Sherin. I think you actually got the wrong doctor. I
will hand it over to him, but let me just say real quick, I
think we have to recognize that our estimates of homelessness
are rough. You know, when we do the point time count, we get a
sense on a given night how many veterans we are finding
basically in the streets. First off, there is a whole year that
we are looking to kind of estimate. Secondly, there are
veterans that elude these techniques and these radars, for
example, post-9/11 veterans I would say in large part, and
female veterans.
Mr. Coffman. Okay, Mr. Landis.
Mr. Landis. No. I think that was yours.
Mr. O'Donnell. So you asked for the actual number, and I
don't know. But you asked about the population, and as you
might imagine, as the number of homeless veterans that are
known, I will speak to Philadelphia, to be in Philadelphia,
those that are more elusive, might actually be choosing to live
on the street for a whole host of reasons.
But as we find appropriate housing, some of those folks are
the most difficult people to find appropriate housing and care
for, significant mental illness, chronic and prolonged
substance abuse and dependency. They are at a stage in their
recovery where they--it is called precontemplative. You are not
even considering the idea of abstinence from substance use. So
those are the folks that I think no one really has figured out
what long-term appropriate housing and care looks like, and I
don't know the number.
Mr. Coffman. If we talk about the majority of the causes
for veterans homelessness, I mean, when I left for my first
overseas assignment with the United States Army in 1972, came
back from my last overseas assignment with the United States
Marine Corps in 2006, and so, but I never went to Vietnam. And
that population, a conscript military, very intense war, a lot
of drug and alcohol issues, doesn't the majority of
homelessness right now come from that generation of veterans?
Mr. O'Donnell. The generation that we are serving
predominantly is from the Vietnam era.
Mr. Coffman. Vietnam era.
Mr. O'Donnell. But within the last year, we went from 5
percent OEF/OIF veterans to 10 percent OEF/OIF veterans, so
that is steadily and significantly increasing. And those guys
haven't hit bottom yet. They are couch surfing. They are being
incarcerated, often related to substance use. But your
comments, and actually the comments about military sexual
trauma, if you can expand the idea of trauma just from combat
to complex trauma that occurs on the street, there is something
implicit about being homeless that there is a threat of
violence, interpersonal violence on a regular basis. We know
there is a dose-duration relationship between trauma and all of
the problems, including homelessness that come along with that.
Mr. Coffman. Well, doesn't it--any effective program for
homeless veterans, doesn't it have to include a mental health
component, particularly in substance abuse?
Mr. O'Donnell. You would imagine so. If I had another
choice today, I would say allow the VA to outstation mental
heal providers. We are not allowed to provide psychotherapy. So
there are evidence-based treatments for posttraumatic stress
disorder and a hole host of other disorders related to trauma.
We can't provide that service directly. We drive guys every day
to the VA if they can get an appointment, but if mental
healthcare providers could be outstationed to our facility, I
will even pick up the occupancy cost. Right? We can try to find
money, but if you can provide that level of care, yes, it is
necessary, and then a longer discussion is about trauma-
informed care, which is a culture change.
Mr. Coffman. It is about--I don't want to use the term
outsourcing--well, I guess I would--about reimbursing private
providers for providing the care or nonprofit providers for
providing the care.
Mr. O'Donnell. That would be an option, although I got to
tell you, the VA has a whole branch that focuses on
implementation and evaluation. So if mental healthcare
providers are given the training to provide evidence-based
therapy for specific disorders with some flexibility about
context because that is relevant in implementation, I would
suggest that before giving me money to go hire a therapist. The
VA is able to monitor what therapies are being delivered and in
what way.
Mr. Coffman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
The Chairman. Ms. Kirkpatrick.
Ms. Kirkpatrick. Thank you, panel, for being here. I
represent a very large rural district in Arizona, and my staff
and I talk with thousands of veterans, and it is very evident
that housing is an acute need for veterans in rural Arizona and
maybe throughout the country in rural areas. And so my question
is, what is being done about that and especially in light of
the VA reform bill that we recently passed allowing veterans to
get care in their local communities where they live, under HUD-
VASH, are they going to be able to get that in their
communities? Are they going to be able to stay in their
communities, or are they going to have to relocate just to get
housing?
That is my general concern. I don't know who on the panel
can best answer that. I will let you sort that out, but that is
what I would like to hear about.
Dr. Sherin. I have a few comments about that. At Volunteers
of America in Northern Louisiana, we actually just received a
pilot grant from the VA specifically to connect veterans in
rural areas in the Tri-State area around Northern Louisiana to
the services that they need around the horn, you know,
healthcare services and human services.
In addition, we are looking to obviously provide housing
through the HUD-VASH program when we can. I think that the
challenge in rural areas is obviously significant. Leveraging
technology is one part of the solution, and I think that the
VA's willingness to outsource services to non-VA providers is
going to be very, very important in rural areas going forward.
And I would say this new generation, particularly those
suffering from post-traumatic stress are retreating to more
rural areas, and we need to be aware of that and get out ahead
of that movement.
Ms. Kirkpatrick. And let me just mention, I am hearing from
veterans on housing, not necessarily who are living on streets
or in the woods, but they are living with their children, or
grandchildren, or friends. And in my mind, they still count as
homeless because they don't have their own place. Mr. Downing,
do you have anything to add?
Mr. Downing. We work in 76 counties in Mississippi. Most of
them are rural. We have the same issues. What we found is the
SSVF grants allow us to go out there. Now, we partner with
Voice of Calvary out of Jackson to provide services there
because they have a whole history down there and we have found
that that really works. So what we have done, again, is we
have, in Mississippi, we have seven peers and 11 outreach
workers who do nothing but go to those areas, deliver services,
and then try to get local agencies to work with us and partner
with us to sustain some service for individuals because a 3- or
6-month process can get you to a little bit more stability and
opportunity, but it is the long-term, how do we keep this going
and keep you going in the right direction.
So at this point we have 2 years of experience there, and
we are finding that is what works there. But what we need to do
is increase SSVF funding, especially in the rural areas because
we need to do much more transportation, and we need to get
professionals to move out there with us.
I think what, again, what Dr.--is it Sherin?
Dr. Sherin. Yes, sir.
Mr. Downing. What he said was, that if we can get the VA to
contract for those services and we can make them mobile and
they go with us, it is just so much more effective.
Dr. Sherin. If I may, I have mentioned earlier the concept
of leveraging the National Center For Homelessness Amongst
Veterans to create a larger grant opportunity. That grant could
be named reintegration services for veteran families, as one
example, which would have a number of different resources
available to use through that very responsive mechanism.
Ms. Kirkpatrick. Thank you, panel. Yes, yes, Mr. Berg.
Mr. Berg. Just to say on this issue of housing, I think
this is a longer-term problem that people on this committee are
going to have to deal with. The long-term trend in the cost of
rental housing is up compared to the rest of costs of living.
We went through a period in the mid-to late zeros where we had
sort of a temporary lull in that, but housing costs are going
to continue to be more and more of a burden. If the VA benefits
system doesn't find some way to take account of that, they are
going to leave more and more veterans pushed into homelessness
and pushed into poverty.
Ms. Kirkpatrick. Right, I completely agree. I think this is
an absolutely top priority that we have got to address. And we
don't even get to providing healthcare or mental healthcare
without providing that housing stability. My time is up, but I
thank the panel very much and I think we need to focus on this
going forward. Thank you. I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ms. Kirkpatrick. To the first and
second panel, please accept our apologies. We are going to have
to step out. We have a series of votes right now. We should be
able to return in about 30 minutes so we will stand in recess
until that time.
[Recess.]
Mr. Lamborn [presiding]. The committee will come back to
order. We will resume the questioning of the first panelists. I
want to thank you for staying here. We were interrupted. The
chairman has so much going on and--all of us do. Important
votes taking place, and then we leave for the rest of December
to go back to our districts. So thank you for your indulgence
in staying here and being willing to continue answering
questions.
And, at this point, we are to Representative Walorski.
Ms. Walorski. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Lamborn. The floor is yours.
Ms. Walorski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the
panel, also, for being here. I am grateful for the work that
you all do and--and for the heart that you have and your
diligence in continuing to make a difference.
And I think one take-home--take-away that we can take home
today from today's testimony is that there is measured success
when local programs are tailored to meet the needs of veterans
and take charge of the homeless veteran population. And in my
district, although it does not receive any grant money from the
VA, but we have the Robert L. Miller Sr. Veteran's Center in
downtown South Bend, Indiana. It has 24 beds. They are always
full. And the facility has an incredible proven track record.
But, obviously, there is--you know, it is a small--it is a
small step forward. We have other homeless shelters as well.
But for us, in the middle of getting into winter now, everybody
will be full and there is still going to be a need.
But their story does go to show that local community
organizations doing the work on the ground achieve results.
And--and that is why I am glad you are here, to hear about
other stories, winning stories, things that work. But, I guess,
I share the same passion you do that, for every success story,
there are so many folks that are standing in the shadows that
are counted as just nameless, homeless veterans.
The question I have is: In the research that you have all
done in some of your--some of you maybe have alluded to a
little bit of this. But in the research that you have done for
the folks that come to your facility or that you end up
involved somehow with an outreach as a net, what are the
backgrounds that lead a lot of these veterans to homeless? And
the one thing I want to know--I know some of you are going to
say it is economic, it is mental health issues. And we get the
same thing on our end in just handling our district phone
calls.
But I just want to draw your attention to one really quick
story. We have a--one of the first times I dealt with this
really up close and personal was the homelessness veterans was
the shelter in our area. But, secondly, when I was elected, we
got a call last year from a homeless veteran. And he said, ``I
am living in my car and I have lost everything.'' And his
issue, though, to me, was, you know, just another frustrating
point about the efficiency of services delivered by the VA to
the veteran community. This guy wasn't homeless. He became
homeless. He lost his house and he lost everything but a car.
And he called us because he had filed claims with the VA, and
this went on for years. And we got involved and started to run
the traps on that claim. And part of the claim was that he was
unemployable with 100 percent service connected PTSD.
And after--years after he has been homeless, living in car,
lost his family, lost everybody, we chased the bunny trail and
he began to get the money--the back money that the VA owed him
from some 4 or 5 years ago.
Today, our happily-ever after story is today, he is back on
his feet. He has a home. His family is reunited. And the story
ends happily. But there is still even hundreds in my own
district where, you know, that is never going to happen. But
when you look at the breakdown of a pie chart and say, if today
the VA could run no backlogs, completely efficiently and all
services rendered, delivered, and all that kind of thing, if
the veteran was number one and we could solve this today with
just that scenario, which I know, you know, is kind of
hypothetical, how many veterans are coming into your services
that perhaps could be--put back on the right path, if they had
the claims resolved and really were not fighting with the
bureaucracy of the VA itself? And I am just going to open up to
whoever wants to answer that.
Dr. Sherin. Well, you know, it is--I mean, it is a tough
question. Obviously, if we could get perfect service out of all
the different agencies, fewer veterans would fall out. What I
have said for a long time--and I continue to say--is that the
biggest problem is actually accessing resources, which is why I
continue to push at Volunteers of America an effort to create
what we like to think of as community concierge, which is
veterans helping veterans, as battle buddies, navigate the
systems. Okay. A veteran can engage another veteran better than
anybody.
Ms. Walorski. Right. Exactly.
Dr. Sherin. Family relationship.
Ms. Walorski. Yes.
Dr. Sherin. Then, if they are supported by an organization
like Volunteers of America or others who are on the panel, they
have the ability, they can develop the process and content
expertise that they need to navigate the systems. And then,
when they show up at a nonprofit, at the VA----
Ms. Walorski. Right.
Dr. Sherin [continuing]. Anywhere----
Ms. Walorski. Yes.
Dr. Sherin [continuing]. Together, they are stronger.
Ms. Walorski. Yes.
Dr. Sherin [continuing]. At kicking down the door and
getting access to that resource.
Ms. Walorski. I agree. And that is why my hand and my heart
goes out to you because what you are doing--and in my own
community with the Miller Homeless Vet Center, privately run,
privately funded, you know, no Federal money coming in, but
they have certainly led the way. And my hope would be, for
communities like ours, that we would be able to leverage more
grant money that comes into communities to say, lets drive the
money--I would rather see the finances driven to the frontline
than held up in a bureaucracy. That is just the kind of--that
is just how--in my world, it is so much more efficient and--but
I applaud your efforts.
And if you just--if you could indulge me, Mr. Chairman, one
second. If there was one thing the VA could--could do today,
would it be the access of resources for all of you, as for Dr.
Sharin?
Mr. Downing. It would for me.
Ms. Walorski. Yes.
Dr. Sherin. Yes.
Ms. Walorski. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you.
Representative O'Rourke.
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I wanted to begin by joining my colleagues in thanking Mr.
Michaud for his service. This is the last day, I hope, of my
first term in Congress. And serving on this committee with you,
I have learned a lot and your style of leadership and your
commitment to veterans has really been inspiring. And I--that
inspiration will continue long after you leave. So I just want
to thank you for your work for everyone that we serve on this
committee.
And then for--Dr. Sherin, I really enjoyed your comments
about, in reading some of the backup in your written comments
and testimony about peer-to-peer services. And you cite a New
York Times article, and it says this is a way to treat
depression in the general population that might go viral. And
you suggest how that might work for veterans, and you suggest
something like an SSVF-type grant to fund that.
Can you talk a little bit about how that might work? What
that might cost? How that grant might be structured? That seems
like something that this committee could pick up and run with.
Dr. Sherin. Well, I mean, to start, we want to try to, I
think, use the SSVF program as a prototype because it is so
flexible and responsive. And in the hands of community
providers and, also, veterans who are being served, there is a
clear recognition that this program works. So, once we have a
mechanism like this, it is something that we should leverage
because what it allows for the VA to do is to engage community
providers in a direct way and to maintain fidelity with the
needs of the community and the individuals.
There are a lot of funds--there are a lot of funds that are
floating around doing different things. If we were able to, for
one example, take HVRP money or money for employment and funnel
it through SSVF, that would be an effective way, I think, to
get services to homeless veterans so that, once they were
actually housed, we could work on getting them employed.
Same thing around, you know, kind of around this circle of
the human services: Leveraging peers is a critical part of the
solution because--because many homeless veterans become
disenfranchised, they become isolated. When you are in the
military, the community, the family that is built is a critical
part. And when you return to the country and things start to
fracture around you, you become isolated. And, you know, we
call it the other LOL, which--you know, which is the lethality
of loneliness. Because veterans become isolated.
And, you know, the homeless lifestyle does not lend itself
to, you know, any type of thriving behavior. So if you
incorporate resources for a--for a program that is operated
like SSVF. What that will do is it will give the homeless
veterans that family piece so that they can belong, and also,
the ability to access resources.
And I--sorry to be carrying on. But the other thing here is
that this is an opportunity for a massive employment
initiative. We could employ a huge number of veterans to do
this work. And the veterans that do this work--and I say this
from my own experience. I met with 15 of them yesterday in Los
Angeles, that work gives them purpose, because that purpose is
lost as well when they return.
Mr. O'Rourke. Great. Great idea.
For, Ms. Crone, I spend a good deal of time when I am back
in El Paso with the veterans in our community. We have a
veterans town hall every quarter and a monthly town hall. And
we have actually held some of them in a homeless shelter that
primarily serves veterans. And so anecdotally, I have gotten a
lot of good feedback.
We have the point-in-time count, you know, 56 veterans in
El Paso. We know how many HUD-VASH vouchers there are
outstanding. We know how many Dollars SSVF have come into the
community, who holds the grant. How can I assess, what is a
good measure? I know no measure will be perfect. But how do I
know how El Paso is doing? How do any of us know how the
communities are doing using the resources that are coming
through and holding those who have those resources accountable
for their use?
Ms. Crone. That is a great question. So I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Mr. O'Rourke. You have 20 seconds to answer that question.
Ms. Crone. Okay. But--oh, okay. Great.
Mr. O'Rourke. No. I am kidding. I am kidding. Hopefully the
chair will give me some time.
Ms. Crone. The point-in-time count is a useful number, but
you also want to be looking at factors like the lease-up rate,
how quickly is someone being referred for a HUD-VASH voucher
and how long from that referral point does it take until they
are leased up. You want to be looking at their continuation in
that permanent housing, once they are leased up with HUD-VASH.
For those individuals that don't need that extensive
intervention--so maybe people who are going through SSVF--you
want to be looking at how quickly, again, they are being placed
into permanent housing, what the cost replacement is from year
to year and its increase--or its decrease every year. It is
improved every year with SSVF nationally. You also want to be
looking at, for those individuals who are seeking out
employment services, which ones are getting employed, what
their wages are, and how long they are retaining that
employment.
Mr. O'Rourke. Is this something that is measured? And I can
ask the VA. I know they are the next panel. Is this something
that is measured by the VA for each community which they serve,
the different metrics you just gave us?
Ms. Crone. I think your best way to get some of that
information is to directly ask the providers. They do pretty
extensive tracking of their programs. And some of those
programs, including the employment services, might be through
Department of Labor.
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you.
Ms. Crone. But, yes, you can ask me.
Mr. O'Rourke. Very, very helpful. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Lamborn. Representative Walz.
Mr. Walz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I start, I think
it maybe has all been said, but I wanted to thank the ranking
member, Mr. Michaud, as everyone said here, just an absolute
pillar of this committee and of Congress, a close friend. When
I think now people from Maine, I think of Mr. Michaud, no
nonsense, practical, hearty, dependable, consistent, all those
things.
So I was thinking of my district, something to give you
that I thought fit those attributes. And in my district, every
single can of Spam in the world is produced there. So I think
of you. I am going to--so we will pass it down.
Well, to each of you, thank you. You are doing the good
work. I appreciate this, and many of you have been here. I want
to say a couple of things.
First of all, Mr. Landis, thank you. I have been out to be
with you. And in full disclosure, my wife and I support what
you are doing out there and I appreciate the email updates and
all the things you are doing. It is a model that many of you
have here. It is not the same model, but it is a model based on
efficiency, delivery, and that holistic approach. And for that,
I am very, very grateful.
Dr. Sherin, in following up on my colleague's insightful
questions on this peer-to-peer piece, as we sit here today, we
are waiting. And at any point, that Veterans Suicide Bill and
the ones you helped on are going to get there. A key component
of that was the peer counseling piece. So I thank you for that.
It looks like--and we just got word from the White House, they
are waiting for it to sign it. So thank you for that. And I
think we are moving forward.
A couple things I want to ask each of you. This issue of
rural delivery--and I know I hear many of you talk about that.
Mr. Downing, you talk about it. One of the realities we are
going to have to understand, about 15 percent of the population
is rural, like southern Minnesota, northern Maine, places like
that, El Paso and others that you get out in the countryside.
But about 45 percent of our warriors come from there. I think
that is cultural, far more than it is economic. But it is a
reality.
One of the issues we have to grapple with is the shortage
of providers is both in the private sector as well as in this.
So one of the things, as we look for these solutions, and we
look for them, it is not as simple as just putting the people
into the private sector because, in many cases, those providers
aren't there anyway. And so I say that because I think--and
many of you are thinking about this, this holistic approach,
and I have seen this in my community. We have MACV, which an
integrated housing unit. Minnesota Valley Action--and they do
it right. And we integrated and started early on after folks in
Buffalo showed us to do this veterans courts, where we
understand, instead of the criminal justice system, it is
entrance into the community. That is private sector, working
with the county, working with the city, working with the State,
working with the VA.
So I think there are models out there. I caution us,
though, from saying one way or another. If I go to charity
navigator, not all the private charities are doing a wonderful
job as many of you are. And I think it is our responsibility
here and it is VA's responsibility to be that clearinghouse and
to put those things into place. And I hear you on this. And I
am saying, well, maybe one of those major responsibilities
should be moving the resources in an accountable manner. I
think I agree with you on this. I have two questions, though, I
want to ask on this.
I--and many of them are here, and I know the Secretary and
others will be here. And I--this isn't the PIC, the turf battle
fight or whatever, but it seemed like to me as a veteran, one
of the things is the disjointed nature of where many services
are. There are 40,000 charities for veterans in this country,
whatever.
Does it make sense to have DoL, Department of Labor, and VA
have pieces of this? My goal was to bring it all into one. And
that it was not to disparage either agency on that, but as a
simple alignment. I ask each of you who deal with this on a
regular basis.
Mr. Downing. I stopped all my DoL programs just because I
had a difficult time with all the different reporting things,
and it was easier for me to meet the various State funder
sources in the VA and move on. And through SSVF, I was able to
train people to be--to do job search, and we have built that
component in. And we, also, in most of the States we are in,
are partnering now with their employment divisions, okay, and
their training divisions, and we are finding that it works
extremely well.
Mr. Walz. Do you think there is expertise in VA to clear
some of that to get to those----
Mr. Downing. I do. I think, again, in the homeless
program--and I want to go back here because VHA, I have real
fears about. But the homeless program, the Center for
Excellence, are very good at contracting. And we just need to
fund them and encourage them to.
I think the second thing is, in rural areas, technology--I
manage 76 counties in Mississippi from western Massachusetts.
Mr. Walz. Okay.
Mr. Downing. You know, I pick up--or my staff pick up a
phone and they can tell you where every car is, who is on time
for their appointments, who isn't, how many people are served
there. That is all doable. But we need to have the resources,
and we need to have the creative minds that say, hey, that is
acceptable. Do you know what I am saying? It is hard to get the
big system to buy that. So I think we are very capable of it.
Mr. Walz. Well, I will let some of you--I am going to save
this one for VA. But I want you to think about it. I have been
in, you know, I am sure I have spoken about it till everybody
is sick of hearing about this. But this idea of the strategic
vision, the quadrennial veterans review type of thing. How does
homelessness fit into their broader strategy? Do you feel like
it is taken into that, or do we end up having programs that get
attached on the side all the time? I am just wondering where
homelessness fits into that veterans strategy? If any of you--
do you think it is there? My time is up and just--why don't we
hold it. I will let them answer, but just give you some----
Mr. Lamborn. Yes. Representative Walz, I just--I hate to
keep moving, but----
Mr. Walz. No, no. If we are on the right track and all
that--I yield back.
Mr. Lamborn [continuing]. We have votes in about 45
minutes, so--and we have another panel of three people yet to
go.
Representative Kuster.
Ms. Kuster. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. And I, too,
want to commend Mr. Michaud for his wonderful leadership on
this committee and thank you for mentorship to the new members
of the committee.
I just wanted to ask a couple of questions. Mr. Downing,
nice to meet you. You have a project that we are trying to get
off the ground in my district of Plymouth, New Hampshire.
Mr. Downing. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. Kuster. And I understand we have had some zoning board
issues with a couple of the sites, and I am very hopeful that
we will be successful with this site that you are looking at
now.
Mr. Downing. I think we are. We had an offer that was
accepted on the property. We are trying to work out the terms
of that right now.
Ms. Kuster. Terrific. Terrific.
Mr. Downing. So--and we have talked to Taylor Caswell. And
we are moving ahead and doing applications on the financing.
Ms. Kuster. Terrific. And so what I wanted to ask about is:
Can you help me understand, you or any other members of the
panel, how we go about the funding? What is the Federal rule in
the actual capital funding? We have talked about that, sort of,
the initial expense. I am very confident in the model that you
are choosing of relying upon our community providers. We have a
great deal of interest in this community. It is rural, but we
have strong support, and I am very much looking forward to you
coming to New Hampshire. Because, as they have told me, you are
the gold standard and we have a great----
Mr. Downing. Thank you.
Ms. Kuster [continuing]. Deal of need in that region. But
can you just educate me on what the sources of capital funding
are for these projects?
Mr. Downing. First of all, we get in line with every other
affordable housing group on the home, if and however that money
gets passed through in your State, we applied for that. Tax
credits, both Federal and State, then, become issues. And we
applied for those where they are applicable. And then we
normally have approximately a 20 percent shortfall on anything
we are going to build. And we usually go out and borrow some of
that money and see what we can fund develop for the balance.
And then that is how we put our model together.
There are two other models now that are really--we are
looking at, one that I am doing in partnership with a major tax
credit provider. And they are--they feel that we could more
rapidly get to building using that model. And I have just met
with a major defense contractor, and we are going to be meeting
with them about buying the credits at a ``Dollar"on a ``Dollar
" for veterans' housing. And if we could pull that off, it
would then really rapidly increase the time.
So that--give an example, in Plymouth, New Hampshire, now
that we finally found the piece of land and we are in agreement
on the price and fair and we are all moving forward, it would
be--with a more streamlined model, we should be able to start
building in 18 months. It is probably going to take us, in the
model we are in right now, because of the lack of tax credits
in the State and the size of the State limits that, I believe
we are going to be 2\1/2\ years to 3 years to finance. Okay.
Ms. Kuster. I would love to help you out and maybe make
some introductions to some of our businesses in the community
that could be helpful.
Mr. Downing. Thank you. I would appreciate it, ma'am.
Ms. Kuster. And we welcome you in my district.
Mr. Downing. Thank you.
Ms. Kuster. Thank you.
I would like to ask--and this is for anyone in the panel. I
am interested--we have talked about VA products and programs
that are available and we have talked about private sector. Do
you envision an impact, as in New Hampshire we have just
expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. It is a big
change for us. We are going to have 50,000 people with health
insurance for the first time, many of them ever. And given our
high population of veterans, do you envision this being
helpful? And I think one of you had mentioned that
Massachusetts--that you encourage them to take the healthcare
coverage under the Massachusetts plan. Will this help provide
alternatives so that our veterans can get the services they
need in the community? And any comment from anyone on that?
Mr. Berg. Well, I would start by saying just the expansion
of Medicaid really, by making sort of mental health treatment
available to a lot more very low income people, helps on the
issue of homelessness generally.
Now, for veterans, in the past, we have thought, okay, VA
offers mental healthcare where that--that, at least, is more
than people who aren't veterans get. I think there is a lot
more talk about how these federally-funded systems should
interact, the one for veterans and the one for nonveterans.
The other thing I would say is that there is a certain
number of veterans, people who served on active duty in the
military who are not eligible for VA healthcare. Based on a
series of complicated rules. The Medicaid expansion is going to
be what they need to rely on to get mental health agreement.
Ms. Kuster. Excellent.
My time is up. But I appreciate it, and I certainly am
hopeful in New Hampshire that that will happen and across the
country. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Lamborn. That concludes our questions. Thank you all
for being here on this important issue. We appreciate your
testimony.
I would now welcome our second panel to the witness table.
Joining us from the Department of Veterans Affairs is Lisa
Pape, the executive director of Homeless Programs. Ms. Pape is
accompanied by Thomas O'Toole, the Acting Director of the
National Center for Homelessness Among Veterans.
We are also joined on our second panel by Jennifer Ho, the
senior advisor to the Secretary on Housing and Services from
the Department of Housing and Urban Development; and the
Honorable Keith Kelly, the Assistant Secretary of Labor for the
Veterans Employment and Training Service for the Department of
Labor.
Thank you all for being here. We will begin with Ms. Pape.
And if you are ready, you, may begin with your testimony.
STATEMENTS OF LISA PAPE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HOMELESS PROGRAMS,
VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS
AFFAIRS, ACCOMPANIED BY THOMAS O'TOOLE, ACTING DIRECTOR,
NATIONAL CENTER FOR HOMELESSNESS AMONG VETERANS, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS; JENNIFER HO, SENIOR ADVISOR ON
HOUSING AND SERVICES TO THE SECRETARY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT; HON. KEITH KELLY, ASSISTANT
SECRETARY OF LABOR, VETERANS EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING SERVICE,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
STATEMENT OF LISA PAPE
Ms. Pape. Good morning, chairman, and Ranking Member
Michaud, and members of the committee. On behalf of Secretary
McDonald, let me thank you and the committee for the
opportunity to review our progress to prevent and end
homelessness among our Nation's veterans. As you have
indicated, I am here and pleased to be accompanied by Dr.
Thomas O'Toole, the acting director of our National Center on
Homelessness Among Veterans. And I have to just say thanks to
the panel before us for all their good work and great
partnerships.
This is the time to prevent and end homelessness among
veterans. We owe every man and woman who has worn our Nation's
military uniform no less. With the help of Congress, our
Federal partners, and community providers, we have been making
unprecedented strides, as you have heard today, to engage,
support, treat, and house homeless and at-risk veterans. While
the numbers are going down from almost 56,000 in 2013 to 49,900
on any given night in 2014, we know we have to accelerate the
pace, use data to drive our results, leverage mainstream
systems, target resources in greatest need, and work better,
faster and together.
Our goal: A systemic end to homelessness, no veteran
sleeping on our streets, and every veteran having access to
permanent housing. We have will have the capacity to quickly
connect homeless or at-risk for homeless veterans with the help
they need to achieve the housing stability they deserve. The
ultimate goal is that all veterans have permanent sustainable
housing with access to high quality healthcare.
VA knows we can't prevent and end homelessness alone, and
we are committed to continued collaboration and fostering of
strong partnerships. We have close working relationships with
Federal partners, like the U.S. Interagency Council on
Homelessness, HUD, Department of Labor, and others.
Partnerships are key.
I would like to take a moment to thank our local partners
from around the country. Your interest in being part of a
collaborative solution to ending veterans' homelessness is
extremely valuable and greatly appreciated. Lastly, I want to
acknowledge the homeless and formerly homeless vets who are
watching or here with us today. I thank you for our service,
and we look forward to providing you with the continued care
and support you deserve.
Our strong interagency collaborations have resulted in
successful policies and programs. With the help of our partners
and, as you have heard today, an unprecedented 33 percent
decrease in the number of homeless--number of veterans without
permanent housing who have stayed in shelters, missions, SROs,
or in any other unstable or nonpermanent situation, and a 42
percent decrease in those who were literally sleeping on the
streets in boxes or in abandoned buildings.
Our premiere collaboration is with HUD, in the Housing and
Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supported Housing Program,
HUD-VASH. Highly vulnerable veterans who have experienced
homelessness for extended periods of time are best served
through HUD-VASH. This collaborative provides housing choice
rental assistance from HUD, with intense case management
assistance from VA. Last year, nearly 56,000 veterans were
assisted. We know permanent supported housing is the most
effective tool for serving these chronically homeless veterans.
The SSVF, Supportive Service for Veterans Families program,
rapidly rehouses homeless veterans and their families and
prevents homelessness for those who are at risk. In fiscal
years 2014 and 2015, the SSVF program awarded $507 million in
grants that expanded SSVF from 319 community agencies to 383.
Last year, our grantees served nearly 130,000 veterans and
their family members, of which 27,500 were children.
Additionally, 81 percent had a successful housing outcome.
The homeless providers grant per diem is our largest
transitional housing program. It is for veterans who have need
of extended rehab, focused help with employment, and housing
searches, and are served in this program. In 2014, over 23,000
veterans were admitted and 14,600 exited into permanent
housing.
For veterans entering the justice system who are already
dealing with mental health or substance abuse issues, we have
established Veterans Justice Outreach; 248 full-time
specialists working directly with justice officials. VA works
with treatment courts to ensure veterans get the treatment they
need as opposed to using incarceration as the alternative.
In conclusion, VA, with our partners, are now closer to its
goal than any other point in history. We know that targeting
resources, utilizing evidence-based practices like Housing
First, and strengthening collaborations are key. Through
Congress's continued support, our vast partnerships and the
commitment of our Federal partners we have made significant
progress in our effort. We recognize that ending homelessness
is not an endpoint, but a way point. We can never become
complacent about our achievements or the same conditions that
gave rise to homelessness will spawn this once more. VA will
not rest.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony. My colleague and
I are prepared to answer questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Lisa Pape appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you. Ms. Ho, you are now recognized for
5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF JENNIFER HO
Ms. Ho. Chairman Lamborn, Ranking Member Michaud, and
members of the committee, I am Jennifer Ho, senior advisor to
HUD Secretary Castro. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss
our collaborative work to eliminate veteran homelessness in
America.
Since launching Opening Doors in June of 2014, the number
of veterans experiencing homelessness on a single night has
dropped by 33 percent to just under 50,000 veterans. This
progress would not have been possible without funding from
Congress. Thank you.
While much more needs to be done, we know that
collaboration and new resources strategically deployed are key
to our progress. HUD VA and the U.S. Interagency Council on
Homelessness work together to combat a problem that cannot be
solved by one agency alone. We work together every day to align
our programs and to use limited resources as efficiently as
possible.
Our most collaborative effort is HUD-VASH, supportive
housing that combines housing vouchers from HUD with case
management and clinical care provided by VA to assist
vulnerable and chronically homeless veterans. Together HUD and
VA use data to drive decisions about HUD-VASH allocation, based
on both homelessness prevalence and local capacity to
administer new vouchers.
Since 2008, nearly 70,000 HUD-VASH vouchers have been
awarded to public housing authorities in the every State,
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. About 11,000 new
HUD-VASH vouchers were awarded in the last several months. The
success of HUD-VASH requires new collaborative partnerships
locally between VA medical centers, public housing agencies,
and nonprofits providing homelessness assistance. As
communities identify challenges such as low voucher utilization
or a lack of affordable housing, we are helping resolve
partnership, policy, and practice issues. By overcoming
challenges together, our collaboration is strengthened and
better able to address the next challenge.
In order to ensure that HUD-VASH investments are used
strategically, HUD and VA have a performance target to use at
least 65 percent of HUD-VASH vouchers for veterans experiencing
chronic homelessness. These veterans have long histories of
homelessness and very poor health and, therefore, typically
require long-term housing assistance and support. HUD-VASH
supports veterans for as long as they need assistance.
HUD and VA are both committed to Housing First. Housing
First means veterans get intensive supportive services to help
them, first, find and keeping housing. A homeless veteran can
more easily engage in services and address his or her chronic
health conditions or find a job once he or she is no longer
dealing with the chaos and uncertainty of homelessness.
Research has demonstrated that permanent supportive housing,
using a Housing First approach, not only ends homelessness for
people who, in the past, would live on the streets or in
shelters for years, it breaks the costly cycle through
shelters, emergency rooms, hospital, detox centers, and jails.
We continue to work with local communities to improve the
performance of HUD-VASH. One of HUD's major technical
assistance efforts has been boot camps in which community
partners are brought together to answer the question: How can
we more effectively and efficiently end veterans homelessness
locally? Nationwide, over 50 communities have participated in
boot camps, which are a collaborative effort between HUD, VA,
the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, Rapid Results
Institute, and community solutions.
The results are real. In some cities, the time it used to
take for a veteran to actually get the keys to an apartment was
6 months or more. After participation in boot camp, communities
have shrunk that time to as little as 30 days. Many communities
like Jacksonville, Florida, set and met ambitious goals of
housing 100 veterans experiencing chronic homeless in 100 days.
Large gains can be made in a short period of time when all the
partners are at the table.
As Ms. Pape discussed, the VA built on the progress made
through boot camps in the 25 cities initiatives will continue
to help communities improve the identification, assessment, and
housing placement of veterans through HUD's supportive new zero
2016 campaign in 71 cities and four States across the country.
Each community is developing specific targets for the number of
people they must house each month to end veteran homelessness
by December of 2015.
This effort dovetails nicely with the mayor's challenge to
end veteran homelessness championed by First Lady Michelle
Obama. I am excited to announce that more than 355 mayors,
governors, and county executives from across the country have
pledged to end veteran homelessness in their communities by the
end of 2015 by strengthening the local partnerships.
Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, thank you for
your continued support of this important work. I hope I have
been able to portray the unprecedented level of Federal
collaboration that is accelerating our progress toward ending
homelessness among veterans in America. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Jennifer Ho appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Lamborn. All right. Thank you.
Assistant Secretary Kelly, you may speak now. Thank you for
being here.
STATEMENT OF KEITH KELLY
Mr. Kelly. Good afternoon, Chairman Lamborn, Ranking Member
Michaud, and distinguished members of the committee. Thank you
for the opportunity to participate in today's hearing, and
particularly for this morning's panel. It was very energetic
and robust and educational.
My name is Keith Kelly, and I have the honor to serve as
the Assistant Secretary for Veterans Employment and Training
Services at the Department of Labor. The Department is
committed to helping the administration meet its goal of ending
homelessness among veterans in 2015.
Secretary Perez and I know that one of the most important
ways to prevent homelessness is through a good job. However,
employment alone is not a guarantee in preventing veterans from
falling back into homelessness. It requires a coordinated
effort between our Federal partners such as VA, HHS, SBA, and
HUD, as well as other State and local organizations,
nonprofits, and the private sector.
Currently chaired by Secretary Perez, the U.S. Interagency
Council on Homelessness has helped us in providing a national
partnership at every level to reduce ending homelessness in the
nation. As you know, and stated in some of your testimony this
morning, we have already made substantial progress.
At DoL, our primary program aimed at eliminating
homelessness among veterans is the Homeless Veterans'
Reintegration Program, referred to as HVRP. In addition,
veterans receive priority of service in all of the employment
and training programs funded directly, in whole or in part, by
the Department of Labor. Through the HVRP, DoL grantees assist
homeless veterans in obtaining meaningful and sustainable
employment. Each participant receives customized employment and
training services to address his or her specific barriers to
employment. Services may include occupational, classroom and
on-the-job training, as well job search, placement assistance
and post-placement follow-up services.
HVRP operates on the principle that when homeless veterans
obtain meaningful and sustainable employment, they really are
on the path to self-sufficiency. HVRP grantees work with VA,
HUD, HHS, and many other types of organizations. Actually,
applicants must address how they intend to collaborate with
others in their applications for funding.
In fiscal year 2014, the HVRP program received an
appropriation of just over $38 million, with which the
Department awarded 37 new HVRP grants, 82 option year HVRP
grants, and 18 grants for homeless female veterans programs.
These grantees are expected to provide services to over 17,000
homeless veterans with an estimated placement rate of 66
percent at an estimated cost per participant of around $2,200.
While my written statement goes into much detail about the
Department's procedures for selecting grant recipients as well
as measuring their performances, I would just note that HVRP
funds are awarded to eligible organizations from a very
rigorous competitive process. Following the award, the
Department works closely with grantees to ensure they meet all
our performance outcomes.
On a personal note, my staff and I routinely visit our HVRP
grantees when we travel around the country. And, as you heard
this morning, we are consistently impressed with the passion
and the creativity these dedicated organizations bring to their
work to help homeless veterans. I would certainly encourage you
to meet these great men and women as you travel around your
districts.
Just one example. We support the Volunteers of America
Florida, a local chapter of one of the other witnesses here
today. Through the HVRP program, they have successfully
partnered with a security firm to put in place a direct
referral system of the homeless veterans they are working with,
once they are job ready. The grantee's staff assist each
veteran with their application based on what the company is
looking for, and then the company contacts the veteran
directly. This streamlined process has resulted in many
formerly homeless veterans getting back on their feet in a
relatively short amount of time.
Through HVRP, the Department also supports stand-down
grants and technical assistance. The stand-down grant is
typically a 2- to 3-day event involving various Federal, State,
and local organizations. At these events, grantees provide
homeless veterans with a variety of services, such as meals,
clothing, employment services, referrals, and counseling. In
fiscal year 2014, we awarded 66 stand-down grants for
approximately $500,000.
Additionally, the Department awarded two technical
assistance cooperative agreements to support our grantees and
disseminate best practices. One who testified this morning, The
National Coalition on Homeless Veterans. And, finally, the
Department of Labor is committed to the administration's goal
of ending homeless veterans in 2015, and we look forward with
the committee to ensure the continued success of our efforts.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you again
this afternoon for the opportunity to testify. I would be
pleased to answer any questions you have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Keith Kelly appears in the
Appendix]
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you.
I will now yield myself up to 5 minutes for questions. Ms.
Pape, programs to provide assistance to homeless veterans are
provided by actually each of the three departments that are
represented here in this panel. Earlier this year, VA, in
particular, provided the committee with a list of 20 separate
programs that VA operates to provide assistance with housing,
healthcare, or employment for homeless veterans.
Now, as we all know, large government bureaucracies are not
known for being sometimes able to effectively communicate and
coordinate efforts. So how do you ensure that these programs
work in coordination to provide a seamless continuum of care
for veterans in need and do not duplicate services?
Ms. Pape. Thank you, chairman, for that question. And it is
an important question. As you heard on the panel before us, the
programs that we listed, the 20 programs are really
complementary of each other and may build on each other. That
is not to say there is not any duplication. Of course, right,
we are constantly working to ensure that there is not, but they
are more complementary. And we do many avenues and, even across
department, to ensure that folks know about the programs and
that we are not duplicating services to an extent that is not
helpful in the system. So we track and monitor and evaluate
regularly to ensure that the right veteran is going to the
right level of service for the right amount of time, which is
really key for this population. We also have regular subject-
matter expert reviews to ensure that programs are staying in
their lanes but complementing each other.
Let me ask if Dr. O'Toole would like to add, this is--
evaluation is his area.
Dr. O'Toole. Great. Thank you. And, Mr. Chairman, it is a
spot-on question and issue and one that, I think, is extremely
important for us to have a focus to. Coordinating care is a
challenge in the general healthcare system, not to mention
issues specific to homeless and homeless veterans within the VA
system.
I am a primary care provider and have been taking care of
homeless persons and homeless veterans now for almost 25 years.
And tomorrow I will be in clinic and see probably about 10 or
15 veterans in the morning, and each one is going to have a
litany of different problems and issues that will likely be
crossing into the territory of four or five different programs
within each context. And how we connect the dots in those
programs is really a significant issue and challenge and, also,
an area of very specific focus for us.
Mr. Lamborn. And how do you do that?
Dr. O'Toole. Well, the most important thing is we pick up
the phone and talk to each other. And we--when we do pick up
that phone, we need to know who it is we are talking to so it
is not a cold call. And that is basic primary care, basic care
coordination 101, and it is how we have to do it.
And VA has made significant strides within the homeless
program arena in the past few years in the context of this
initiative in reaching out to community partners and really
including them in that process as well. Our local facility has
a homeless summit on a quarterly basis where all of the
community agencies that we partner with come in, meet. So,
again, there is that face time.
From a data and analytics perspective, this is where we are
moving in the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans is
specifically directing its energies to how do we find and
identify those veterans who are falling through the cracks? It
is a complicated, bureaucratic system, and it is easy to have
that happen. And being able to use our analytics capacity to
identify down to the Social Security number who those veterans
are and how can we redirect those services is, right now, where
we are really focusing our energies.
Mr. Lamborn. Okay. Thank you so much. Representative
Michaud.
Mr. Michaud. Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman. Before I ask
the question from Ms. Pape, I want to thank you and the many
employees at the VA for your efforts to care for our veterans
and to serve our veterans as well all across the country. I
think too often the media headlines level broad accusation
against all VA employees, not just the ones who are--have bad
performance issues. There are good news stories, and there are
good VA employees. So keep up the good work and continue to
improve on that as well.
But likewise, with the first panel we had earlier this
morning and the veterans service organizations who work with
the Department and veterans, I want to thank all of you as well
for your continued effort in that partnership working with the
Department to make sure that Congress does what we have to do
to provide the resources that we need for the Department. And I
want to thank you for that, the essential work that each and
every one of the VSOs and organizations do for our veterans.
My question is: It seems that further reduction in
homelessness will become increasingly difficult as the more
severely mental ill and substance-dependent veterans are
treated and housed. Is that a fair assumption? And, if so, what
is the VA strategy plan for addressing these chronic
homelessness?
Ms. Pape. Thank you, Mr. Michaud, and thank you for
acknowledging the work we are doing.
So it is a fair assumption, right, as--as we start to
continue to reach into the communities and find every homeless
veterans, we find harder-to-reach folks who are living in
camps, not directly in urban settings where we have to find
them, know them by name, and engage them into services. One of
the initiatives Ms. Ho referenced was this 25-city initiative
that VA is running with our Federal partners, as well as some
other contractors we are working with. It is to build a
coordinated entry system at the community level where it
literally identifies by name every homeless veteran, so that
even if they don't engage, we will know, and the community will
know, who they are, so that we can continue to go back to them
until we can get them to engage.
Eventually, to our pleasant surprise, many, many of these
veterans finally raise their hands and say, We want services.
And that is because we have our partners at the table. They may
not want it from the VA, but they will take it from one of our
partners that you saw at the table and move them in. So it is
knowing them by name, engaging them, and building a systemic
system. And it cannot be the VA alone. It has to be all of us
together.
Mr. Michaud. Thank you for your answer. And you are
absolutely right, it has to be all of you together. And as--VA
can't do it all, and I am glad to see that you are reaching
out. And I meant what I said about the VA's employees because I
really look at, every time I go to stand down at Togus and
Main, you know, and I see Susie Whittington, I mean she has
just got so much energy out there and she really cares about
all the veterans--homeless veterans in Maine. And I wish we
could just bottle that energy and just send it throughout the
whole, you know, Department as well. I am sure there are other
employees such as Susie throughout the Department.
So, once again, I want to thank this panel for your
reference and the previously panel as well. With that, Mr.
Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you, Representative Michaud.
Representative Walorski.
Ms. Walorski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, again, I would
like to express my thanks as well for what the VA and the other
agencies are doing in the housing and Department of Labor as
well as for homeless veterans. I mentioned before, I have a
homeless shelter in my town that is privately funded, the
Miller Homeless Vet Center. And it has done a phenomenal job
being very, very close, on the frontline. And I can't commend
them enough for what they do. And they have the same heart and
passion as well.
The question I have, though, when we are talking about
ending homelessness in veterans by 2015 is: The VA Inspector
General came out last week with a report from the National Call
Center for Homeless Veterans which identified over 40,000
missed opportunities where the call center did not refer
homeless veteran callers to medical facilities or close
referrals without making sure homeless veterans actually
receive their services. So what is the follow-up on that?
What--where is the VA in addressing the concerns of the
oversight of the IG?
Ms. Pape. Good question. You know, we share your concerns.
I read the report. It is disappointing for all of us, and
frankly, it is just unacceptable. We regret that any veteran
who was calling for information and a referral did not get the
service that they needed.
That said, you know, this was a journey for us. And when we
set up the call center, it was a smart idea. We knew we needed
a quick way to get veterans access to information. Frankly, it
grew faster than we were able to execute and we didn't grow
with it.
Ms. Walorski. How many employees are in that call center?
Ms. Pape. For the homeless hotline----
Ms. Walorski. Yes.
Ms. Pape [continuing]. There are about 60 employees, and it
is coupled with the Veteran Crisis Line. That said, we have
already--even prior to the IG report coming out, we have
already started making improvements because we have to. Our
veterans deserve that.
Ms. Walorski. So in the improvements that you started to
make, were those improvements in holding employees accountable
or were the improvements in getting rid of the answering system
so that it can't be left on auto to leave--what steps have you
taken to keep the employees accountable?
Ms. Pape. It is both. So we are in the process of
finalizing an automated queuing system so that the answering
machine can be gone, and that queuing system will allow vets to
pick a number, 1, 2 or 3, or stay on the line and talk to a
responder.
We have also started looking into a workforce tracking
system, which will allow an automated system for us to know how
long calls are being talked on, who is doing what, where the
documentation is. And all of that is getting worked on right
now as we speak.
We have also targeted staffing to come in during the peak
hours--I think one of the congressmen said that--so that now
they are coming in and staggering hours so that we have staff
on duty. Right now, our service level is about 90 percent of
the calls are being answered.
Ms. Walorski. So those people--well, I guess, the answering
system that was in use when the IG came in and looked at that,
was that service not adequate to be able to pull all the
information from what time the veteran called, what number they
called from? Were those kind of--was it possible to go in and
retrace and try to find some of these folks? Or are they just--
is that information just gone----
Ms. Pape. No you could--you could----
Ms. Walorski [continuing]. And the new system has it?
Ms. Pape. Right. You could get that information. But it was
an answering machine, so some of it was inaudible, right, and
it was not automated. So somebody literally had to go in and
track that. Now, with an automated system, that information
will be at our fingertips. And some of that is at our
fingertips right now that we are now tracking.
Ms. Walorski. So what did you find out--when you went in to
kind of go in and implement the IG's findings, what did you
find out those employees were doing when the Inspector General
said there was lapses of up to 4 hours where they weren't there
but they were obviously being paid? What were they doing? Did
you find out?
Ms. Pape. I know that some of the things the employees were
doing were training. They were on training. They were on leave.
They were on--they were looking, doing documentation and----
Ms. Walorski. For 40,000 phone calls? How long of a period
of time does it take to get 40,000 phone calls in there? I
mean, will we--we will never find these people. But, you know,
that is--it is interesting to me, it is $3.2 million in a
department that loses 40,000 phone calls, two-thirds of that
money is in the system itself.
So were employees fired? Did somebody talk to them about,
you know, are there things on the--are these people all still
there, and these are all the people that we are going forward
with?
Ms. Pape. So management is looking at how to address issues
in performance and will be addressing that. I don't know if all
the employees are still there. I do not think anyone has been
fired, but we can get back to you on that. I can----
Ms. Walorski. And then whoever is in charge of that
department, when that IG report came out and was basically
proof to the VA that there was a huge issue going on in that
call center and 40,000 call opportunities were missed, what
happened to the person in charge of that department?
Ms. Pape. So leadership, again, is reviewing and assessing
the performance. And if there is wrongdoing found, they will be
taking care of that.
Ms. Walorski. They will be fired?
Ms. Pape. I won't say they will be fired. There are many
ways; counseling, suspension, reprimands. And, of course, if
there is something egregious, there could be----
Ms. Walorski. I just think it is a huge impediment, Mr.
Chairman, that--because we all want homelessness ended by 2015,
right? But we want to make sure that the things get corrected
in the VA because, I think, the American people have loudly
said, That is enough and that has to stop. So I appreciate your
interest in looking at it as well.
Ms. Pape. Thank you.
Ms. Walorski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Lamborn. Chairman Patrick.
Ms. Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick. That is all right.
Mr. Lamborn. Kirkpatrick.
Ms. Kirkpatrick. It happens all the time.
Mr. Lamborn. I apologize.
Ms. Kirkpatrick. I want to thank the panel for your--and
the previous panel for your hard work toward the goal of ending
homelessness for our veterans.
Ranking Member Michaud, I want to thank you and Chairman
Miller for your leadership on the committee. Chairman Lamborn,
I want to thank you and all my colleagues and the committee
staff for your hard work. This has been one of the most
productive committees in the 113th Congress, and thank you for
that.
For my final remarks in the 113 Congress on this committee,
I want to read an email I got this morning. It is from a
gentleman, William Putnam, who is the former trustee of Lowell
Observatory in Flagstaff who has just now moved to New
Hampshire. So if the committee will bear with me. He says,
``Ann, I just had a wonderful experience at the VA Hospital in
Manchester near here. Some 5 or 6 years ago, I gave up on the
VA after it became clear to me that all the people wanted was
to take more chest X rays of me. I figured I must glow in the
dark already and that piece of iron hasn't shifted its position
inside me since the day it got there in the first place nearly
70 years ago.
``However, I will give them another chance, thought I. So I
made an appointment and got there in the rain--ugh--at 10 a.m.
But hardly had I found a place to park my car than some guy
with a courtesy van showed up to offer me a ride some 250 yards
to the main entrance. He was right there again when I wanted to
go back. I found my way inside, and some other nice guy
directed me down a long hall and around a few corners to a
waiting room where I showed my paperwork to another polite guy
behind a computer. He poked away at his machine. And in a
matter of less than a minute, a little man appeared in a nearby
doorway and called my name. He introduced himself and said,
'Follow me down to our office area. I think you will find the
weather is better there.' In fact, it wasn't raining at his end
of the building. And it turned out he was the head technician
for primary care pack team 2 of which Dr. Carter Hale is the
leader.
Dr. Hale was ready for me and did a few more of the usual
high-level medical inquiries. He was a nice guy, friendly,
knowledgeable, and radiated a sincere desire to be helpful to
an old vet with all the miseries of a tired and lonesome man.''
Mr. Putnam just recently lost his wife.
``After his examination, Dr. Hale took me to a nurse's
cubicle where he left me to go write up his analysis. And the
lady shot me full of flu vaccine, then pointed me down the hall
to where the real blood thirsty ones were. They were really
nice about it, too, and finally, it has been nearly two hours
so far, told me I could go home. The pharmacy people would be
in touch with me soon.
``I had barely gotten back home when--a 20-minute drive--
when my cell phone rang. I now have a date with the pharmacy
people for next Tuesday. You know, Anne, I misspent much of my
youth here is Kyle, Hampshire. It is kind of nice to feel home
again. But, mostly, I thought you might enjoy hearing a nice
thing said about the Veterans Administration.''
I had his permission to read this. And I want to
congratulate Ms. Kuster. She's getting a great constituent. So
thank you very much. I yield back.
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you. And thank you, Ms. Kirkpatrick.
That leads to Representative Kuster.
Ms. Kuster. Well, after that, I would take the risk, but
thank you very much. And I think it is appropriate.
And I, too, want to commend our chair, Mr. Miller, and Mr.
Michaud, and just what an extraordinary experience this has
been for me as a new member.
Both my husband and I have experienced this incredible
pride and honor. My father was in World War II. He was a pilot,
flew 63 missions, and was shot down on Christmas Eve and spent
6 months in a POW camp. And my father-in-law was landing on the
beaches of Normandy when my father was flying overhead. They
were both in the Battle of the Bulge. And so this has just been
an extraordinary experience for me as a member of Congress to
be able to serve on this committee.
So I really don't have any additional questions. I want to
thank you for the work that you are doing. I certainly want to
thank my colleague, Ms. Kirkpatrick, for that beautiful letter.
And I just want to say that of the people that are out
there working for the Veterans Administration, for HUD, for all
the private organizations, all of our VSOs to meet people from
organizations like Soldier On, I just want our veterans to know
how much we do care, how much we do want to solve--this is the
most complex issue, poverty, the issues of the brain having
dealt with mental health in our family, issues of employment,
PTSD, MST, the list goes on and on. And I just want our
veterans to know that we have the most bipartisan committee in
the 113th Congress and, I hope, in the next Congress as well
and that there are people here in Washington, DC who care a
great deal.
So I thank you for the work that you do. I thank my
colleagues, and I just want to thank the chair and the vice
chair for the opportunity to work with you this year. Thank you
so much.
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you.
Representative O'Rourke.
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, thank you to each of you for what you do and
for your answers to the questions so far.
For Ms. Pape, I wanted to follow-up on a question raised by
my colleague, Ms. Walorski, on these 40,000 missed calls. When
did you become aware of the OIG report and the number of calls
that were missed? Roughly.
Ms. Pape. While the OIG was finishing up the investigation
is when I started to become aware that there was 40,000 calls
missed, so the IG and the VA worked together as they start to
close out.
Mr. O'Rourke. How long ago was that roughly?
Ms. Pape. Several months ago, April, May.
Mr. O'Rourke. I take you at your word that you are pursuing
this and you are going to make sure that we hold those who are
responsible accountable and fix the problem?
Ms. Pape. Yes.
Mr. O'Rourke. I will say an issue that has consumed this
committee has been accountability and the culture at the VA and
hearing and knowing there is a little bit more urgency behind
these issues and that it doesn't take us months to figure out
who is responsible and to hold them accountable but we do it as
soon as we have the appropriate information, I think would go a
long way to restoring much needed faith and trust in the VA,
especially around appropriations time and, obviously, for those
whom we serve here, the veterans who depend on these services,
so just that would be a message to you in terms of your
response on that issue. And I hope you can update this
committee sooner than later that you have dealt with this issue
and held those accountable who were responsible for the failure
here.
Ms. Pape. Absolutely. Just yesterday having conversations
with our leadership about ensuring that this issue gets
resolved quickly. None of us want veterans not getting service
they need. It is just unacceptable, and we are on it. Thank
you.
Mr. O'Rourke. The latest point-in-time report shows around
56 homeless veterans in El Paso. I have a couple questions
around that. One, does that include veterans who are currently
in homeless shelters?
Ms. Ho. I can take that if you would like. Thank you,
Representative, for that. The point-in-time count, communities
go out and they count people who are getting homelessness
assistance, either in a shelter or a transitional housing
program, and people who are outside, so those are the groups
that are counted in the point-in-time count.
Mr. O'Rourke. So what I will want to do is offline, after
this hearing, see how I can bridge the divide between what the
El Paso Homeless Coalition counts and El Paso for Homeless
Veterans, which is 154 who are sheltered with about 60
unsheltered, and so I thought the unsheltered numbers, 56 and
60, were close enough that that is who you are counting in the
point-in-time. I just want to make sure I fully understand
that.
The kinds of questions I was asking Ms. Crone in terms of
what should we be measuring--and I realize it is not all about
data, but I do want to be able to measure those things that
will give us an indication of where we have successes and where
we have problems, where we need to spend our time and our
resources.
And then, related to that, prior to my being sworn in in
November of 2012, we learned that a very large shelter in El
Paso was approached by the VA to provide homeless services
exclusively to veterans and to families of veterans who are
homeless, and many, many months and maybe even years went by as
this shelter tried to meet all of the recommendations and
mandates I guess from the VA, and they spent hundreds of
thousands of Dollars in doing this, and at the end of the day,
the deal fell through. And, essentially, if I could sum it up,
the VA said your facility does not meet our criteria, despite
the fact that it had passed every single regulation and
inspection in El Paso, from the Fire Department, the Health
Department, every city code inspector, et cetera. The capacity
for that shelter is exactly the number of those who are
unsheltered today in El Paso. I realize this is somewhat of a
parochial issue but it is very, very important to me and the
people I serve.
I would love your commitment to sit down with us and go
through what happened here and how it is we are going to ensure
that we shelter and provide services for those who are
unsheltered in El Paso right now. In other words, if there was
a commitment and funds associated with that, can we get them
reintroduced in the community in another way. I am running out
of time, so I would love just to have your commitment to sit
down with me and go over that.
Ms. Pape. Committed. I am there. You are so close to ending
homelessness, we can get there. I am happy to sit with you.
Mr. O'Rourke. Thank you.
Ms. Ho. I just want to mention that the point-in-time count
happens in the third week of January, so an opportunity to
participate in that would also I think mobilize the community
on that.
Mr. O'Rourke. Wonderful.
Ms. Ho. And that you had 56 unsheltered veterans and 67
sheltered veterans in the January 14 count.
Mr. O'Rourke. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.
I yield back.
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you.
Representative Walz.
Mr. Walz. Thank you.
And thank you all for your commitment on this. It is
evidence of your passion, your expertise, and you care deeply.
And I, for one, am grateful for that. And I said I think what
you understand and the folks who have been involved in that
issue, the deep implications of that holistic approach in
getting that home, because for what it means, it is the
restoring the dignity and to be in many cases restoring the
life. And in Mankato, the homes I was talking about in
Minnesota, Radichel Townhomes there, all the good things, and
they had wonderful things to say about everything, but I asked
a veteran there, I said, Bill, what is the best part about
this. And he said, It is a place where my grand kids come that
feels normal. It is that reintegration into the community. It
is that grandpa's got a home. It is a place I can go. It is
nothing out of the ordinary. It is grandkids visit their
grandparent every day, and he is a grandparent.
And so I think your commitment on it is right. I think we
are all there. I think there are different approaches to it.
And I think when we have setbacks, the commitment to getting
them right.
I just had a couple of questions. I want to be clear with
all of you, Mr. Kelly especially on this. When I brought up a
few years ago this issue of alignment, it wasn't out of
criticism of any of your agencies. I think the things you do,
you do incredibly well. It was more of a concern at that point
in time especially the disparate nature of all of the services
that were available. There were many well-intended programs,
both governmental and private sector and public-private
partnerships, but how to deliver them. So my question is, is
the areas of expertise that HUD or DoL, are those so specific
to what you do that it is most effective and efficient to
reside there as opposed to bringing the experts over to VA as
one stop? I know that is a broad, and it is not meant to be a
loaded question. I know it can be. I just want to get my mind
wrapped around it if that is the right way to go as we see
because we are at a transformation point in VA, and this is the
time to talk about these things.
Mr. Kelly. Thank you for the question, and let me respond
to it this way. The expertise in the whole employment arena,
veterans or nonveterans, is at the Department of Labor. What is
most important is collaboration amongst our fellow agencies.
DoL brings to the table the employment and reemployment piece
of it. Now, that is only one part. You certainly have to have
the housing and the healthcare issues. So it was critical, it
seems to me, that the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness,
was created to make sure all of these things are addressed. I
would offer, from our point of view, we have dealt with that
very same thing at DoL with regards to employment and training.
I just got back from a meeting with the Agricultural folks to
look at veterans in agriculture training. Probably USDA is the
best lead for that on the various programs they have. I would
offer that same analogy here. It is just most important that we
do TOUCH base with each other, and all come to the table with
our expertise.
Mr. Walz. And I am grateful for that. How do you respond,
though, and I am sure this not a new one, and you heard our
first panelists, and they are committed just like you are, and
they are understanding where you are at, but they expressed
that and folks express it to me that it is again navigating
that disparate bureaucracy to try to get there. I say that not
as a pejorative. It is just the nature of things. Private
businesses have bureaucracies. Some of them are good, and some
of them are bad, so it is not an either/or. How do you respond
to them on that one when you heard some of the comments from
the first panelists?
Ms. Ho. Congressman Walz, thank you for your leadership on
this and for the opportunity to speak to this. I ran a
nonprofit in Minnesota for 11 years that had different Federal
grants, and so sitting in the Federal Government it is a very
different view. HUD knows housing, and as Lisa tells me all the
time, the VA is a healthcare system. They are just very
different programs. I think the magic of the work that we have
done together is by being able to work together not only
federally but locally to make those systems sync up so that we
are drawing the expertise of the public housing agencies and
the homeless assistance providers and the healthcare providers
at the VA. You know, could it be done in another way? Perhaps.
But the reason that we are getting close to ending veterans
homelessness in communities around the country is because they
just get the right people around the table focused on the same
goal. And so ----
Mr. Walz. And I agree with you. Is the next piece we are
getting is that integration with the folks who were on the
first panel of enhancing that? There is always going to be a
certain amount of frustration. Again, I get it, if we just
handed out the money and told people to do it, this room would
be packed with cameras about where did the money go then. And
that is our responsibility of trying to do it. Some of it would
go to good places; some of it wouldn't. I understand there is
that piece of it. My question is bringing more of them in to
hear, and I know you do, of seeing the first panel as partners
and equal partners to what you are doing and their expertise to
bring it. Mr. O'Toole, my time is almost up if you want to
finish with it.
Mr. O'Toole. Real quickly. We are in a transformative
process within the VA of going out into communities and
partnering with communities, whether it is in our integrated
primary care teams, all of which are doing outreach, our
assertive community treatment teams doing mental healthcare in
the community, as well as bringing these community agencies
into the VA. It is about de-siloing, the care. I think your
observation is spot on, and I think we are making progress. We
aren't where we need to be yet, but we are making progress in
getting there.
Mr. Walz. Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you, and thank you all for being here,
for your work for veterans, for your testimony today. There
will be questions for the record, and I would ask that you--oh,
I am sorry. We have another member of the committee that just
came in the door.
Ms. Brown, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. Brown. Thank you, and I was watching you on television.
You do this very well. Thank you. First of all, I want to put
on the record that I am grateful for the work that Secretary
Shinseki did as far as cutting down the homelessness problem
that we have experienced in this country for a number of years.
And so when history is written, he certainly should get the
credit for cutting it down to one-third as we celebrate. And I
am also grateful that we just got over $600,000 in my area for
the HUD voucher program. One of the questions that I raised
earlier is there doesn't seem to be adequate beds for female
veterans, in particular those with families. Can we address
that, please?
Ms. Ho. I would be happy to take that question,
Congresswoman. Thank you for that, and thanks for the
opportunity to talk about the way that we are targeting towards
female veterans. First of all, we track the number of female
veterans that are appearing in our shelter system, and we track
the number of female veterans that get access to the HUD-VASH
program. And so what we know is that HUD-VASH is serving female
veterans and their children at a higher rate, and we are doing
some specific targeting around that, understanding that a mom
with kids is in a uniquely vulnerable situation. So one of the
great uses of HUD-VASH is really around targeting around moms
and kids.
To the question of how much housing is needed, this really
is an area where the work that we are doing with specific
communities is very focused because historically, if you took a
look at the way that homelessness programs worked, they worked
largely in isolation. And one of the big transformations that
is going on right now is around this concept of coordinated
assessment, kind of a one-stop shop, with kind of a triage
referral. But also helping communities recognize every single
resource that they have and then looking at the numbers and
figuring out what the gaps are and strategizing around how to
fill those gaps in a very deliberate way.
It sounds like just good strategic planning, but
historically, that is not necessarily the way that communities
operated. Homeless programs operated in isolation. Nobody had a
good count of all of the resources. There wasn't a good
understanding of the difference between the number of people
experiencing homelessness on a single night versus people who
come through the system over time. So we are getting smarter in
all of those areas, and that is helping communities do these
gaps analyses to figure how much of what do we need, and
equally importantly, are there things that we used to need when
we were doing it the old way that we are not going to need as
much of any more.
Ms. Brown. Thank you.
I had read in the paper that they were cutting out meals
because the city was cutting back on programs of the State, so
I called in the Department of Agriculture. And they came in,
and so the groups came together and did a grant. And they are
working together. So it is not just HUD. It is all of the
stakeholders working together to make sure that we do
everything we need to do to fill those gaps in.
Ms. Ho. I had the pleasure of working at the U.S.
Interagency Council on Homelessness before I came to HUD, and
that is 19 Federal agencies working together on a single
Federal strategy, and that is the first time that this level of
collaboration not only with the partners that I have at the
table here today, but the other agencies that are part of it.
Everybody shows up, and everybody is trying to figure out what
is our piece of getting this job done.
Ms. Brown. Thank you very much, and thank you for your
service.
And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you, and I will, once again, thank you
all for being here, for your work to help veterans.
There will be questions for the record, and I would ask
that you respond to those in writing. The second panel is now
excused. I ask unanimous consent that all members have five
legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material. I would also like to thank once again all
of our witnesses on both panels and audience members for
joining us this morning. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
and this meeting is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:52 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
APPENDIX
Prepared Statement of the Chairman Jeff Miller
Welcome to today's Full Committee oversight hearing--the last of
the 113th Congress--``Evaluating Federal and Community Efforts to
Eliminate Veteran Homelessness.''
At this time of year perhaps more than any other, the thought of
anyone--particularly anyone who served our nation in uniform--without a
home or a safe place to sleep is simply heartbreaking.
Unfortunately, homelessness--or the constant threat of it--has
become a way of life for far too many of our nation's veterans.
In 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) initiated a five-
year plan to eliminate veteran homelessness and, as that deadline fast
approaches, I am pleased to report that VA has succeeded in reducing
veteran homelessness by approximately thirty-three percent.
Yet, as long as a single veteran struggles with housing instability
or homelessness, our work remains.
Troubling, a VA Inspector General (IG) report issued just last week
found that VA's National Call Center for Homeless Veterans missed well
over forty-thousand opportunities to link homeless veteran callers to
VA medical facilities and ensure they received needed services.
Some of these missed opportunities resulted from the unavailability
of Call Center staff during peak business hours when veteran callers
were transferred to answering machines instead of Call Center
employees.
This is unacceptable for any government program but particularly
for one that serves a population as vulnerable as this. A population
that for some, the ability to merely make a phone call is logistically
challenging.
I look forward to hearing today how VA is correcting the serious
deficiencies that the IG found and holding those at fault accountable
for their management and oversight failures.
Unfortunately, the Call Center is just one concern I have with VA's
many homeless programs.
Based on information from VA, the Department has roughly twenty
different programs designed to get homeless veterans off the streets
and provide them with housing, healthcare, and employment assistance.
The Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Labor also
have programs aimed at achieving these same goals. I am encouraged to
see the level of cooperation between these government agencies.
I understand that homeless veterans are a varied and complex group
and one program alone cannot effectively treat the unique needs of them
all.
However, the plethora of different programs that are in place today
beg the question of whether significant overlap exists that both wastes
taxpayer Dollars and limits the effectiveness of any single program's
ability to effectively care for veterans in need.
I also have concerns about the increasingly insular focus the
Department is placing on ``permanent'' housing.
Except for the very few veterans for whom housing instability may
be a lifelong concern due to underlying health conditions, the foremost
goal of every program serving homeless veterans should be providing a
bridge to an independent, purpose-filled life--not a permanent,
government-sponsored home.
Over the last several years, the American taxpayer has devoted
record amounts of their hard-earned Dollars to eliminating veteran
homelessness, with funding for targeted homeless programs increasing by
almost three-hundred percent and funding for healthcare for homeless
veterans increasing by more than eighty percent since fiscal year 2009.
But despite this considerable investment, veteran homeless will
never be completely eliminated so long as veterans struggle with
underlying health conditions and economic crises.
Quickly and effectively diagnosing and treating those underlying
health conditions and providing veterans who are able with job training
and placement services is critical to empowering homeless veterans to
successfully reintegrate into stable community environments.
To truly honor and respect the service of a homeless veteran is to
provide him or her with a pathway to a life of dignity and self-
sufficiency, not just four walls and roof.
Prepared Statement of Ranking Member Michael H. Michaud
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
The VA's goal of ending veteran homelessness by the end of 2015 is
an ambitious goal. Remarkable progress has been made by VA to meet this
challenge, but there is much still that remains to be done.
As we all recognize, VA cannot meet this goal alone--it will take
the concerted action of the Federal government and the assistance of
organizations and individuals all across the country.
I look forward to the hearing today so that we can evaluate the
effectiveness of this effort, and applaud the real progress that has
been made.
According to reports, homelessness among veterans has declined by
33 percent, to roughly 50,000, since 2010.
This is an accomplishment we can all take pride in, but there are
still homeless veterans, and it is simply unacceptable that any of our
veterans do not have a roof over their head.
I am also concerned that we are not taking adequate steps to
address special populations, such as homeless women veterans and those
that need serious and sustained assistance.
Today's hearing provides us with the opportunity to continue this
discussion. It provides us with the opportunity to discuss how we
define the goal of ending veteran homelessness, the resources that need
to be committed, and the work that remains to be done in the year
ahead.
I am excited about today's hearing, but it is also bittersweet for
me.
This marks my last hearing as a Member of this Committee, and this
Congress.
Although I am looking forward to the opportunities and challenges
that lay before me in the years ahead, I will miss this Committee and
the work that it does.
To the incoming Ranking Member, Ms. Brown, in your 22 years on this
Committee, you have been a strong voice for veterans and the VA.
Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy being Ranking Member as much as I
did.
To my fellow Democrats on the Committee, I cannot thank you enough
for the work you have done. You have made it very easy for me to serve
as Ranking Member. I appreciate the energy and the new ideas you have
brought to this Committee. I hope you will all continue our efforts
here in the next Congress and in the years ahead.
To my friends on the other side, I applaud you and thank you, too,
for your efforts. I cherish the friendships that I have with many of
you. This Committee is truly a special place. Although there are times
when we share different perspectives on how best to serve our veterans,
we often worked together, without regard to party and without the usual
rancor that many believe is elemental to the legislative process.
I hope the American people look to this Committee as a model, and
insist that their representatives do what we do so easily here--work
together to get the job done.
I wish to thank our staff, on both sides of the aisle. They work
tirelessly, often with little credit, to make this Committee function
and to do their best for veterans. I want to thank Nancy and my staff
on this side of the aisle for your tireless effort. I want to thank
John Towers and the Republican majority staff as well. The committee
staff has done a phenomenal job over the last couple of years. I really
appreciate the work that you have done, especially the administrative
staff who do the day-to-day tasks that enable everything around here to
function, and make us look good.
I wish to thank the many employees at the VA, and their efforts to
care for and serve veterans. Too often media headlines level broad
accusations against all VA employees, and not just the few who have
performance issues. There are good news stories, and there are good VA
employees.
I wish to thank the VSOs and veterans who work with us to make real
the promises that this nation has made to all of our veterans. You are
partners in our efforts and essential to our work. Keep up the good
fight!
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I really do appreciate our friendship over
the years. And as you mentioned, we meet a lot of individuals here in
Congress. A lot we consider friends. There are some we consider friends
in a more special way. I consider you a very good friend. We have
switched roles over our time as Members of Congress; me being chair,
you being ranking member and vis-a-vis. And I really appreciate your
openness, your willingness to listen to me as a minority member and as
a ranking member. I want to thank you very much.
I know you have talked on the House floor, and in this committee
about coming to the State of Maine, about how you want to be able to
shoot a moose. Hopefully, you will not forget that dream. In the
meantime, I have something I would like to present to you, Mr.
Chairman.
In Maine, in the woods, moose lose their antlers. I have a
constituent that goes through the woods to collect discarded moose
antlers to carve. This is the half of a moose antler carved with an
eagle's head.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to present it to you in your drive to
actually get a full moose in the State of Maine. And I would like to
present this to you as a parting gift for your friendship and your
loyalty. But also, for the work you have done for veterans over a
number of years, putting aside partisan politics to do what is right
for our veterans. So here is a freedom antler with an eagle from the
State of Maine. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Prepared Statement of Baylee Crone, National Coalition for Homeless
Veterans
Chairman Jeff Miller, Ranking Member Michael Michaud, and
distinguished members of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs:
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this Committee
today. My name is Baylee Crone and I am the Executive Director of the
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. On behalf of the more than
2,100 community and faith-based organizations NCHV represents, I would
like to thank all of you for your steadfast commitment to serving our
nation's most vulnerable heroes.
This testimony will focus on our understanding of the progress made
to end veteran homelessness in this country, particularly:
National progress made toward ending veteran
homelessness.
Matching services to the needs of homeless and at-risk
veterans.
Successes of permanent housing, transitional housing,
employment, and prevention interventions.
Additionally, this testimony will outline the benefit of
coordinated outreach and intake systems in rapidly directing veterans
to the local services that meet their most immediate needs.
National Decline in Veteran Homelessness
The national decline in veteran homelessness since 2009 is without
precedent. The success we have seen to date, and our future success
relies on the strengths of VA's front lines--the community providers
and VA case managers who fight the daily battle to do more, better and
faster. The momentum is on the side of rapid change, and we are closer
than ever to achieving our mission of effectively ending veteran
homelessness. However, ending veteran homelessness is not a moment; it
is a moving target.
To make progress toward our mission, we must see drops in the Point
in Time (PIT) count, but that is not the only aspect of change we must
see. We must see immediate engagement of services when a need arises,
rapid response to those on the streets, and a continuation of
successful permanent housing placement. We must empower community
agencies to meet specific needs of individual veterans using targeted
services through data-driven programs.
As the number of veterans on the street and in temporary shelter
goes down, we will need to be more, not less, diligent in ensuring that
we provide a hand up to those who remain on the street and find
themselves at high risk. We will end veteran homelessness, but reaching
that benchmark happens when the systems in place are ready and able to
immediately meet a veteran's needs should he fall into homelessness or
be at high risk. As we make progress, resources will need to be
redeployed, not withdrawn.
Across the country, our community organizations and VA partners are
stepping in with a safety net and a hand up to self sufficiency and
independence. We are fostering empowerment, we are halting cycles of
abuse, and we are educating and protecting. These activities may not
show up in a point in time count, but they are, and will continue to
be, the actions protecting against homelessness for many veterans.
National Declines: The Point in Time Count
Looking at one measure, the 2014 PIT count, tells an important part
of this story: on a single night in January, 49,933 veterans were
homeless. This 33 percent decline since 2009 is more than a statistic--
it represents a real, measurable, downward trend in homelessness among
veterans. Veteran homelessness dropped 10 percent in one year,
representing the steepest decline since veteran homelessness dropped 12
percent from 2010 to 2011. Homelessness among unsheltered veterans
dropped 14 percent in one year, representing a greater than 40 percent
decline since 2009. These significant drops happened as community
organizations and VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) have improved outreach and
targeted services for those with the most significant barriers. The
challenges remain daunting, but they are surmountable with close
coordination of complementary programs on the local level.
While the PIT count presents a useful benchmark for tracking
progress, it only shows part of the picture of who experiences
homelessness throughout the year and who receives services from VA and
other community programs. The PIT count is a snapshot; other data build
out a more nuanced scene of the challenges we face and the road ahead.
National Declines: Beyond the Point in Time Count
In FY 2014, 80 percent of unsheltered veterans moved out of
unsheltered status within three days. As VA stated in their annual
report, ``this metric pushes the system to move literally homeless
veterans off the streets and into safe and stable temporary housing.''
In that same period, 50,730 veterans achieved permanent housing through
the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program, far
outpacing the VA's goal of 40,000. These data points begin to show us
the full picture: veterans are engaging VA when they need help, are
moving rapidly off the streets, and are successfully moving into
permanent housing.
The VA has also innovated to improve efforts on the ground. The VHA
Programs Office updated its Homeless Gaps Analysis to include quarterly
actual data and VAMC operational strategies. They also launched the 25
Cities campaign to promote community-based solutions to ending veteran
homelessness in high-need areas. The picture gains more clarity:
results are being meticulously and consistently tracked to improve
targeting to meet specific local and individual needs. The system has
improved, and it is working.
Looking at the PIT count, service usage trends, and changes in data
processing helps us to track progress, but still, the full picture of
change is not clear with this information alone. The stories of
homelessness are pervasive in our work: an elderly veteran on a fixed
income loses his roof in a bad storm but cannot afford to fix it; a
mother with debilitating post-deployment headaches is unable to work
and must choose between asking for help and keeping her family
together; a recently transitioned young veteran living in his car
struggles to keep up in school to retain his GI Bill.
Matching Needs to Services
At NCHV, we demand that individual needs match specific services.
We do not have a ``homeless veteran population''--we have individual
veterans who are homeless and who have specific and unique needs
profiles to be addressed through a coordinated system of care. Wherever
chronic, episodic and recent, or at-risk homelessness exists, the VA
and its community partners must be ready and armed.
Needs of Chronically Homeless Veterans
We see veterans who are chronically homeless. Those individuals
make up the majority of the unsheltered point in time count numbers,
and are those targeted through the HUD-VASH program. As of September
30, 2014, 91 percent of vouchers allocated to local communities for
HUD-VASH led to permanent housing. Of those admitted into the HUD-VASH
program, 71% met the definition for chronically homeless. By exceeding
its target of 65%, VA showed a commitment to ending homelessness for
those most vulnerable veterans in need of the intensive services
offered by HUD-VASH.
These data points are built on a foundation of behind-the-scenes
coordination. Progress has required collaboration between the local
Public Housing Authorities, local landlords, and VA personnel and
grantees. Through this collaboration, they have identified high-need
homeless veterans, streamlined verification, inspection, and approval
processes, and rapidly placed these veterans into available housing
units.
Needs of Episodically and Recently Homeless Veterans
We see veterans who are episodically or recently homeless. Those
individuals make up a large portion of the sheltered homeless count, a
smaller portion of the unsheltered count, and a significant portion of
those needing services who are outside of formal counting systems. They
are couch surfing and in and out of transitional housing, shelters, and
treatment programs.
These veterans connect to services through an extensive local
outreach network. In communities across the country, homeless veteran
service providers partner with the VAMC, community clinics, and
Continuum of Care partners to ensure that homeless veterans seeking
care encounter a ``no wrong door'' approach to outreach: no matter
where the veteran accesses services, he is assessed and referred to the
local agencies that can best meet his specific needs.
If the veteran needs a place to sleep that night and services while
a housing plan is developed, intake workers can refer him to
residential treatment programs through VA, like Grant and Per Diem
(GPD). As of the end of FY2014, VA had reached its annual goal for
discharging veterans into permanent housing from GPD. If the
coordinated intake process identifies the need for employment
assistance, the veteran can be referred to a local Homeless Veteran
Reintegration Program (HVRP). This program placed over 10,000 veterans
into gainful employment in FY2013, with a cost per placement under
$3,000 per veteran.
Again, improved results rest on the shoulders of behind the scene
changes. GPD programs across the country are lowering barriers to entry
to make services more accessible. They develop service menus based on
each individual veteran's goals so that the transition from
homelessness to stable housing is a rapid and sustainable one. HVRP
grantees have integrated innovative employment placement strategies
into their programs, continuing to successfully place homeless veterans
in competitive employment even in a challenged economy.
Needs of At-Risk Veterans
We also see those who are at risk of homelessness. These veterans
may be one lost paycheck, one expensive utility bill, one broken down
car away from losing their housing stability. They are often not
counted in the Point in Time count, but they are here at our doorsteps
and are often engaged in services through the Supportive Services for
Veteran Families Program (SSVF). In FY 2013 alone, over 44,000 veterans
and veteran family members were assisted through homelessness
prevention SSVF resources. The data shows that these individuals
obtained and maintained housing: among veterans receiving SSVF
prevention services and exited to permanent housing destinations, 90
percent did not use VA homeless services within a year after their exit
from the SSVF program.
Magnifying Impact through Coordination of Services
We can end chronic homelessness; we are already doing it through
HUD-VASH and Housing First. We can functionally end episodic and recent
homelessness; rapid rehousing infrastructure, transitional housing, and
income interventions are joined together to make this happen. We can
get ahead of homelessness through prevention; SSVF serves more veterans
and their families more cost effectively every single year. The full
picture is complicated, but it is lit up with hope.
Ending veteran homelessness starts with the veteran, and people are
complicated. Some individuals with complicated needs profiles will be
served by several programs. This does not mean that services are being
duplicated, but rather that organizations and programs work together to
address specific barriers to permanent housing.
Serving Chronically Homeless Veterans
Targeting chronically homeless veterans for rapid placement
sometimes requires utilization of other programs to fill needs when no
other resources exist in a community; this could include SSVF for
security deposits in competitive rental markets or GPD as bridge
housing between living on the streets and moving into housing while a
unit is inspected and approved.
Serving Episodically and Recently Homeless Veterans
Serving episodically or recently homeless veterans, especially
those who do not qualify for HUD-VASH, requires bridge housing and
employment and income services to make affordable housing within reach.
This could include pairing the vocational services of an HVRP case
manager trained in labor market information and employment placement
with the benefits and transitional housing services of a GPD program. A
veteran may be referred to both programs, but for complementary, not
duplicative, services. Utilizing some aspects of both programs, the
veteran will obtain enough income to afford an apartment on his own.
Serving At-Risk Veterans
Sustaining at-risk veterans in the housing they have requires quick
action and creative coordination; this could include a utility bill
paid through SSVF and the intervention of another community
organization with a strong landlord relationship to prevent an
eviction. Because of their longstanding reputation for service in local
communities, this community organization is often a GPD provider.
Evolving Needs, Evolving Programs
Needs will never disappear, but they are already evolving--and
programs are adapting to them. SSVF has evolved based on constant
feedback and best practices, and it is serving more vulnerable veterans
per Dollar every year. HUD-VASH's integration of Housing First
principles gives strong case management and consumer choice the
driver's seat in collaborative care. HVRP's adoption of Job-Driven
Training and connection to American Job Centers and DOL labor market
information allows homeless veterans to receive front-line connection
to gainful employment.
We believe in and will defend effective deployment of targeted
resources to fuel research-based interventions when and where they are
needed. We must be diligent in the collection of empirically sound data
so programs and the organizations executing these programs are
responsive locally. They will need to continue to magnify impact by
simultaneously addressing various barriers. Local programs are our
force multipliers, pulling the entire community into the mission of
ending veteran homelessness through the gravity of its importance.
At NCHV, we do not advocate for the unqualified growth of resources
for the sake of expanding programs. We believe a surge is still needed
now, not because we set a goal for 2015 and want to check a box, but
because we have the momentum now to make it happen. Building and
sustaining those strongholds requires maintenance of infrastructure so
homelessness is not simply paused, but truly stopped.
In Summation
Thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony at today's
hearing. It is a privilege to work with the House Committee on
Veterans' Affairs to ensure that every veteran in crisis has access to
the support services they have earned through their service to our
country.
Baylee Crone, Executive Director,
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans,
333\1/2\ Pennsylvania Avenue SE,
Washington, DC 20003, 202-546-1969
NCHV Disclosure of Federal Grants
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grantor: U.S. Department of Labor
Subagency: Veterans Employment and
Training Service
Grant/contract amount: $450,000
Performance period: February 2014 - February
2015
Indirect costs limitations or CAP 20 percent
limitations:
Grant/contract award notice provided as No
part of proposal:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prepared Statement of Steven R. Berg, Vice President for Programs and
Policy National Alliance to End Homelessness
Chairmen Miller, Ranking Members Michaud, and members of the
Committee, on behalf of our Board of Directors, our President Nan
Roman, and our thousands of partners across the country; thank you for
providing the National Alliance to End Homelessness the opportunity to
testify today. We are grateful to you for holding a hearing on veterans
homelessness and what we are doing and can do to end it. The National
Alliance to End Homelessness works closely with federal policymakers as
well as with state and local government, businesses, nonprofit
organizations and many others who believe that homelessness should not
be tolerated in the United States.
Homelessness Among Veterans
Our nation witnesses far too many veterans living on the streets.
The number of homeless veterans has declined substantially in recent
years, but is still far too high. While most veterans are well housed,
a substantial minority are burdened with high housing costs, which
combined with other factors can leave them at risk of homelessness. As
a nation we have undertaken a concerted effort to solve the problem,
which is a good thing, since without that effort there are many reasons
to believe that the problem would become worse. Thousands of Americans
are returning from the Middle East, with the kinds of demographic
traits and disabilities that we know to be risk factors for
homelessness, to an economy with unemployment that is still too high.
Without continued hard work, there would be a grave possibility that an
entire new generation of veterans will become stuck in homelessness.
It is important to recognize that not all homeless veterans are the
same. At the one extreme, some homeless veterans have severe
disabilities, particularly related to behavioral health, and have lived
on the streets or in shelters for long periods of time. This pattern
has been referred to as ``chronic homelessness,'' and it costs
taxpayers substantial money in emergency healthcare, jails, shelters
and other emergency ``services.'' Returning these veterans to safety
and housing often requires long-term rent subsidies, and intensive
social services and medical care.
While this is probably most Americans' stereotype of what a
homeless person is like, and while there are certainly a percentage of
homeless veterans who are like this, it is a minority. Most veterans
and other Americans who experience homelessness do so because of
personal economic crises. They do not have profound disabilities. Their
lack of housing is often a serious barrier to getting their lives back
on track; but program models knows as ``rapid re-housing'' have shown
that if that barrier is removed through return to housing, they can
succeed through their own devices or with short-term help to afford
housing.
The Alliance is enthused and hopeful in light of the work that has
already been done and the reductions that have already occurred. The
federal government's part in this work is being carried out pursuant to
a commonsense plan, organized around a clear understanding of the
problem and a commitment to solve the problem. The rest of this
testimony will review what has happened so far, and what needs to
happen between now and the end of 2015 to bring about the best possible
results.
What's Been Done, What Remains to do to House All Homeless Veterans
In 2008 the Alliance presented testimony at a hearing held jointly
by the Senate Appropriations subcommittees with jurisdiction over VA
and over HUD. The topic was what to do about homelessness among
veterans. At that point we talked about how we as a country needed to
take four big steps in order to end homelessness for veterans. I am
happy to say today that VA, HUD and Congress have taken three of those
steps, and are in the middle of step four. We could still stumble, we
could still not succeed; but if we finish what's been started in the
right way, we can see the number of homeless veterans fall
substantially, to the point where communities that use the help
available to them and follow through can end veterans homelessness by
the end of 2015.
Step one: ``command and control'' infrastructure. Step one was to
put in place a national plan and monitoring system that would be based
on real data to determine what is working, what isn't, and how much
progress is taking place. That piece is in place. The creation of the
National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans has been extremely
important in this regard. The Center, a joint project of VA and the
University of Pennsylvania, provides a context for leading national
experts on homelessness to use the rich data that is available on the
use of VA programs, combined with other research and data on
homelessness. The close cooperation of the National Center with the
program offices within the Veterans Health Administration, and with
staff in the Secretary's office, provides a ``command and control''
function that is essential.
Step two: a full range of interventions. Step two was to expand the
range of program models to make effective practices available for the
full range of veterans who are homeless. This, too, has been
accomplished. At the time, in 2008, most housing for homeless veterans
was being provided through the Homeless Grants and Per Diem program, a
two-year transitional housing model. This is a model that works very
well for certain people, but we believe anyone running such a program
would agree that it is not for everyone. To end homelessness requires a
range of programs so that everyone can get what he or she needs. As
noted above, some homeless veterans, particularly those experiencing
chronic homelessness, have permanent disabilities combined with other
issues that make a transitional program unrealistic for them. The HUD-
VASH program was put in place to address these needs. On the other
hand, people who become homeless due to a short-term economic emergency
can escape homelessness with short-term help to deal with that crisis.
The ``rapid re-housing'' model, implemented at VA through the
Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, has proven extremely
effective at ending homeless for this group, at substantially less cost
than either permanent or transitional supportive housing programs.
It is important to note that there are eligibility issues. Not
everyone who served on active duty in the military is eligible for
these programs, because of discharge status or the complex rules
relating length of service and the era in which a veteran served. This
has been further complicated by recent statements by VA. Our hope is
that some of these issues can be resolved by Congress; and that better
coordination of discharge upgrade programs carried out by veterans
service organizations with homelessness programs will resolve the
issues for some; and that HUD-funded and other programs can, despite
the financial stress that they are under, re-house the rest.
Step three: Go to scale with program capacity. Step three was to
fund those various interventions at the scale necessary to get the job
done. As of this writing, VA budget requests and Congressional
appropriations are on the verge of getting this done as well. Our
estimate is that if Congress funds VA's FY 2015 budget request, it will
finish the job of putting money on the table for communities to be able
to provide housing, through HUD-VASH, GPD, and SSVF, for every veteran
who experiences homelessness today and through the end of 2015. SSVF is
the newest of these programs, and it has proven to do exactly what it
sets out to do. VA has requested permission to move funding from other
parts of its budget to increase grants to communities for SSVF, based
on the latest solid data about what is needed.
Step four: making it work at the community level. That brings us to
step four, which is for every community to organize itself so that
every homeless veteran is located, identified, and matched up with the
right intervention to end his or her homelessness; and that these
interventions work at peak efficiency, focused on quickly re-housing
every homeless veteran they serve. We as a country are in the process
of taking that step. VA is mobilizing its staff at local medical
centers to make this happen. Mayors are taking part in campaigns to get
other mayors to commit to this. Providers from the HUD-funded
homelessness system are reaching out to VA-funded providers to share
information and coordinate their work. The Alliance, based on years of
work with communities that have succeeded in reducing the number of
people who are homeless, believes that there are five key things that
need to happen at the community level:
Leaders in each community need to oversee the effort,
using a solid plan and data to monitor progress.
Communities need to set clear numerical goals for how
many veterans need to be housed, how quickly.
Leaders, program operators, and others need to be
accountable for taking the specific actions they have committed
to.
Proven strategies need to be implemented in a skillful
way: outreach, crisis housing, rapid re-housing, permanent
supportive housing, and a coordinated system to ensure that
each veteran gets access to the program that's right for him or
her.
Leaders need to communicate with the entire community
about what is getting done, and what help is needed,
particularly by landlords and employers in the community.
VA needs to make every possible effort to get its employees,
grantees and contractors behind making sure that these five things are
happening. VA has a number of efforts under way to provide technical
assistance that will help make that happen.
Making Sure Homelessness Stays Ended
When these four steps are complete, there will be few if any
veterans who remain homeless on a given night. Which leads to the next
step, the first step beyond veterans homelessness--to put in place a
system that will find vulnerable veterans before they ever become
homeless, and prevent their homelessness entirely. We are quite a way
from having such a system. For the time being, ending homelessness will
mean that while additional veterans may become homeless, as soon as a
homeless veteran is discovered, help is there to provide whatever is
needed in order to end that instance of homelessness. Programs to find
veterans who become homeless, ensure their safety, and rapidly rehouse
them will need to continue in place. This system will need to
transition over time into an effective system of homelessness
prevention. In the end, a prevention system will employ the kind of
research and data analysis that the National Center already has under
way. It will require careful thought about the right kinds of
interventions, and how they should be targeted to veterans who would
most likely become homeless without them. It will require work by this
Committee and others to redeploy these resources so that we can all
say, never another homeless veteran.
Congress's Part
Besides oversight of the ongoing effort, there is work for Congress
to do in order to bring this result about. Most important are the
following:
Ensuring that funding remains available. The appropriations
committee has responded well to VA's budget requests for these efforts.
There is, however, great uncertainty over the federal budget over the
next few years. As those discussions take place, it will be important
to stand behind the work to end veterans homelessness.
Short-range fixes. There are some minor changes needed to federal
statutes to remove certain barriers to implementation. These changes
should be made via the earliest possible legislative vehicle. They are
the following:
Provide VA with more flexibility to use funds for the
programs that are needed most at the time. The current limit of
$300 million per year for SSVF, in particular, underfunds this
program and should be raised to ``such sums as are necessary.''
Codify existing eligibility rules for VA homelessness
programs. For many years, the GPD and now the SSVF program have
served homeless veterans with various other-than-dishonorable
discharges, even if, because of complicated rules regarding era
and length of service, the veterans are not eligible for the
full range of VA health services. A recent communication from
VA, now suspended, called this practice into question, based on
a new reading of statutes. Estimates by providers indicate that
as many as 15 percent of homeless veterans would be left
without help from these effective programs is this ruling were
to go into effect. Congress should at least clarify that these
veterans are eligible for these homeless services.
Authorize the National Center on Homelessness Among
Veterans. As noted above, this Center provides a forum for
expert examination of VA and other data and research, ensuring
that VA's practices are informed by the best possible analysis.
To have it authorized in statute would ensure ongoing support
as the U.S. makes the challenging transition from solving the
problem of veterans homelessness, to ensuring the problem never
recurs.
Ensure VA has waiver authority to allow changes in
GPD. Many GPD providers are finding that reductions in the
number of homeless veterans, and the focus by VA on moving
further in that direction, are causing severe difficulties.
Congress should provide VA with waiver authority to allow GPD
providers in communities where veterans homelessness has
declined substantially to experiment with different models,
including very short term housing for veterans experiencing
housing crisis; and recovery housing for veterans who were but
are no longer homeless, but are recovering from addiction or
other severe difficulties.
Longer term statutory change to prevent veterans homelessness from
recurring. Existing VA programs that were designed to serve homeless
veterans will need to do different things and serve different people
when the number of homeless veterans is very small. They will, however,
need to be there, to provide help when veterans have crises that leave
or threaten to leave them without places to live. To move to a
prevention-based homelessness system, there will need to be careful
thought about what services are needed, which veterans need them, and
how incentives can be established that will reward providers for
effective work. This project should be undertaken and completed by the
next Congress.
Promote the local efforts. Every member of the U.S. Congress is a
leader in his or her local community. As noted above, success at ending
homelessness requires local commitment and local action. The Alliance
encourages members of this Committee, and all members of Congress, to
get involved with the issue locally, and do what they can to make sure
that the communities they represent understand what they have to do to
bring the number of homeless veterans down to zero.
Steven R. Berg
Curriculum Vitae
Experience:
Vice President for Programs and Policy, National Alliance to End
Homelessness, October 1997 to present (previously Director of
Programs).
Senior Policy Analyst, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,
September 1996 to September 1997.
Staff Attorney, Connecticut Legal Services, September 1990 to
August 1996 (Norwalk and Bridgeport Offices).
Executive Director, Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County,
August 1987 to August 1990 (previously Staff Attorney).
Staff Attorney, Contra Costa Legal Services Foundation, September
1983 to August 1987.
Education:
Harvard Law School, J.D. 1982.
Lewis and Clark College, B.A. 1978.
Disclosure
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is party to a subcontract
to provide technical assistance to communities, as part of a contract
with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Under this subcontract
the Alliance will be paid a maximum of $130,000 for its work.
Prepared Statement of John F. Downing, Chief Executive Officer
Chairman Miller and members of the Committee, I am honored to be
here today on behalf of Soldier On and the 3,815 veterans we serve each
year. Soldier On has become the largest provider of supportive services
to veterans in the United States and operates eight SSVF (Supportive
Services for Veteran Families) grants throughout five eastern states.
This was accomplished with early assistance from Congressmen Richie
Neal and James McGovern of Massachusetts. With the help of Congressman
Chris Smith of New Jersey and Congressman Chris Gibson of New York,
Soldier On has also been able to expand its SSVF services to 36
counties in New York and 8 counties in New Jersey. In addition, Soldier
On serves 76 Counties in Mississippi, 23 counties in Pennsylvania, and
the four counties of Western Massachusetts.
Next year, we are slated to increase our breadth of service and
assist more than 5,315 veterans and family members with a special focus
on the chronically homeless veterans whose lives are reduced by an
average of 20 years compared to their stably housed counterparts.
The Department of Veterans Affairs' goal to end veteran
homelessness by 2015 was not a goal that could take place without
examining and combatting the underlying effects of poverty that cause
homelessness. The lack of safe, affordable housing with services on-
site has allowed veterans in poverty and those suffering from untreated
and undertreated mental health and addiction disorders to be left
forgotten and alone in their prolonged states of homelessness.
Eliminating homelessness requires society to look at the causes of
poverty, which are rooted in a capitalist society and its impact on the
standard of living and lack of educational/vocational training
opportunities. The reality is that our goal has been to bring each
homeless veteran back to the center of their life.
With great help from the National Director of Homeless Programs,
Lisa Pape, Soldier On became a leading Grant/Per Diem shelter bed
provider for the VA and realized that we needed to provide veterans
with a stable living facility with services delivered where they live.
Soldier On has built a first of its kind limited equity cooperative in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts that has become home for 39 formerly homeless
veterans. The safe, sustainable, affordable housing development was
honored with a HUD Doorknocker award in 2011 for its quality and
innovation in assisting veterans. Transportation and case management,
along with medical and mental health services are delivered to each
veteran where he or she lives so that appointments are met and the
veteran receives the support necessary to ensure success and dignity.
Currently, Soldier On is in the development phase of constructing eight
more of these facilities throughout the East Coast including one on the
grounds of the VA in Leeds, MA. This enhanced use lease project
received great support from Paul Macpherson and will utilize VAi2 funds
and will be a first of its kind project in which the VA and Soldier On
will partner to serve veterans in limited equity units of their own.
Soldier On has made a commitment to partner in SSVF with agencies
which have a history with tenancy preservation and housing search
upgrades for eligible veterans as well as mentoring programs that train
and enable veterans to provide services to keep them safely housed. We
couple these services with a housing resiliency stabilization program
that works with ``high risk'' veterans in need of rapid rehousing and
support. These veterans can call into our hotline which is staffed 24
hours of the day so that a case manager can be sent to a veteran's home
within 48 hours to address their individual needs. As a result of this,
we found our costs were driven down. These SSVF supportive services
cost an average of $2,400 to $4,400 for at-risk veterans in need of
housing who are not getting VA care compared to the $42,000 it costs
for a veteran who is in GPD care.
The VA is continuing to try to provide services using a medical
model which does not and cannot help all homeless and at-risk veterans,
and often leaves the most disconnected of them unserved. Following a
model promoted by Vince Kane and the VA National Center on Homelessness
Among Veterans in Philadelphia, we must divert the current VA funding
to proactive programs such as Housing First with services delivered to
veterans where they live. The VA needs to become more community based
and responsive to partnering with community providers in offering
integrated housing, healthcare and employment services where the
veteran lives so that we can create an environment in which veterans
can heal. We must look at the mind, body, and spirit together. We can't
just divide a person into parts and disorders that we can treat in
different silos. This creates a cost system that is dehumanizing and
degrading to the men and women who served our country. Delivering
services to people where they live eliminates decompensating episodes,
non-compliance, and relapse.
By providing veterans with Housing First, services delivered to
where they live, and training for employment opportunities, we can
strengthen our veteran communities and restore the dignity and support
that has been taken from veterans after years of neglect and
disservice.
Thank you for your time.
John F. Downing, Chief Executive Officer Soldier on, 421 North Main
Street Building 6, Leeds, MA 01053, 413-822-8364
The Fight Doesn't End When They Get Home,
421 North Main Street Building 6 Leeds, MA 01053 (413) 582-3059 and
360 West Housatonic Street Pittsfield, MA 01201 (413) 236-5644
www.wesoldieron.org
Prepared Statement of Phil Landis, President and CEO Veterans Village
of San Diego
As a matter of disclosure you should be aware that I am a member of
the VA Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans and I am neither
speaking for the VA nor the Advisory Committee today.
VVSD is a nationally recognized non-profit and non-governmental
organization that has served veterans since 1981. Using five pillars:
prevention, intervention, treatment, aftercare, and employment
services, VVSD assists veterans who have substance abuse and mental
health issues, including men and women recently returned from Iraq and
Afghanistan. Working with addiction case managers and mental health
professionals, residents rebuild lives, repair relationships, and
return to society as productive citizens.
Veteran Treatment Center (VTC)
Factors underlying Veteran homelessness such as mental health
issues and substance use disorders are often related to conditions and
experiences veterans encounter during their time in service to our
country. (e.g., Military Sexual Trauma (MST), Combat injuries treated
with opiates). All too often, the very medication used to treat their
pain leads to a physiological dependency on opiates. When the opiate
medication is stopped, many experience withdrawal symptoms and seek out
ways to `self-medicate'. Unfortunately, many of these men and women
``treat'' their withdrawal symptoms by using street drugs, such as
heroin. This predictable path often results in failed drug screens and
separation from military service. They are often denied honorable
discharge making them ineligible for VA Healthcare benefits. This
administrative separation results in lost jobs, lost income, lost
housing, and lost benefits which results in addicted veterans being
homeless on the streets and unable to obtain lifesaving services. The
VA is committed to three month long research studies with veterans to
determine new evidence based practices and treatment protocols. These
12 week group treatment research programs unfortunately do not provide
for ongoing individual therapy or follow up.
The emphasis on permanent housing first is an admirable and
reasonable idea for many homeless veterans. However, for veterans with
co-occurring disorders, housing without treatment is a major risk
factor for those in need of higher level of services. The absence of
Shelter Plus Care options for these homeless veterans makes remaining
sober and stabilized on psychotropic medications nearly impossible if
housed alone. If untreated or unmanaged, these diseases are progressive
and life threatening.
Citation:
Protective Factors and Risk Modification of Violence in Iraq and
Afghanistan War Veterans. (767-773) Eric B. Elbogen, PhD.; Sally C.
Johnson, MD; H Ryan Wagner, PhD; Virginia M. Newton, PhD; Christine
Timko, PhD; Jennifer J Vasterling, PhD; and Jean C. Beckham, PhD. 2012
Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.
This study shows that treatment and rehabilitation services such as
those offered at VVSD support that `` . . . clinical intervention
directed at treating mental health and substance abuse problems,
psychosocial rehabilitation approaches aimed at improving domains of
basic functioning and psychological well-being may also be effective in
modifying risk and reducing violence among veterans.''
Although the VA provides comprehensive medical care to those who
meet the criteria for immediate services, veterans with less urgent
problems are not viewed as a priority and have two choices: (1) Wait
several months for an appointment or (2) be seen at the hospital
Emergency Department. This results in veterans feeling devalued, acute
problems not receiving necessary medical attention, and excessive cost
for emergency room care that could have been handled on an urgent care
basis. An urgent care walk-in system is desperately needed to address
the day to day medical issues veterans experience.
Many medical providers working at the VA seem to lack in-depth
knowledge about substance use disorders and the risks involved with
prescribing large amounts of controlled substances. (e.g., one day
outpatient procedure results in a veteran filling his prescription for
180 Oxycontin).
Grant Per Diem and Employment
The VA is putting most of their Dollars into Rapid-Rehousing &
VASH. They have eliminated new funding for GPD. GPD funding focuses on
treatment and employment combined with transitional housing. I feel
there is a need for both. The VA continues to fund existing GPD
Programs which are essential to serving the range of needs of homeless
veterans. The SSVF Program requires that GPD referrals be made during
the first 30 days of living in such programs and requires all GPD
veterans secure permanent housing within 90 days. This is often too
early to know if SSVF is an appropriate referral source and should be
reviewed as a mid-course correction. HUD has put more emphasis in
recent years on reducing the length of stay for homeless people
(including veterans) who reside in transitional housing programs which
may not always be in the best long term interest of some veterans.
Joint HVRP/HUD: These 2 programs work well together. HVRP is
focused on veterans securing jobs. HUD is focused on Housing for
Homeless Veterans and other homeless people. The challenge is that with
the high rate of PTSD and unemployment among younger veterans, evidence
suggests there is a need to increase HVRP funding.
Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF)
Since the inception of our Supportive Services for Veteran Families
(SSVF) Program in 2013, we have to date enrolled 180 veteran households
who were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Of the 180 veteran
households, we were successful in placing 90% of these families into
permanent housing. We've seen that more and more veterans are
struggling to find employment and it has become even more difficult for
them to secure sustainable income when there is not a roof over their
head. The SSVF program is a great tool in fighting homelessness amongst
the veteran population. The program prevents homelessness amongst
veteran families and works with those who are homeless to rapidly enter
permanent housing utilizing the Housing First model; this model is
centered on placing homeless families into permanent housing, and then
providing the appropriate services tailored around addressing their
housing barriers.
This model works very well for the Post 9/11 generation who only
need a ``hand up''. Many of the Post 9/11 veterans that come across
SSVF seeking services don't need the totality of our assistance. One of
the benefits of the Housing First model is that the singular focus is
on addressing the participant's housing crisis. However, we've seen
that SSVF participants who are not ready to address their primary cause
of homelessness, whether it's substance abuse or mental health issues,
are not ready to maintain long term housing stability. Therefore,
having the option to be in a formal treatment setting or transitional
housing program benefits them in the long run and gives them the
opportunity to work on their barriers prior to obtaining permanent
housing.
One of our goals at VVSD is to break the cycle of homelessness
amongst veterans and their families. In order for us to succeed in our
efforts, we think it's crucial that we address the various reasons
veterans become homeless. Not all veterans are ready to sustain
themselves in housing and not every veteran will have substance abuse
or mental health challenges, but having both SSVF and the VVSD Veteran
Treatment Center in the same agency allows VVSD to make a difference in
the veteran community. One size does not fit all and homeless veterans
deserve the opportunity to choose the program that is most appropriate
to meet their needs.
In conclusion: At Veterans Village of San Diego (VVSD), we believe
intensive treatment leads to self-sustaining independence, the
maximizing of human potential and a meaningful, fulfilling life. Our
veterans are worthy of nothing less. Furthermore, we believe in
providing services tailored to the veteran's needs and desires
utilizing a client-centered approach focused on addressing their
primary causes of homelessness.
Respectfully,
Phil Landis, President & CEO
Prepared Statement of Dr. Casey O'Donnell
Good morning Chairman Miller and esteemed committee members. My
name is Dr. Casey O'Donnell. I am currently the Chief Operating Officer
of Impact Services Corporation in Philadelphia. For the last 20 years
Impact has been providing both housing and employment focused programs
to homeless Veterans who suffer from both mental illness and alcohol
and/or drug abuse. Impact's current continuum of housing include one-
hundred fifty (150) beds of supportive transitional housing under the
VA's Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Program and supportive permanent housing
under HUD's Supportive Housing Program (SHP). Impact's program was one
of the first and is one of the few programs in the nation exclusively
serving dually diagnosed formerly homeless Veterans. Since, 1994,
Impact has also been providing employment services to over three
hundred (300) homeless Veterans annually under the Department of
Labor's Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program (HVRP). In addition to
these programs, Impact has recently received a ``Surge'' Priority 1
grant under the VA's Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF)
Program and Impact has been a partner in collaboration with Project
HOME and the Veterans Multi-services Center in Philadelphia in SSVF for
the last three years. Over the last year, Impact has been extremely
active in the VA's Boot Camp and Twenty-five Cities initiatives working
to end Veteran homelessness in Philadelphia. Finally, Impact will break
ground on twenty-six units of affordable, permanent housing for low-
income Veterans and their families on Monday, December 15th. This new
permanent housing for 26 Veteran families will be available in
September 2015 and will contribute to ending Veteran homelessness. We
are working in close collaboration with the VA National Center on
Homelessness among Veterans to provide all of these services from a
Trauma Informed Care model. Along with other community based housing
providers I was invited to participate in the National Center's
workgroup to implement Trauma Informed Care across the nation both
within the VA and among community based partners. The National Center
has been an invaluable collaborative partner in the provision of care
to homeless veterans and the Center's work related to training and
implementation will been critical to success. We believe that our
testimony is derived from a place of competence and experience.
Men and women who have proudly served our country through military
service should not be allowed to suffer in their addictions and mental
illnesses on the streets of any city for one night longer. It is all of
our job to find Veterans a safe place to live, recover from trauma and
substance abuse, and improve the quality of their lives. In fact it is
believed by those of us who are providers that ``trauma informed care
is necessary to eradicate homelessness among veterans''.
Setting the deadline of December 31st, 2015 to end homelessness
among Veterans has become a critically important milestone for our
country. The deadline has provided us with a sense of urgency and
dedication. The deadline is producing hard work, determination and
teamwork where previously there was disconnection and a lack of
accountability. Over the last eleven (11) months, in partnership with
our many collaborative partners, we have placed 556 homeless Veterans
in permanent housing in Philadelphia. We have approximately 540
Veterans left to house before the deadline of December 31st, 2015.
The goal of ending Veteran homeless in Philadelphia is within our
sights.
We are ending Veteran homelessness in Philadelphia by developing a
``Safety Net'' system that ``catches'' Veterans before they become
homeless, provides intervention when necessary to keep them housed,
gets them housed again if they have slipped back into homelessness and
most importantly, addresses their mental health challenges and/or
addiction in an appropriate manner at whatever level needed as early as
possible to prevent or address long-term homelessness. This safety net
is critically important as we look at the Veterans of Iraq and
Afghanistan who are potentially vulnerable, may be suffering, and may
be headed towards homelessness. Research provided by the National
Center on Homelessness Among Veterans suggests that this rapid safety
net approach is allowing approximately 80% of Vets to stay housed after
ninety days of case management and temporary financial assistance
through SSVF. Recent data provided by the City of Philadelphia's Office
of Supportive Housing also shows that the number of actual homeless
Veterans on the streets and in many programs has decreased by 15% from
2013 to 2014. We expect that percentage to dramatically decrease in
2015 and to come to ``functional zero'' by January 2016.
This Safety Net system has only been possible within the context of
real partnerships that are being forged between the community and the
VA as part of the Boot Camp and Twenty-five Cities Initiatives in
response to the December 31st, 2015 deadline. These partnerships have
brought HUD, the VA, local municipalities, housing authorities and
community organizations like Impact, to a common table where systems
have been changed by bringing two continuums (the City and the VA) into
alignment on outreach and assessment and eventually on placement and
retention to ensure that Vets are being moved into housing.
Further, I would like to say that housing without jobs or increased
benefits is only a short term strategy. Supportive housing integrated
with programs to get Vets into jobs and/or access to benefits or
increased benefits provides a long-term recipe for self-sufficiency. We
would like to see the VA and the Department of Labor work closely to
integrate community based job training and job development into the
current housing activities funded for Veterans. A good place to start
would be a pilot with community-based Veteran organizations like Impact
to better integrate SSVF, GPD, and HUD-VASH housing with the HVRP
Program.
Finally, Impact currently operates four (4) Grant and Per Diem
(GPD) programs that move homeless Veterans with a mental health
diagnosis and drug and/or alcohol addiction through various stages of
recovery to self-sufficiency according to their needs. Our program is
currently full. It is full because there remains a critical need for
GPD to provide stable housing and services for Veterans suffering from
mental illness and substance abuse and/or dependency. Impact is
extremely interested in working with Congress and the VA to test out
several additional models of housing utilizing the VA's GPD program as
the foundation of funding. Specifically, we would like to see a
percentage GPD beds converted to provide supportive services and
permanent (as opposed to only transitional) housing for formally
homeless Veterans with mental health and substance abuse issues that
require a higher degree of support than independent living can provide.
We would also like to operate additional Safe Haven beds in
Philadelphia that would have the ability to provide ``wet'' housing for
chronic alcohol addicted veterans during a flexible period from ninety
(90) days up to two (2) years. This will provide adequate time to work
with the Veteran to get them stabilized and ready for recovery.
Graduates of ``wet'' Safe Haven housing could move into Impact's
current GPD transitional housing and eventually into independent living
or supportive, permanent housing funded by HUD and/or the VA.
In conclusion, on behalf of my colleagues at Impact, myself, and
the veterans that we serve I would like to thank the members of
Congress for this opportunity to testify.
Sincerely,
Casey O'Donnell,
PsyD Chief Operating Officer Impact Services Corporation,
[email protected], 215-423-2944 ext. 152
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