[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 13]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 18365]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HOMELESS VETERANS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL H. MICHAUD

                                of maine

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 14, 2006

  Mr. MICHAUD. Mr. Speaker, each night nearly 200,000 veterans are 
homeless. They live on the streets, in alleys, in cars, in barns and 
under bridges. Many other veterans are just one paycheck away from 
being homeless.
  The Government Accountability Office has just reported that the 
Department of Veterans Affairs' largest program to provide homeless 
veterans with safe shelter has a shortfall of nearly 10,000 beds.
  While VA and community providers try to do right by homeless 
veterans, the GAO report found that the capacity is not there to meet 
demand.
  The situation will get worse because recent combat veterans are 
already homeless. Just last year, VA served nearly 600 veterans from 
Iraq and Afghanistan in its Health Care for Homeless Veterans program.
  On September 30th, the authorization for two key programs for 
homeless veterans--the VA Grant and Per Diem program and the Homeless 
Providers Technical Assistance Grant program--is set to expire.
  If we fail to reauthorize these programs, we will be leaving homeless 
veterans behind. Homelessness is a problem that we can solve.
  I urge my colleagues to enact H.R. 5960, the Homeless Veterans 
Assistance Act of 2006, which reauthorizes key programs for homeless 
veterans and fortifies VA's efforts to prevent and end homelessness 
among veterans.

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