Vital Mission report
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Destination: Home > Plan Components > Homeless Veterans > Vital Mission More on Homeless Veterans
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The report shows nationwide, a total of 194,254 homeless veterans slept on the street, in shelter, or in transitional housing on any given night in 2006 and 495,400 were homeless over the course of the year. |
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In Indiana alone last year, approximately 1200 veterans were homelessness on any given night. |
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In Vanderburgh County, of the approximate 400 individuals who homeless on any given night, at least 10-11% are veterans. |
A number of factors contribute to homelessness among veterans—lack of income, physical health and disability, mental health and trauma, substance abuse, and weak social networks—but a lack of affordable housing in Indiana and across the nation is the primary driver.
While most of the 23.4 million U.S. veterans do not have trouble affording housing costs, the analysis found that nearly half million (467,877) veterans are extremely low-income and therefore severely rent burdened (paying more than 50% of their income toward rent). These are the veterans who often become homeless.
In Indiana, approximately 8,220 veterans qualify as severely rent burdened due to rapidly increasing housing costs.
The solution to ending homelessness among veterans is not a social mystery. Homeless veterans need the same things as all homeless people – access to affordable housing and, for those who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression – social supports. As a nation, we certainly do not lack the knowledge to end homelessness among veterans. The answers are mapped out in both research and common sense.
All the solutions outlined in the Vital Mission report are contained in Destination: Home, the ten-year plan to end and prevent homelessness in Evansville and Vanderburgh County.
We are nearing the end of our third year of implementing this plan, which contains the following strategies that mirror those recommended by the Vital Mission report:
1) Developing a homelessness risk assessment process;
2) Increase the number of units of Supportive Housing (housing with intensive services on site);
3) Increasing rental subsidies; and
4) Coordinating services available to veterans and others...including
Raising Incomes & finding jobs
Current activities related to these strategies include
o Veterans Homeless Networking Group has been meeting quarterly since 2005 in order to improve service coordination for homeless veterans
o Bike to Work has established a successful bicycle-recycling program, called Bike to Work, that makes used bikes available to veterans who need transportation; over 175 bikes have been given out since the program began
Other projects in the planning stages are
o Risk Assessment Tool that’s being developed to assist local service providers in determining both risk and the types of assistance needed to prevent homelessness
o 60-unit Supportive Housing Project for individuals who are homeless and have a disability, the first of its kind in Evansville, is expected to be available late next year and will provide an efficiency apartment with a rent subsidy and services as needed available on site
Still others are concepts yet to be developed, such as
o Rental Subsidies, other than Section 8 vouchers, are being explored in order to assist with both preventing homelessness and housing those who are currently homeless
We, as a city-county Commission agree, far too many veterans are homeless and we are working to create long-term solutions to this evident problem here. We cannot do this alone, but need the partnership of federal & state government as well.
The Vital Mission report calls on Congress to act on matters that meet the current and future needs of our nation’s most vulnerable veterans by appropriating and coordinating funding from at least four VA-sponsored programs for needed housing, rent subsidies, case management, and treatment services for veterans in cities and rural communities nationwide, especially those with extremely low income.
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Of course, donations submitted by mail or delivered to the office are also welcomed. Make checks payable to "Aurora, Inc." You may designate a donation for "Destination: Home" Mail to: Destination: Home, PO Box 74, Evansville, IN 47701-0074 Deliver to: 1100 Lincoln Ave., Evansville, IN 47714
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