WNC’s Homeward Bound gets $2.7 million grant to help veterans

PRESS RELEASE

Homeward Bound of Western NC gets $2.7 million grant to help Vets

CHARLES GEORGE VA MEDICAL CENTER, Asheville, N.C. – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald recently announced the award of $207 million in Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) grants that will help homeless Veterans and their families, and one of the recipients is Asheville based Homeward Bound of Western North Carolina.

The organization was awarded a grant totaling $2,717,329.  The funds are to be used for homeless and at-risk Veterans and their families.  “In the past these funds have been especially helpful in paying for first month’s rent, security deposits or basic living supplies for Department of Housing and Urban Development/Department of Veterans Affairs Supported Housing (HUD/VASH) participants,” said Richard Adams, chief of Social Work at the Charles George VA Medical Center.

“The CGAVMC Homeless Program has a positive working relationship with Homeward Bound and we are pleased that the partnership will be strengthened,” Adams said.  Allison Bond, coordinator of the CGVAMC Homeless Veterans program said, “Homeward Bound is a leader in our community with housing and shares the same vision as the homeless program at the VAMC. We are excited about this partnership!”

The $207 million in grants will be distributed to 82 non-profit agencies and include “surge” funding for 56 high need communities.  It is estimated that 70,000 homeless and at-risk Veterans and their families will benefit from these grants.

Earlier this year on August 11, the VA announced $300 million in SSVF program grant awards that are serving an estimated 115,000 Veterans and their family members.

During the brief history of this program, VA has helped tens of thousands of Veterans exit homelessness and prevented just as many from becoming homeless. The “surge” funding will enable VA to strategically target resources to high need communities where there are significant numbers of Veterans who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness.

Under the SSVF program, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is awarding grants to private non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives that provide services to very low-income Veteran families living in – or transitioning to – permanent housing. Those community organizations provide a range of services that promote housing stability among eligible very low income Veteran families (those making less than 50 percent of the area median income). The grants announced today will fund the fourth year of the SSVF program.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs is committed to using evidence based approaches such as SSVF to prevent homelessness and produce successful outcomes for Veterans and their families,” McDonald said. “This is a program that works, because it allows VA staff and local homeless service providers to work together to address the unique challenges that make it difficult for some Veterans and their families to remain stably housed.”

Under the terms of the SSVF grants, homeless providers offer Veterans and their family members outreach, case management, assistance in obtaining VA benefits and assistance in receiving other public benefits. Community-based groups can offer temporary financial assistance on behalf of Veterans for rent payments, utility payments, security deposits and moving costs. In the first two years of SSVF operations (through FY 2013), nearly 100,000 Veterans and their family members received direct assistance to exit homelessness or maintain permanent housing, including over 25,000 children.

“With the addition of these crucial resources, communities across the country continue a historic drive to prevent and end homelessness among Veterans,” said Laura Green Zeilinger, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. “The SSVF program gives Veterans and their families the rapid assistance they need to remain in permanent housing or get back into permanent housing as quickly as possible.”

In 2009, President Obama announced the federal government’s goal of ending Veteran homelessness by the end of 2015. The SSVF grants are intended to help accomplish that goal. According to the 2014 Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness, homelessness among Veterans has declined 33 percent since 2010.

Through the homeless Veterans initiative, VA committed more than $1 billion in FY 2014 to strengthen programs that prevent and end homelessness among Veterans. VA provides a range of services to homeless Veterans, including health care, housing, job training, and education.

More information about VA’s homeless programs is available at www.va.gov/homeless. Details about the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program are online at www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf.asp.

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