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"A lot of stabilizing, rock-solid foundations are being threatened," says Dr. James Gottfurcht, a clinical psychologist and president of Psychology of Money Consultants in Los Angeles.
He compares the events in Washington to the reaction California residents have to an earthquake.
"The feeling that clients talk about when the earth is shaking, with terra firma crumbling -- this is like a financial tremor or earthquake," he says.
The crisis particularly affects people who have experienced financial stress in their growing-up years and deeply fear fiscal uncertainty, he adds. But ironically, the highly affluent can be more stressed than ordinary middle-class people because their self-esteem is tied to the health of their bank accounts.
February 1, 2010
White House Seeks $125 Billion for Veterans in 2011
Homelessness, Claims Increases and Access - Priorities for VA Budget
WASHINGTON – To expand health care to a record-number of Veterans, reduce the number of homeless Veterans and process a dramatically increased number of new disability compensation claims, the White House has announced a proposed $125 billion budget next year for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Our budget proposal provides the resources necessary to continue our aggressive pursuit of President Obama’s two over-arching goals for Veterans,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “First, the requested budget will help transform VA into a 21st century organization. And second, it will ensure that we approach Veterans’ care as a lifetime initiative, from the day they take their oaths until the day they are laid to rest.”
The $125 billion budget request, which has to be approved by Congress, includes $60.3 billion for discretionary spending (mostly health care) and $64.7 billion in mandatory funding (mostly for disability compensation and pensions).
“VA’s 2011 budget request covers many areas but focuses on three central issues that are of critical importance to our Veterans – easier access to benefits and services, faster disability claims decisions, and ending the downward spiral that results in Veterans’ homelessness,” Shinseki said.
Reducing Claims Backlog
The president’s budget proposal includes an increase of $460 million and more than 4,000 additional claims processors for Veterans benefits. This is a 27 percent funding increase over the 2010 level.
The 1,014,000 claims received in 2009 were a 75 percent increase over the 579,000 received in 2000. Shinseki said the Department expects a 30 percent increase in claims – to 1,319,000 – in 2011 from 2009 levels.
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Budget 2011 – 2/2/2/2
One reason for the increase is VA’s expansion of the number of Agent Orange-related illnesses that automatically qualify for disability benefits. Veterans exposed to the Agent Orange herbicides during the Vietnam War are likely to file additional claims that will have a substantial impact upon the processing system for benefits, the secretary said.
“We project significantly increased claims inventories in the near term while we make fundamental improvements to the way we process disability compensation claims,” Shinseki said.
Long-term reduction of the inventory will come from additional manpower, improved business practices, plus an infusion of $145 million in the proposed budget for development of a paperless claims processing system, which plays a significant role in the transformation of VA.
Automating the GI Bill
The budget proposal includes $44 million to complete by December 2010 an automated system for processing applications for the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. VA also plans to start development next year of electronic systems to process claims from other VA-administered educational programs.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill authorizes the most extensive educational assistance opportunity since the passage of the original GI Bill in 1944. Over $1.7 billion in regular Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments have been issued since the implementation of the program on Aug. 1, 2009. In 2011, VA expects the number of all education claims to grow by 32 percent over 2009, going from 1.7 million to 2.25 million.
“To meet this increasing workload and process education claims in a timely manner, VA has established a comprehensive strategy to develop industry-standard technologies to modernize the delivery of these important educational benefits,” Shinseki said.
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Budget 2011 – 3/3/3/3
Eliminating Homelessness
The budget proposal includes $4.2 billion in 2011 to reduce and help prevent homelessness among Veterans. That breaks down into $3.4 billion for core medical services and $799 million for specific homeless programs and expanded medical care, which includes $294 million for expanded homeless initiatives. This increased investment for expanded homeless services is consistent with the VA secretary’s established goal of ultimately eliminating homelessness among Veterans.
On a typical night, about 131,000 Veterans are homeless. They represent every war and generation, from the “Greatest Generation” to the latest generation of Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. To date, VA operates the largest system of homeless treatment and assistance programs in the nation.
Targeting Mental Health, Preventing Suicides
“The 2011 budget proposal continues the department’s keen focus on improving the quality, access and value of mental health care provided to Veterans,” Shinseki said.
The spending request seeks $5.2 billion for mental health, an increase of $410 million (or 8.5 percent) over current spending, enabling expansion of inpatient, residential and outpatient mental health services, with emphasis on making mental health services part of primary care and specialty care.
The secretary noted that one-fifth of the patients seen last year in VA’s health care facilities had a mental health diagnosis, and that the department has added more than 6,000 new mental health professionals since 2005, bringing to 19,000 the number of employees dedicated to mental health care.
The budget request will enable the department to continue expanding its programs for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), along with the diagnosis and treatment of depression, substance abuse and other mental health problems. Shinseki called PSTD treatment “central to VA’s mission.”
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Budget 2011 – 4/4/4/4
The proposed spending will continue VA’s suicide prevention program. Since July 2007, the department’s suicide prevention hotline has received nearly 225,000 calls from Veterans, active-duty personnel and family members. The hotline is credited with saving the lives of nearly 7,000 people.
Reaching Rural Veterans
For 2011, VA is seeking $250 million to strengthen access to health care for 3.2 million Veterans enrolled in VA’s medical system who live in rural areas. Rural outreach includes expanded use of home-based primary care and mental health.
A key portion of rural outreach – which shows promise for use with Veterans across the country – is VA’s innovative “telehealth” program. It links patients and health care providers by telephones and includes telephone-based data transmission, enabling daily monitoring of patients with chronic problems.
The budget provides an increase of $42 million for VA’s home telehealth program. The effort already cares for 35,000 patients and is the largest program of its kind in the world.
Serving Women Veterans
The 2011 budget provides $217.6 million to meet the gender-specific health care needs of women Veterans, an increase of $18.6 million (or 9.4 percent) over the 2010 level. Enhanced primary care for women Veterans remains one of the Department’s top priorities. The number of women Veterans is growing rapidly and women are increasingly using VA for their health care.
Shinseki said the expansion of health care programs for women Veterans will lead to higher quality care, increased coordination of care, enhanced privacy and dignity, and a greater sense of security among women patients.
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Budget 2011 – 5/5/5/5
Among the initiatives for women in the 2011 budget proposal are expanded health care services in Vet Centers, increased training for health care providers to advance their knowledge and understanding of women’s health issues, and implementing a peer call center and social networking site for women combat Veterans. This call center will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Delivering World-Class Health Care
During 2011, VA expects to treat 6.1 million patients, who will account for more than 800,000 hospitalizations and 83 million outpatient visits.
The total includes 439,000 Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, for whom $2.6 billion is included in the budget proposal. That’s an increase of $597 million – or 30 percent – from the current budget.
The proposed budget for health care includes:
$6.8 billion for long-term care, an increase of $859 million (or 14 percent) over 2010. This amount includes $1.5 billion for non-institutional long-term care;
Expanding access to VA health care system for more than 99,000 Veterans who were previously denied care because of their incomes;
$590 million for medical and prosthetic research; and
Continuing development of a “virtual lifetime electronic record,” a digital health record that will accompany Veterans throughout their lives.
VA is requesting $54.3 billion in advance appropriations for 2012 for health care, an increase of $2.8 billion over the 2011 enacted amount. Planned initiatives in 2012 include better leveraging acquisitions and contracting, enhancing the use of referral agreements, strengthening VA’s relationship with the Defense Department, and expanding the use of medical technology.
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Budget 2011 – 5/5/5/5
Preserving National Shrines
“VA remains steadfastly committed to providing access to a dignified and respectful burial for Veterans choosing to be buried in a VA national cemetery,” Shinseki said. “This promise requires that we maintain national cemeteries as shrines dedicated to the memory of those who served this nation in uniform.”
The requested $251 million for cemetery operations and maintenance will support more than 114,000 interments in 2011, a 3.8 percent increase over 2010. In 2011, the department will maintain 8,441 acres with 3.1 million gravesites. The budget request includes $37 million to clean and realign an estimated 668,000 headstones and repair 100,000 sunken graves.
Building for the Future
$1.15 billion requested for major construction for 2011 includes funding for medical facilities in New Orleans; Denver; Palo Alto, Calif.; Alameda, Calif.; and Omaha, Neb. Also budgeted for 2011 are major expansions and improvements to the national cemeteries in Indiantown Gap, Pa.; Los Angeles; and Tahoma, Wash., and new burial access policies that will provide a burial option to an additional 500,000 Veterans and enhance service in urban areas.
A requested budget of $468 million for minor construction in 2011 would fund a wide variety of improvements at VA facilities.
Patriotism isn’t a seasonal occupation – something to be packed away with the flags and bunting until next year – not if you care about your country. Defending America is a year-round, 24/7 cause that requires knowledge, stamina and commitment.
Especially in our hour of peril, with a doctrinaire leftist in the White House, who is, at the very least, indifferent to his country’s fate (that’s America’s, not Kenya’s) – think Michael Moore on Slim Fast, think George Soros without the creepy, Transylvanian accent – now more than ever before, we need to raise up a new generation of patriots.
If you’re wondering where to begin, you can start here:
1. Know your country’s history – You can’t defend America if you don’t understand America. American history is barely taught in high school and rarely taught in college. A 2000 poll by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni gave seniors at elite colleges and universities a D or F grade on a high-school level history test. (Only 22% knew that “Of the people, by the people and for the people” came from the Gettysburg Address.) Read history by authors who believe in America – “A History of the American People” by Paul Johnson; “America: The Last Best Hope” (2 volumes) by William Bennett, and “A Patriot’s History of the United States” by Schweikart and Allen. The more you read, the more you’ll believe, and the more you’ll want to fight.
2. Tell America’s story – Especially to the young. And a glorious saga it is, from the Mayflower Compact to the Continental Congress, from Bull Run to the Bulge and Baghdad, from Washington’s Farewell Address to Ronald Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” speech and beyond. Remind Americans that our national holidays mean something. Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving aren’t there just to give them a three-day weekend, but to strike what Lincoln called the “mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone.”
3. Stop the slander – The left has made an art of defaming America, especially among the young and susceptible. Anti-Americanism is inculcated in public education, academia, and the entertainment and news media. The contagion is spread through multiculturalism, historical revisionism, magnifying our mistakes and ignoring our triumphs. The left insists that we perpetually repent for slavery – an institution that existed ev erywhere for most of recorded history. America is the only nation that fought a Civil War (in which more than 600,000 died) to abolish this evil. Students won’t hear that from the time-servers of the National Education Association, who are too busy sex-educating and global-warming indoctrinating to bother with Nathan Hale and Omaha Beach.
4. Defend the Constitution – Not the Constitution a la William J. Brennan, David Souter and Ruth Bader-Ginsburg – the fantasy Constitution of judicial activists that permits late-term abortion but forbids public display of the Ten Commandments -- but the Constitution that protects freedom of speech (whether or not The New York Times likes that speech), the right to profess a belief in God in public places, our right to keep and bear arms, and a government of limited powers. Speak out against hate-crimes laws, gun control legislation, efforts to socialize the economy, attempts to regulate speech on talk-radio and the Internet, and the confirmation of Quota Queen and “wise Latina woman” Sonia Sotomayor.
5. Know that we are still very much “One Nation Under God” (Not Allah) – America was founded by Christians on Judeo-Christian principles – witness multiple references to God in the Declaration of Independence, in the words of Madison, Adams et al., and in lyrics from “in God is our trust” in the National Anthem to Mr. Berlin’s “God Bless America.” The Founders were inspired by a uniquely Biblical worldview – liberty, equality under the law, charity, and representative government. Because of this spiritual legacy, America had a greater impact on the last two centuries than any other nation. Without it, America makes no sense. A nation can’t be strong – militarily or economically – if it’s weak spiritually. The patriot should work for public display of religious symbols, the return of prayer to the public schools, and a public acknowledgement on the role religion played, and continues to play, in our national life. Whatever his faith, the patriot must counter the presidential big lie that we are no longer a Christian nation, but are deeply indebted to Islam.
6. Free the Market – There’s a reason why Europe has stagnated in the post-War era while America has generally prospered. We believe in individual achievement, income-mobility, celebrating success and private property. They believe in class warfare, envy, resentment, “leisure” (as a life- goal), welfare and collectivism. Now, we have a President – who knows even less about economics than national security -- committed to the European model. As much as Judeo-Christian values and the family, capitalism defines who we are as a people, and why America has worked so well for so long.
7. Demand an End to Illegal Immigration – As Ronald Reagan noted, a nation that has lost control of its borders has lost its sovereignty. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, immigrants (who accounted for one household in 21 in 1970) now represent one in 8 American households. How many immigrants incapable of assimilation can the country take in? With illegal immigration, we don’t know who’s coming here, and which of the intruders are hard-core criminals or terrorists. The man who loves his family will protect his home from invasion. The man who loves his country will protect it from invaders. That means opposing any more amnesties, in-state tuition and drivers’ licenses for illegals, and demanding enforcement at and beyond the border.
8. Insist on English – In 2007 more than 55 million people in the United States were living in households where a language other than English was spoken. There are powerful forces working to turn America into a bi-lingual (or multilingual) nation – including bureaucrats, business interests and ethnic lobbying groups. English is the linguistic glue that holds our country together. All of the documents on w hich America was founded were written in English. Without a common tongue, dissolution is inevitable. The patriot will oppose bi-lingual education, bi-lingual ballots and language pandering. Pressing a number for a language other than English shouldn’t be an option.
9. Defend the Family – America can’t be strong without strong families. The family is the incubator of civic virtues, including patriotism. Functional families are the foundation for a nation that works. Every social ill that afflicts America – drug abuse, crime, poverty, illegitimacy, etc. – has its roots in family breakdown. Families are the first line of national defense.
10. Support Israel – America and Israel are two countries joined at the heart – more intimately connected than any others, including the U.S. and the U.K. America was founded on the vision first glimpsed at Sinai. Without ancient Israel, there would have been no America. Without America (circa 1948), there would have been no modern State of Israel. The same Marxists and Islamacists who would destroy Israel also have America in their sights. The Hussein in the White House is doing his best to undermine Israel and jeopardize its survival. (His spiritual mentor accuses Israel of “genocide.”) To betray Israel is to betray ourselves.
11. Know that America’s survival is at stake – What happens next year will determine America’s fate – perhaps for all time. Instead of fighting a war on terror, Obama is deploying WMDs against the economy. He just agreed to cut our nuclear arsenal by a third – based on the word of Putin’s puppet. He is working to spread Marxism in Latin America and Islam worldwide. He is determined to make a majority of Americans dole-addicts, and to leave America vulnerable to its enemies. With his party’s super-majorities, the United States Congress has become the rubber-stamp equivalent of China’s National People’s Congress. 2010 is a hill that must be taken. Otherwise, the sacrifices of generations of patriots that came before us, all the way back to Valley Forge, will all have been in vain.
12. Don’t despair – In the words of Winston Churchill: “Never, never, never quit.” Don’t say it’s all hopeless because the all-powerful media serves as an adjunct White House Press Office, because Obama is subsidizing a partisan army from the Treasury, because the Party of Treason has 60 votes in the Senate, because billionaire Bolsheviks like George Soros bankroll groups like Move-On.org, because Michael Jackson-worship reflects the degeneration of American culture, or because many of our fellow Americans are too dumb or apathetic to understand what’s happening. Consider the odds Washington faced in the winter of 1776, when the fate of the patriot cause hung by a thread. Imagine what it was like to be a G.I. wading ashore under withering fire on D-Day. With God on our side and a firm faith in the justice of our cause, we cannot lose – or, in the words of The Star-Spangled Banner, “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just.”
Remarks by Secretary Eric K. Shinseki
National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH)
National Conference on Ending Homelessness
Washington, DC
July 14, 2010
Nan, thank you for that kind introduction and for your leadership of the National Alliance. Your work on behalf of the homeless is well-known and much-respected. Our thanks to you and your staff for your diligence in supporting all the rest of us, VA included, in our commitments to end homelessness amongst our populations. Your address at our Summit on Veteran Homelessness, last November, resonated with attendees then, and still does today at VA.
I am honored to be here today. From your modest beginnings in 1983, this alliance has grown into a powerful organization of more than 10,000 public and private sector partners. Along the way, you’ve succeeded in housing hundreds of thousands of Americans, a tremendous record of service and achievement. VA is very proud to be one of your partners.
Sometimes, we say that caring for those who cannot care for themselves is a longstanding tradition in this country, that threads of selflessness are woven into our national character. Yet, roughly 643,000 Americans remain homeless on any given night. We also say our Veterans, who come from every town and village in this great land, are a vital part of the national landscape. In fact, VA says that in honoring their service, we keep faith with Abraham Lincoln’s promise to care for those who have borne the battle, and for their families. Yet, nearly one-in-six of America’s homeless is a Veteran—107,000 of them.
Nowhere is our obligation to our citizens, and to our Veterans who have defended our Nation, more important, more visible, or more necessary than in our commitment to end homelessness.
You see, at VA, we wrestle with harmonizing two very distinct, yet incongruent, images of those who have served.
The first image is this, and it is one familiar to most Americans. Each year, roughly 60% of all high school graduates go on to a college or university. Of the remaining 40%, some enter vocational training; others immediately enter the workforce. Fewer others, still, join the less than 1% of Americans who volunteer to serve in our Nation’s Armed Forces.
These young men and women enter basic training or boot camp, and a few short weeks later arrive at their first units, where they immediately become valued and trusted members of high-performing teams—tough, motivated, and extremely dedicated. And with superb leadership, they stand ready, each day, to perform the complex, the difficult, and the dangerous missions. On some days, they are asked to do the impossible—and they do, with unwavering commitment and without complaint.
But, there is a second image; Veterans suffer disproportionately from depression, PTS—Post Traumatic Stress—substance abuse, joblessness, homelessness, and suicides. Why these two disparate images? To be sure, there are far fewer Veterans in the second image than in the first, but the same youngsters populate both images. Why weren’t we able to help those in the second image continue the kinds of successes they achieved in the first image? How did they enter the downward spiral of depression, substance abuse, failed relationships, and joblessness that too often leads to homelessness and, sometimes, to suicide? Let me repeat—the same kids populate both images. So this is not about them; it’s about us.
At VA, our goal is to never allow the youngsters in the first image to fall into the second, and to return those in the second image to lives as productive as possible. If you wonder what the Secretary of Veterans Affairs is working on for the next several years, this is it. Ending homelessness among Veterans is a critical part of transforming VA for the 21st century. You see, to end Veteran homelessness, we have to address all the other reasons that cause the second image. To do that, we must work in collaboration with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, with the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Labor, and Education, and with other federal, state and local agencies and organizations. We will not be successful without a coordinated, united, collaborative effort.
VA will end Veteran homelessness in five years. Our role, in this regard, is largely strategic and logistical. The hard, tactical fight is being waged in the streets by many of the good folks in this room.
For over 20 years, VA has been involved in street outreach, residential and transitional housing services, vocational rehabilitation, access to primary and mental health care, counseling for substance abuse, and assistance with benefits to those who qualify. While noble, these efforts lacked synchronization or focus on objective outcomes; we were committed to better managing homelessness, not ending it.
We now have the resources and support to end Veteran homelessness in the next five years. President Obama’s 2011 budget requests a homeless funding increase of over 23%, from $3.4 billion in 2010, to $4.2 billion next year. Eighty-five percent of the dollars go to health care, including mental health, substance abuse, and suicide prevention. Housing and specialized counseling will go from $500 million this year to $799 million in 2011, a 60% increase. Thanks to the President, we have a plan and we have resourced it.
But this isn’t just about money. More is not better; better is better. We have to be smarter about how we employ those resources and put in place the relationships, the procedures, and the disciplines that get 99 cents of impact out of every dollar we spend. Goodness here is not any one organization’s agenda, but what best serves our homeless.
Last year, we held a National Summit on Ending Veteran Homelessness; Nan and a number of you were there. Following that conference, we wrote a detailed five-year plan to end Veteran homelessness, a plan that emphasizes prevention rather than rescue and ensures a “no wrong door” philosophy for Veterans in need of help.
Veterans at risk of homelessness or who have just become homeless must have immediate access to our programs and services, regardless of which facility, which door, they enter seeking assistance. Any door—a medical center, a regional office, a Vet Center, a shelter or a community organization—must be open, welcoming, and capable of helping. Over the next five years, our efforts to end Veteran homelessness will emphasize these six initiatives:
- Outreach and education to Veterans who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless.
- The strategy of prevention—controlling growth, even as we reduce the homeless population.
- Strengthen the availability of primary, specialty, and mental health care, including substance-use disorders—which is why we are opening five new domiciliary residential programs to assure access to treatment.
- Increased housing opportunities and appropriate supportive services tailored to the homeless Veteran.
- Greater financial and employment support as well as improved benefits delivery—everything from increasing the number of Veterans working in the federal government, to improved placement of Veterans in private sector jobs, to growing the number of high-performing Veteran-owned and service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses competing for government contracts. Veterans hire Veterans because they know what they’re getting, so this will create churn in the job market.
- And finally, expansion of these critically-important community partnerships; VA’s success in this venture is not possible without you. We’re going to be working on the same issues with you for a long time, even after we end homelessness amongst Veterans.
Today, VA partners with a number of community and faith-based, non-profit service providers—including some of the Nation’s largest like Volunteers of America, Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army—but also many excellent, smaller, local groups in towns and cities all across America. HUD, VA, and the Department of Labor will soon announce a new effort—a HUD-VA At-Risk Pilot—to work with recently discharged and at-risk Veterans and their families.Prevention is the key to ending homelessness. When we begin this initiative, VA will provide comprehensive health care and benefits assistance, and HUD will provide continuums of care, including housing, child care, and other supports to keep Veterans’ families together.
Another initiative we will work, together, is providing supportive service grants for low-income Veterans and families—comprehensive assistance for those at risk of slipping into homelessness; this is a new step for VA in preventing homelessness among Veterans with families. We hope to offer $50 million in funding for this initiative by the end of this calendar year. This program will fund non-profit organizations that target very low-income, Veteran families for services spanning case management, child care, financial counseling, credit restoration, and job training, among others, to those most at risk of becoming homeless. I know that many in this room will join us in keeping families together, employed, and housed.
For these families and for the chronically-homeless Veteran, who is “hard-to-serve”—those who may have refused care in the past, failed to complete previous programs, have a history of disruptive behaviors, or who don’t fit easily into existing programs—the most effective option is HUD-VA Supportive Housing—HUD-VASH. VA will address all Veterans’ needs, no matter how difficult. We will not leave Veterans homeless while they seek treatment, but will house first, and then provide comprehensive treatment and services. In May, HUD announced that another 8,000 HUD-VASH vouchers had been allocated, and we expect another 1,500 vouchers shortly.
Before the end of the summer, we will have enough resources to help roughly 30,000 homeless Veterans and families live in permanent housing. HUD-VASH has dramatically changed our program. And nearly 11% of HUD-VASH units are occupied by women Veterans. In filling the first 20,000 HUD-VASH units, nearly 4,000 children of Veterans will have been kept with their Veteran parents.
We are expanding the participation of homeless and formerly-homeless Veterans in helping to design our programs. CHALENG—Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education and Networking Groups—invites homeless Veterans to tell us how VA can better deliver the services they need; it’s about giving voice to our clients. In the past year, over 10,700 homeless or formerly-homeless Veterans participated in CHALENG, a ten-fold increase over three years.
Each year, 40,000 Veterans come out of prisons. Today, 931 of the Nation’s 1,300 prisons have a VA re-entry specialist working with Veterans well before their release. And I cannot emphasize enough the good work of Judge Robert Russell in Buffalo, New York, who originated the concept of Veterans’ Courts, where Veterans can be remanded to treatment rather to prison, giving us a chance to prevent homelessness and even bigger problems later. Again, prevention is the key.
Last month, we announced a new telephone hotline for homeless Veterans—1-877-4AID-VET (1-877-424-3838)—to help Veterans find food, shelter, clothing, and assistance. It’s staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by the same people who staff our suicide prevention hotline, cross-trained responders able to serve both populations. We’ve found that many homeless Veterans who may be considering suicide, won’t call our suicide hotline, but they will call our homeless hotline. Either way, we are there for them. Once again, there is no wrong door to help.
Last year, we partnered with more than 25,000 volunteers who provided outreach and services to more than 42,000 homeless Veterans and more than 6,000 family members at 190 stand down events. We will continue to proactively reach out to the homeless.
VA is a member of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, chaired by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, who spoke here yesterday, and directed by Barbara Poppe. We are working closely with HUD, with all members of the Interagency Council, with members of Congress, with many of your organizations, and with thousands of other stakeholders and community organizations.
Our newly-established Center on Homelessness Among Veterans works with community partners and university affiliates to develop new treatment models and best-practices for specific homeless Veteran populations. The center has developed training for VA staff and community partners for working with hard-to-serve Veterans. Some VA medical centers have also developed specialized clinics—low-demand, low-barrier programs delivering health care, mental health evaluations, and social work strategies.
As we navigate our five-year campaign to eliminate homelessness, we expect the path will become steeper; at the end, we will be left with the most difficult cases to address, the hardest to serve. We must accept that and begin preparing now for the steepness of that climb; we didn’t sign on for just the easy cases. We signed on to end homelessness for all Veterans.
Let me end with the words of something called The Soldier’s Creed. In part, the creed makes four, simple, declaratory statements:
- I will always place the mission first;
- I will never accept defeat;
- I will never quit;
- I will never leave a fallen comrade.
Now, to some, these lines come off as just words, words that roll easily off the tongue. But for those who endeavor to live by them, these are promises made to one another about being able to be counted upon when fear, stress, and danger reign. Think about the demands, the hardship, and the stress incurred by those who choose to live the creed in service to our Nation. We owe every man and woman who has worn our Nation’s military uniforms, a level of courage and determination that matches their own.
Thank you for the invitation to join you today, and once again, for your advocacy, devotion, and outstanding leadership on behalf of homeless Americans. We are all indebted to you.
God bless each and every one of you. God bless the men and women who serve, and have served, in uniform, and may God continue to bless this great, wonderful country of ours. Thank you.
