The plan includes more investments to help unhoused U.S. veterans find jobs, legal aid and other vital support services, according to the White House statement.
WASHINGTON – The White House on Thursday announced new efforts to further reduce homelessness among veterans in the United States.
The plan includes more than $3 billion in new investments to help unhoused veterans find jobs, legal aid, and other vital support services, the White House said in a statement.
The Continuum of Care (CoC) program will provide $3.1 billion under supervision of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The money is intended to help local-level governments and tribal entities provide housing to veterans and anyone else experiencing homelessness, including victims of sexual and domestic violence.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is awarding $11.5 million to public and nonprofit organizations to provide legal services for homeless veterans to help prevent evictions and to ensure public benefits are correctly appropriated.
Additionally, the Department of Labor will provide more than $58 million in grants through its Veterans’ Employment and Training Service to help homeless veterans reintegrate into the labor force through training and job placement in emerging industries like information technology and cybersecurity.
The administration will also launch a series of “Boot Camps” designed to improve the efficiency of existing government protocols and cut red tape that typically delays critical veteran services.
Thursday’s announcement builds upon previous government efforts that have led to an 11% reduction in homelessness since 2020 while the overall number of homeless veterans was down by more than 55% since 2010, as President Joe Biden has pledged to place a particular focus on ensuring every veteran has “a roof over their head,” the White House said.
In May, the White House announced the ALL INside initiative to tackle homelessness in five major cities across the country, including Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Seattle, and Los Angeles.
The program is a key part of the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, which seeks to reduce vagrancy across the nation by 25% through 2025 and “ultimately build a country where every person has a safe and affordable home,” the White House said previously.
The administration said it has set a goal to provide permanent housing to at least 38,000 veterans before the end of 2023.
President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan of 2021 made the government’s largest-ever single-year investment to prevent a surge of homelessness during the height of the pandemic, with $5 billion invested so far for 70,000 Emergency Housing Vouchers – the first HUD voucher specifically for people experiencing homelessness beyond veterans.
Previously, Biden’s American Rescue Plan provided hundreds of millions of dollars to address homelessness, while HUD has released a series of grants totaling $486 million, and more than 3,300 housing vouchers given to homeless citizens since Biden took office. Another $21 billion from Biden’s plan has gone to emergency rental assistance, and measures to establish eviction protections that have helped 8 million struggling households pay their bills.
Since 2021, the Treasury Department’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund has also provided more than $2.5 billion in projects focused on reducing and preventing homelessness. During its first year alone, the Rescue Plan helped more than 100,000 homeless people obtain permanent homes, the White House said.
Biden’s 2024 budget proposal includes more investments to address homelessness, including a call for more housing vouchers and emergency rental assistance.
The president also seeks to grow affordable housing nationwide while establishing a guarantee of rental assistance for groups at the most risk for homelessness, including low-income veterans and youths who have aged out of foster care.
The administration has also called on private sector donors to support the latest actions on homelessness while seeking ways to continue government assistance in the years ahead.
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