Spokane7
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March 22, 2011 in City
Bill would cut aid to homeless vets
A program that helped 345 Washington veterans escape homelessness last year is among the programs targeted for cuts in the U.S. House of Representatives’ continuing-appropriations bill.
The $75 million-a-year program, a cooperation between the departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs, has provided housing vouchers to 30,000 homeless veterans over the past three years, including 95 in Spokane.
“We’ve been able to help a lot of veterans with that,” said John Davis, coordinator of the Health Care for Homeless Veterans center in Spokane, 705 W. Second Ave.
Davis estimated that on any given day there are between 250 and 300 homeless veterans in Spokane County. Although veterans comprise about 8 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 12 percent of all homeless, according to a HUD and VA analysis.
HUD-VA supportive housing is considered the most effective program for lifting veterans out of homelessness because it combines housing vouchers with case management.
Many of those it has helped in Spokane include chronically homeless veterans and veterans with families who have made the transition to permanent housing, Davis said.
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, visited McDermott Place, a Seattle homeless veterans facility, to draw attention to the program for which funding is eliminated in the House-passed continuing appropriations bill known as House Resolution 1.
Murray said the measure “puts politics and ideology over families, communities, and even those who have served and sacrificed for our nation.”
The bill, which cuts $61 billion from the budget in the current year, failed this month in the Senate as lawmakers continue to debate how deeply to cut spending.
Rights panel poorly understood 
mikeln on March 22 at 6:51 a.m.
I hope they make sure that money will make it to welfare for the already too rich, we wouldn’t want them to suffer now would we. Taxes remain the same for most of us, deficiet goes up, where are the savings really going.
PhiltheBibliophil on March 22 at 7:58 a.m.
As a Vet, this is morally wrong! BUT, notice the figures, $75 million to help 340 Vets, that’s nearly $220K apiece. To do what? Once again, its the $%&* Bloated bureaucracy. Same thing with HUD housing for Low income people, maybe 700 units in Spokane and yet 20-30 high paid Fat-Cats “administering” the program! Absolutely warped priorites. Make sure when you see a Vet standing on the freeway begging for food today that you turn your eyes away, punch the accelerator in your Lexus, but don’t spill your $4 Starbucks Latte!
mikeln on March 22 at 8:54 a.m.
It was really 30,000 vets that were helped with 345 of them in washington. Still too much for what we got, that kind of money should have bought them a house, not just a voucher with the money going to who knows?
ManleyPointer on March 22 at 9:00 a.m.
So is there some way of helping these folks who have legitimate needs (and who I think are legitimate recipients of public support and gratitude) without first having to feed the ravenous, inefficient and possibly corrupt bureaucracy? Is the alternative REALLY to give the guy at the off-ramp a buck or two, taking the admittedly small chance that he is a counterfeit vet? Isn’t there another way? Spending immense amounts of money for a program that apparently doesn’t get vets off the off-ramps seems wasteful, but what’s the alternative?
specchap on March 23 at 12:08 a.m.
I was actually with Sen. Patty Murray on Monday at the McDermott Place, I am a resident and a veteran, and I support Patty Murray on her strong feelings towards keeping funding for programs that help homeless veterans. I’m a 23 yr old OIF vet and without the support I’ve received from programs designed to help veterans like myself who have been to hell and back, I don’t know where I would be right now. Thanks to programs like the McDermott place, I was able to celebrate 1 year of stable, permanent housing this month and can finally start picking the pieces of my life up and putting them back together. I will definitely be following this issue and will be putting my word in with the Senator. This is a worthwhile program, one we need to keep.