As the Executive Director of a 501(c)3 that provides houshold furnishings and other goods to newly housed veterans, in conjuction with the HUSVASH program, we find this is a huge gap in the plan for Housing First for these veterans. Placing a homeless veteran into an empty apartment, many with little or no built-in lighting and nothing to sleep on, does not give the feeling of home. Our non-profit provides new beds, sofas, dressers, small dining table and other essential small applicances to make the veteran feel 'at home'. All items are free to the veteran and their's to keep. After providing this service for over 4 years, we find we can no longer sustain the operation through private grants and individual donations. This needs to be a program that is part of the 'wrap around' services that qualify for government grants and other funding. As we service the greater Phoenix AZ population, the annual number of HUDVASH folks we service is probably higher than most communities. Over the past 4 years we have averaged 315 deliveries per year, at a cost of roughly $1000 per delivery. We work directly with the HUDVASH social workers and I am confident that they would also tell you that this service increases the chance of a succesful transition for these veterans. Funding for this type of program is needed!

I would like to take this opportunity to express my self in reference to the ao misleading service for homeless veterans. A year ago after a real argument with my qife i end up in the Orlando VA Medical Center. I had to atay there for a few weks till i was stable drom all of my stress. While there i try to get assistance from the VA to find a place where i could move in. I was not able to qualify for none of the SO MANY OPTIOMS THE VA HAVE DUE TO.MY BENEFITS. After i left the hospital i stayed in my truck for a fwe days then my back started hurting so i qent to a hoyel for a week. The mo ey spent was overwhelming considering the fact that i also have to pay for mortgage, utilities of the house i lived with my wife. After some time my daughters asked me to stay with her wich i did. In the meanwhile i continue my search for a place to stay. To my disappointment i could not find nothing that i wanted. The such called VA homeless service can't help if i have a check. My opinion is why the government doesn't invest in veterans housing. That way a lit of heroes with a check can live a better less stressful life. Don't understand why is this such department wuth employees who are getting paid for doing NOTHING. There's no such help. They just spent money in literature to be hand out to veterans 99% of such literature and or listing is OUTDATED the such call SOCIAL WORKER that are supposed to help you they just hand out this out dated listing for the veterans to search & eliminate all of the ones that are not even listed any longer with the contact phone number. I still looking for a place i could call my own. However rent are ridiculous high and am not able to move on my own. So tell me what is all this hype about this Veterans homeless assisting program. I know what it is. " It is a waisted money $$$ on checks to Social workers at the VA hospital that don't really care or do nothing. I gave up on the system still looking on my own. If you people are really doing some come to Central Florida & get a taste of what really going on here.

Hi all. Thank you for your comments. Will you email us at HomelessVets@va.gov so we can have your local VA reach out to you to try and help?

You want my feedback ehh. Well here it is. I am currently at a 50 service connected. Should be higher but whatever. I waited 30 years to try for whatever reason but that's on me so ok. At 348 am as I lie awake in bed wondering how I can pay next months rent as I've sold everything i worked a life time to gather. I have no idea how I will pay next months rent as these days I can barely walk let alone do the work I once did. I have spent so many hours in the middle of the night searching for answers on the va site so my wife does t worry, I do it when she's asleep. What have I found? I follow link after link and it just goes in circles. Zero help. Called the homeless line, nothing , called the local 211, nothing, the voa line I submitted the paperwork from the landlord saying we're getting evicted soon, doesn't mean shit unless it comes from a judge. So every single road I've gone down has been a complete waste of time and even more stress The good news is after I have sold everything completely which is soon, and I am evicted, then maybe they can help. So that's nice. Till that time I'm sol.

there are communiyies that shun housing vouchers and VA Supportive Housing-VASH vouchers are caught up in this mix. Not intentionally but some communities with a large number of vouchered units rented also exclude elibible veterans with useable housing vouchers. There is more to this issue but this is sufficient to say for now. How do we change this thinking.

we define homeless. What is a home? Standing on a corner holding a sign or sleeping on a sidewalk = homeless. Is a hotel a home? Is a shoebox apartment a home? Is a deployed soldier at home? Get me 5 acres and a house and then tell me what it means to help homeless veterans, until you can do that don't talk to me.

My family has been homeless for over a year now. I've brought it up several times now when talking to various VA personnel. Guess what, we're still homeless. It's my fault, my wife told me for years after I got out that I have PTSD. I would deny it everything until I woke up in the hospital one day after I had attempted suicide. I receive 100% disability now but I have never been seen by a personnel psychologist or therapist since that breakdown 4 years ago now. I have been on a manic rampage ever since. My wife thinks I am bipolar and after being in complete denial about that I'm starting to see why she believes that is the case. Plus my daughter was abducted by her grandmother who had made false allegations to cps back just before my suicide attempt. Of course CPS screened our case out because we did nothing wrong. But those type of lies weigh heavy on a person's mind. I thought it was my wife and she was doing it to try and get rid of me. I thought she didn't love me anymore. The allegations of child abuse caused PTSD in its own way and it made the shit from the military grow ridiculously out of control quick. The grandmother would offer to help look after our daughter as my wife and I struggled to pull me back together. We would find out recently that she was behind this disgusting act and it gets worse as she has abducted our child and bamboozled Law Enforcement into believing that our daughter was abandoned by us so they are now trying to give this disgusting human being guardianship of our child because they decided to believe her lies vs. doing an investigation. Anyway if the VA gave two shits about me and my family they would know all of this but instead they act like I am garbage because I just started receiving this pension mind you so I've had years of debt just stacking up and I can't get into housing because of my credit. And I struggle with fixing that because my daughter has been abducted and I have to wake up everyday just to fall to pieces and die over and over again. The Sheriff and Judge who have violated our family to no end have no intention of taking fault for what they have allowed so they are doing everything they can to cover this up and move on. The and the homeless prevention bs is just another big con/scam so these aholes that think their better than the rest of us can collect fat checks for doing absolutely nothing. These are same douches treat me like I'm trash for being on disability for ptsd. Lol, ain't that the pot calling the kettle black.

I have had a great experience in Denver with the VA and am currently in VASH housing. The VA is had to navigate so I have taken the VA services in Denver and the other local services and combined them together on my website at https://guide.denverdonate.com/ if you're a Veteran in Denver and need help locally, VA services that I have used can be found there. The VA does a good job once you put all of the piecs together. I have been through IOP, CWT, meet with my VASH housing coordinator monthly, get my medication through the VA, been through the VA Sheridan mental health facility, so many pieces of the puzzle put together and my life is finally working again.

I went the housing office in LA, they treated me like garbage, sincen then I haven't requested any help from you just my medical services. Tried the city too but I was denied everything. I don't think you're doing any job and, I think that I didn't deserved to be treated like garbage, thank you for nothing... homeless help! Yeah right!

No Veteran in America should be homeless !!! The permanent, safe housing approch is key! SOVC (501(C)(3) non-profit " NO VETERAN LEFT BEHIND ", has 14 acres to build tiny homes (40'x12.5) to house homeless veterans in Woodstock, Ohio. Veterans can live here as long as they want & they are in the HUD/VASH Program at the Dayton or Columbus Ohio VA / or community care through the VA. Please check us out... all veterans, businesses and volunteers are welcomed! www.supportourveteransco.com

V A. San Diego,V.A.S.H. does not house veterans with bad backgrounds, and the hospital doesn't provide free dentalcare as V.A. Los Angeles does and excepted veteran with bad background to be assisted by V.A.S.H.

I would think V A. Homeless representative would have more resources to pull a rabbit out of the hat, transportation and communications relationship with previous landlords not a stranger nervous uncertainty and anxiety of trying to get a place to lay your head in privacy, peace of mind, reflection!

I have tried over and, to be honest the reason is my background and expectance because of concerns from public, my offense was in 1996, I tried getting homeless assistance in one county no funds for my background moved to different county got services with my background same state got an appointment to see a homeless representative said go look for your rental, that is challenging without representation speaking in behalf of veteran and assuring landlord payments on time, easy to tell veteran no occupancy without V.A. representation, I moved to other county qualified for housing assistance had representation look for my room to rent, I was ok with room to rent, because background rental period up raised rent moved back to other county again, spoke to V A. homeless representative said go look, tired of that not having representation to assure and show landlord rent will be paid responsibly every month!

For the past three years, the Veterans Furniture Center, a not-for-profit, veteran volunteer organization has been collaborating with HUD/VASH program to provide newly housed formerly homeless Veterans, free of charge, new furniture and household furnishings to create a home. Our funding is through grants and charitable donations. Unfortunately there are no VA grant opportunities available for our service as it is not classified as supporting veteran mental health nor a service funded by the HUD/VASH program. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all HUD/VASH beneficiaries would receive more than a vacant apartment? Providing these basic necessities restores the dignity of ownership and contributes to housing stability that works towards the HUD/VASH goal of 95% of Veterans retaining housing one year or more. Please consider making available grant funding for organizations that provide these support services that are currently not recognized as vital. Our Veterans deserve it! Thank you so much for incredible work that the Program is doing to end Veteran Homelessness.

My family is currently housed under a Veteran Organization and this is our second time in this state. Like Jack Blackwell stated on the first comment, “prevention would be better”. Also, both times for our family, we’ve had to deal with unorganized Hope Atlanta. There’s a lot of shady practices from that organization that only benefits it. Some of these organizations aren’t really interested in helping the veteran and their families. Accountability is a must when we have to deal with getting help from these organizations. From a personal perspective, I as a veteran spouse cannot get dental/healthcare while my veteran spouse & his family is in this homeless state. Cutting off the veteran’s family from health needs is not good & I feel it would be a great change for the VA to allow veteran’s family’s to also get dental/healthcare if he/she needs it.

*Ending* homelessness is a worthy goal but *preventing* it would be better. VA does nothing to help. I make too much to get my prescriptions without a copay even though I live in a very expensive part of the world. There is no affordable senior housing. At 71 homelessness will kill me faster than anything (Age at death for homeless guys is 61). I should be able to get service connected benefits but my records apparently burned in a fire.