Noteboom The Law Firm

Help For Homeless Gulf Coast Veterans Available

January 31, 2011 - October 2014 is the date the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has set to end homelessness among veterans. With that goal in mind, the VA is making help available for those homeless veterans living on the Gulf Coast. The VA's Gulf Coast Health Care System services the approximate 620 veterans living between the Louisiana-Mississippi border and Panama City Beach, Florida.

Aside from VA programs, some of the help that will be made available includes financial subsidies for local groups. This money will be used to develop and fund homeless prevention programs in the area. Any homeless prevention programs put into place will not work without support at the local community level, especially those groups able to provide housing and social services. No one community level organization has accepted VA grants or per diems to help homeless veterans since Katrina.

The VA money can be used to help provide housing as well as other necessary services. The VA and the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department's (HUD) joint program HUD-VASH supplied 230 vouchers for rent in the Gulf Coast service area. There are community organizations willing to provide help, it is just a matter of getting these organizations hooked up with the VA and their funding.

The VA lost a 171-bed domiciliary, which provided medical and mental health services as well as shelter, in Katrina and it has not yet been replaced. There are more veterans needing help every day in this service area and there is VA money available to help them. It is just up to the local communities to step up, take the funding, and provide the services.