by Dan Sullivan
The good news first: our Governor set yesterday as
the goal for ending veteran homelessness in Virginia; he declared a “functional
end” in November. The bad news: that’s a fairly meaningless accomplishment. There
is much to applaud in the administration’s efforts to help veterans in Virginia.
Not this.
The good news first: our Governor set yesterday as
the goal for ending veteran homelessness in Virginia; he declared a “functional
end” in November. The bad news: that’s a fairly meaningless accomplishment. There
is much to applaud in the administration’s efforts to help veterans in Virginia.
Not this.
Loosely, the federal definition of a functional end to veteran
homelessness is that there are no homeless veterans except those who have been
offered housing and turned it down. It can also mean that the number of
veterans becoming homeless is less than or equal to the number who are leaving homelessness.
So by definition veterans will remain homeless. But accepting that as reality,
the concept was originally operationalized in local jurisdictions where the challenge
can be reasonably addressed; communities where the task of identifying homeless
veterans and providing accommodations is manageable and meaningful. Finding a homeless
veteran in a community and locating nearby housing is different than saying we
have more available housing than we have identified homeless veterans statewide;
particularly in a state as large as Virginia. It doesn’t matter to a homeless
veteran in Winchester that there is a roof available in Norfolk.
