ALBUQUERQUE – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald announced this week the award of more than $2 million in homeless prevention grants to help veteran families in all 33 New Mexico counties. The grants will serve homeless and at-risk veteran families as part of the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program.
This award will serve veteran families associated with Goodwill Industries of New Mexico (grant of $1,118,263), New Mexico Veterans Integration Centers (grant of$802,775), and Mesilla Valley Community of Hope (grant of $117,823). These were three of 275 community agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to receive a grant.
“Since 2010, the Housing First Strategy has helped cut Veteran Homelessness nearly in half,” said VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald. “Housing First is why 360,000 Veterans and family members have been housed, rehoused or prevented from falling into homelessness over the last five years. SSVF helps homeless Veterans quickly find stable housing and access the supportive services they – and their families – need.”
As part of the SSVF program, VA awards grants to private non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives that provide services to very low-income veteran families living in or transitioning to permanent housing.
Grantees will continue to provide eligible Veteran families with outreach, case management, and assistance obtaining VA and other benefits, which may include health care, income support services, financial planning, child care, legal services, transportation, housing counseling, among other services. Grantees are expected to leverage supportive services grant funds to enhance the housing stability of very low-income Veteran families who are occupying permanent housing. In doing so, grantees are required to establish relationships with local community resources.
In fiscal year (FY) 2015, SSVF served more than 157,000 participants and is on track to exceed that number in FY 2016. As a result of these and other efforts, Veteran homelessness is down 47 percent since the launch of the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness in 2010. Also since 2010, more than 360,000 Veterans and their family members have been permanently housed, rapidly re-housed, or prevented from falling into homelessness by VA’s homelessness programs and targeted housing vouchers provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
For more information about the SSVF program, visit www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf.asp.