The Public Housing Authorities in St. Louis will receive $215,553 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, U.S. Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) announced last week.
HUD-VASH is a joint program between HUD and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which combines rental housing assistance with case management and clinical services to assist homeless veterans.
Under this program, veterans will be able to use Section 8 rental assistance and the supportive services they need to be integrated back into their communities and former lives, Bond said.
According to recent government estimates, about 15 percent of the homeless using shelters in the U.S. are veterans. Homelessness is a major problem among Iraq and Vietnam veterans, particularly those who are not insured and may have both physical and psychological problems like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Traumatic Brain Injury.
Bond chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds the VA. In 2000 Bond reactivated the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to improve federal coordination of homeless assistance programs, increased funding for VA programs to prevent and end homelessness, and worked to provide permanent housing through the HUD-VASH program.