The leaders of the County of San Diego explore ways to obtain more rental owners to homeless veterans at a time when potential cuts at the Ministry of Veterans Affairs raised questions on the strength of the security net of the federal government for those who served in the army.
The supervisor council voted unanimously on Tuesday to develop another campaign on social networks to recruit owners and consider booking additional money to pay any material damage caused by new tenants, among other proposals.
Staff members were invited to report in the coming months with a more concrete plan.
“The veterans have put their lives into play to protect and serve our country,” said the supervisor Jim Desmond, who introduced the measure, of the platform. “Now it’s our turn, I think, to act.”
There were at least 865 homeless veterans throughout the county at the beginning of last year, a number which included both those of the shelters and in the street, according to the 2024 count. Although this total is greater than the previous year, the overall image is better than ten years ago. In 2014, the county recorded more than 1,300 homeless veterans.
The general decrease in the roaming of veterans can also be observed nationally, and officials have long credited an initiative: the Housing support program for veterans, or VASH, which issues good ones who help pay the rent.
Above all, this rental aid has long been associated with health care and other services already offered by the VA, which means that the longtime and partially successful strategy of the federal government to help the veterans living outside embodies what is called the first approach to homelessness housing: put people under a roof, then solve other problems.
The future of housing first, however, is in doubt.
Some conservative leaders, including Desmond, have argued that the emphasis on housing has made the detriment of other key services, such as the treatment of drug addiction, and even certain Democrats in the state legislature think that the strategy has become too rigid. President Donald Trump tried without success to dismantle the accommodation first at the federal level during his first mandate, and the new administration announced that it would cease to enforce the first rules of housing with regard to certain subsidies.
The White House has also pushed deep cuts on the federal workforce, including the VA, which raises fears of staff members and patients that changes could harm vulnerable residents.
“I think we miss the elephant in the room if we do not commit ourselves too: how to make sure that the go continues to intensify?” Said the supervisor Terra Lawson-Rememer, and asked that the board of directors wrote federal officials to raise concerns about possible cuts. His colleagues finally agreed to send a letter, although the language was not finalized.
Local officials of the VA have said that any reduction would not affect patient care. A spokesperson for Desmond did not answer questions sent by e-mail as to whether the supervisor was concerned about changes in the VA.
Be that as it may, there seems to be a large bipartite support for Vash vouchers, especially in a place like the County of San Diego where the accommodation costs have skyrocketed. Several veterans welcomed the program in the interviews with the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Desmond’s proposal is largely focused on increasing the owners’ participation. County employees now have six months to “develop a strategy to end the roaming of veterans” and to determine how many initiatives such as the campaign on social networks may cost.
Local and federal officials have worked together in recent years to increase the distribution of vouchers. The county already has an incentive program for owners who offer bonuses to participating owners and helps cover costs such as request costs and security deposits. Staff members said on Tuesday that the annual initiative budget was $ 400,000.
Existing awareness efforts include regular webinaries and 33 owners participated in the April virtual meeting, according to the county spokesperson Tim McClain.
More than 800 old veterans homeless households are currently obtaining aid for rental in the county, said McClain. 50 others had about good and sought units last month.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
