Together, we can ensure all our veterans have a home to call their own.
The fact that on any given night in America more than 75,000 of our veterans are homeless is a national shame and something that none of us should tolerate. These are the men and women who have selflessly served their country and are now living on the street, in cars, and in temporary shelters. Fortunately, there is a strong and growing bipartisan consensus in America that this situation can and must be remedied.
Now is the time for all of us—in government and in the private sector—to step up and do what it takes to end homelessness among our veterans. Funders Together to End Homelessness is pleased to be part of a pilot project between the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and private philanthropy, which seeks to prevent and end homelessness among those veterans who have traditionally been the most difficult to serve. We are calling on our members as well as those in the private sector who care about our veterans to consider funding this initiative and help to permanently house those who have served our country.
A Place to Call Home: A Philanthropic Initiative to End Veterans’ Homelessness
We believe that this pilot program, based on the “Housing First” model that has successfully and permanently housed thousands of homeless individuals across our country, including many who have been homeless for years, is one which can and will bring to an end veteran homelessness in America.
A comparatively small investment on the part of philanthropy will leverage enormous amounts of federal funds. Not only that, but the successful implementation of this Housing First initiative will demonstrate to Congress the efficacy of this model in ending veterans homelessness and pave the way for major future federal funding.
To find out more about this project, please read this letter from the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Sean Donovan. If you are interested in being part of this exciting project, or simply finding out more about preventing and ending veterans homelessness, please contact me at Funders Together.
Together, we can ensure all our veterans have a home to call their own.
As Executive Director of Funders Together, Anne brings years of expertise in both the corporate and not-for-profit sector. She is passionate about promoting the philanthropic community’s catalytic role in ending homelessness, working with government to create public-private partnerships, and advocating for funding and policies which end, rather than manage, homelessness.