Transcripts For CSPAN3 Ending Veteran Homelessness 20171128

For both of us. Were sproodly proud of what has been put together here to serve our veterans and to serve the broader homeless community. As you probably know this building is about a year old. Serves now over 60 veterans who are previously homeless. The secretary carson and i asked about the waiting list here and its 409 because we still have 409 Homeless Veterans here in washington, d. C. Across the country that number is 40,000. We are committed to continue our efforts until we get every vet van off the streets to find a home such as this. This is truly the model for working together. Federal agencies like the department of Housing Urban Development and the department of veteran affairs sharing its resources, sharing its knowledge and putting together support so that groups such as Community Solutions and others can develop projects like this to serve veterans who are homeless and others who are homeless. The reason we have been able to reduce the number of Homeless Veterans across the country by over 50 now since 2010 is because of Community Efforts like this where its not only federal agencies but in this case state and the district of columbia as well as many not for profit organizations. We heard about 50 altogether pulling resources together to make programs like this a reality. Its these Community Based efforts that we know work and we have to continue to help support. Were firmly committed to end the work to make sure we end veteran homelessness so we have a lot more work to do. We have found to formula we thinks works and will continue to support with all our efforts. I want to thank not only the staff but the veterans. We had time to hear their stories. Hear how important this facility is and how much they value it. Their gratitude for having a safe and nice place to be able to call home which is so important and we think every american deserves that and i absolutely we believe every veteran deserves that as soon as possible. Thanks the veterans for not only talking to us about their own experience but showing us their apartments and we just had the chance to see a beautiful apartment of mr. Williams who was kind enough sthoe us his home. The message we heard here is its not just a home but the sustainment efforts, the efforts of staff who are here, va social workers who work out of our d. C. Facility but are stationed here to help make sure the veterans continue to get the help they need. The services and medical care and everything thats so important and to hear how much those services are valued. Putting tot the continued efforts of the deft of Housing Development and the department of veteran affairs really makes both of us feel extraordinarily proud of the efforts going on here. Just wanted to say thank you and our commitment for continuing to not only learn from this model but to use this as a best practice to move forward across the country. Im going to turn this over to dr. Carson. Thank you. There are millions of americans going back to work after thanksgiving spending time with their families. Im sure there were many prayers for the health of our country and for the veterans who have made it possible for us to be free in this country. We should be grateful to the veterans not only on veterans day or thanksgiving but every day of the year because 1 of our population protects the other 99 . When you think about what theyve allowed us to be able to do, we should be willing to go the extra mile to make sure that they are taken care. It was wonderful today having an opportunity to meet with four veterans. Its wonderful that a facility like this exists and that gratitude that they express not only for the facility but for the individuals who have dedicated their lives to improving life for the veterans. It makes all the difference in the world. We ought to be the first in line. They are the ones who give us to do the ability of what we do. A ta silty like this comes to pass. The ability of the federal government. The work with cities with nonprofits. Not only the people but in the facility itself and that way they make sure that it is maintained. The government would ride in on a white horse with a big bucket of money and say build this facility with this group and ride away. That didnt work. When you get buy in from the rest of the community, i think that makes a huge difference. Also, this facility is a good example of how the low Income Housing tax credit can be used to great avail for the public good. I think people from both sides of the aisle recognize how critical it is for us to provide a stimulus and the incentive to there are winwin situations presented throughout our Society Makes all the difference in the world. We still have a lot of work to do. Every night theres 40,000 veterans in shelters and on the streets. When we need recognize that when people are out there, under a bridge, not being taken care of, theres a strong likelihood that sometimes in the could you rephrase that year theyll wind up in the emergency room frequently being admitted. A weeks add mission costs more than that year of shelter in an appropriate setting. Housing first is great concept. Getting them off the street costs less money than leaving them on the street. Housing second is also important which means you diagnose the reason theyre in that condition and housing third is also important, you fix it. Empower and enabling our fellow americans just as they empowered and enabled us through the sacrifices that they have made. To everyone working at conway house, very grateful for what youve been doing. Theres so many cities that are declaring an end to home letsness for veterans and everybody. It started out as some of the smaller municipalities. Recently pittsburgh, atlanta within the past couple of weeks opinion i think this is the beginning of something thats going to be really great. I do believe in this country we have the ability to end homelessness for veterans and the rest of our population if were willing to put forth the effort we have seen here today. Thank you. [ applause ] any questions . Both of you, if you dont mind. You talk about how you want to continue to use this type of project to address the 40,000 Homeless Veterans still out but the Trump Administration has called for cutting back home funding that was used to fund this program and also hasnt called for new hud vouchers. How are you going to continue this type of project . Well, as far as not calling for new hud vouchers its not because anybody has a criticism of the programs because we have excess vouchers left over. When we use those well be looking for more. We still have quite a few that havent been used. Were looking at now are ways to be able to transfer those vouchers around to places where they are needed so more evenly distributed. Where are you from . Npr. Great. If you take a look at the president s budget for 2018 for the department of veteran affairs theres significant increases in the president s commitment to ending veteran homelessness. Those are facts that are out there. The president s budget supports not only continuing what were doing but accelerating, putting more resource, more dollars into the 18 budget than into 17. As far as housing, is there going to be enough funding to have more projects like this . Again, as i mentioned, the real key here is the new paradigm. The old paradigm doesnt work with the government just dumping money on problems opinion the new paradigm with Publicprivate Partnerships ive seen it very effective across the nation in creating wonderful communities. I was in atlanta about a month ago in one of the worst communities. Has been turned into all kinds of people wanting to be the School System performing at the lowest level is now at the highest level. Those are the things that can happen when we create winwin situations, get the private sector involved. We just have to get away from the ideal that the only solution to our problems is government dumping money on it. Id also say with competition of npr. We have housed veterans this is successful program. We want to continue this. Thats why we were really pleased to see the additional commitment to funding for this. We have 40,000 more to go. This is not just the federal government. Were a piece of it. I think it couldnt continue without our involvement and va social workers and others who are here today but this is that Publicprivate Partnership that hes talking about. This wouldnt have happened without district of columbia and without private resources but this is such a great model we want to do more of this. This is what we want to see for the other 40,000. We know that if its not a sustained effort that this will just go backwards. This is probably a lifelong effort that were committing to opini opinion any other Media Inquiries . Sure. You mentioned 40,000 veterans in the street. Thats pretty alarming. A lot of it may have to do with something on the secrecy level where they are using electronic gadgets, secret gadget ons peoples minds, brain waves in the middle of the night and its pushing them out in the street also. P son sonic waves. The attackers were not cuban. Its in apartment buildings, motel t hotels, houses. Any other media questions. He started the program to achieve where im at. I was homeless. I went to u. S. Vets for a year. I went to cwt program for six months. Im working permanent at the va. Thank you for bringing that up. Ive said all along were all in this together. The whole concept of the division thats occurred and we cant give credit to that, thats a bunch of garbage. With a busy week ahead for congress, our live coverage includes the Senate Banking committee tomorrow considering Jerome Powell to be the next Federal Reserve chair. That will be live tomorrow at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Also tomorrow the Senate Budget Committee Reviews its tax reform bill. See that live tomorrow. On wednesday, the Senate Health Committee Considers the nomination of president trumps pick to replace tom price. Live coverage of congress this week on the cspan Networks Online at cspan. Org or with the free cspan radio app. A look at the state of u. S. Turkey relations. This discussion also focused on the impact of a turkish iranian gold merchant accused of violating u. S. Economic sanctions against iran who is about to stand trial. This is just over an hour. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Im pleased to see that some people are still hungry for