as the secretary reminds us on multiple occasions, one veteran slipping on the street on one night is one too many. we will end homelessness for madrid for veterans. i do emergency cardiac care peter i am a more comfortable wearing scrubs than standing up here in a suit and tie. but another terrible problem working in emergency rooms of the homeless folks go through. on the east coast, we have harsh winters and the summers. we do not have the problem so much here. but life on the streets is dangerous. it has problems with health care as well. one of the major problems for homelessness is getting good health care. they have multiple chronic diseases. the life span of a homeless person is significantly reduced. the average american now lives to be about 80, and little less than 80. the average homeless person dies before the age of 50. it is a terrible cycle going through emergency departments. how do we break that cycle? it is not about just getting in bed for the night to i
ago, he said one of his primary goals as secretary was to end homelessness by 2015. that is an incredible statement. he said we would end homelessness. that is going to happen not because he said it or because i am here. that is going to happen because of the passion of the local people dealing with this all across the country. it is the people s passion that will make this happen. this is a difficult situation. it will be easy to turn a blind eye to it. it would be easy to ignore it. it would be easy to blame them. we could put a token effort or mandate on it to say we did something. or we can take this on as a national commitment. it is our call. it is your call. i think the fact that you are here today, the work you do every day, says a lot about who we are as americans and how we will continue to support those who have answered our nation s call. we do not owe this to the veterans. as you heard, it is not something they are entitled to. it is something they have earned. t
of team work to make this successful. i am here on behalf of my boss, secretary shinseki. i want to make a comment about his commitment to this. when he was sworn in two years ago, he said one of his primary goals as secretary was to end homelessness by 2015. that is an incredible statement. he said we would end homelessness. that is going to happen not because he said it or because i am here. that is going to happen because of the passion of the local people dealing with this all across the country. it is the people s passion that will make this happen. this is a difficult situation. it will be easy to turn a blind eye to it. it would be easy to ignore it. it would be easy to blame them. we could put a token effort or mandate on it to say we did something. or we can take this on as a national commitment. it is our call. it is your call. i think the fact that you are here today, the work you do every day, says a lot about who we are as americans and how we will continue to su
it. i think there s much more important time spent to hear from your local leaders. but i do want to say that this is a multi-pronged approach. the va is supported and housing-first approach. understanding getting people into a stable housing is an important first step. as i mentioned, we are equally committed to providing the health care, mental health, education, jobs, training, all the things required to end the vicious cycle of homelessness. we have nearly 25,000 veterans in permanent housing. when secretary shinseki came on board, the best estimate was about 130,000 homeless veterans each night. as of the last most recent estimates, we re down to about 76,000. we hope to be under 60,000 by early next year and by 2015 we will end homelessness. the va has also been able to provide tremendous support to the community. there s about 40,000 community- based transition house in beds available, including the wraparound social services zymogen. we have nearly $60 million in gran
that we are going to get this done. and i have a little love from the california state senate. yes, we re busted, but we put this together to be able to bring you this recognition today and in thanking the san francisco s veteran administration medical center, and of course our great friends of the salvation army here at the harbor light centered for joining forces, for the check presentation, which will be made in a moment, in support of this expansion. of course, this does not solve the problem. as we say in jewish tradition, we re taught that ours is not to complete the task. neither is it for us not to begin in it. today we begin the task. if i may present this to you. [applause] thank you. [applause] our next speaker is edwin lee, mayor of san francisco. he first began working for the city and county of san francisco in 1989 as the investigator for the city s first whistleblowing ordinance and has since served as executive director of the human rights commission, d