[ applause ] thank you. thank you. well, sounds like all of you are here for the same reason, so that s great. let s talk. general eric shinseki, secretary of veterans affairs, speaking on november 3rd, 2009, addressing a national summit of veterans and veterans service providers to talk about ending the problem of u.s. military veterans being homeless, which kind of sounds like the equivalent of a summit on world peace, right? or trying to end illness or something. i mean, it s a goal that nobody could quibble with, but it s the impossible project, right? i mean, how could a problem that entrenched, that complexly human ever be the kind of problem that has an end? well, it starts by figuring out that it is a problem of a
entrenched, that complexly human ever be the kind of problem that has an end? well, it starts by figuring out that it is a problem of a definite size, it is not an infinite thing. the work goes on for 200,000 men and women who wore the uniform of the united states of america, proud veterans who go to sleep every night under bridges or in shelters or on grates. john edwards dropping out of the race for the democratic nomination for president in 2008. and there was a brief kerfuffle at the time over those remarks because a host on the fox news network, named bill o reilly, said he did not believe john edwards that there were 200,000 homeless american veterans. i mean, come on. the only thing sleeping under a bridge is that guy s brain. actually, john edwards was correct. the census for homeless u.s. veterans in 2008 was about
officer made a big, unwieldy public promise. ladies and gentlemen, my name is shinseki, and i am here to end veteran homelessness. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. thank you. [ applause ] thank you. thank you. thank you. well, sounds like all of you are here for the same reason, so that s great. let s talk. general eric shinseki, secretary of veterans affairs, speaking on november 3rd, 2009, addressing a national summit of veterans and veterans service providers to talk about ending the problem of u.s. military veterans being homeless, which kind of sounds like the equivalent of a summit on world peace, right? or trying to end illness or something. i mean, it s a goal that nobody could quibble with, but it s the impossible project, right? i mean, how could a problem that
the right partners. the federal government was a great partner. president obama has made this a priority. hud and va have made this a priority. it was a priority of the stimulus act. a lot of the housing units that the homeless veterans have been housed in were the result of the stimulus act. it took additional resources by the city council, great partnerships with the business community here in phoenix, arizona, through the united way, a great partnership called project h-3, health, home and hope, a coalition of non-profits. when you would come to a meeting in arizona on the issue of ending chronic homelessness of veterans, you didn t know who a government official, a business leader or a non-profit or foundation leader. we were all on the same team saying we re going to get the job done. it s the least we can do for those veterans who have served our country. so, it s a story about leadership and teamwork, and government can work when we put our minds to it. is this the sort of pro
problem for a lot of these veterans, which is why their homelessness was called chronic, rather than intermittent. yeah, it is chronic homeless. in fact, the average veteran labeled chronically homeless in the city of phoenix had been on the streets for eight years. eight years. so, we provide them not just housing, although we ve got to get them housing immediately, housing first, but we wrap around services. so, whatever ails them, whatever s causing their homelessness, be it mental health issues, be it whatever medical condition, maybe it s substance abuse, we get a roof over their head and then we provide them the services so that they don t fall back into homelessness. our retention rate by providing not just housing first but the wrap-around services that ails these individuals, our retention rate is 93%. and the strategies that we re using to end chronic homelessness among veterans are the exact same strategies that we re going to use to end homeless, chronic homelessness, amo