ON THE WAY
Another 540 HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing rental vouchers, HUD Secretary Donovan and VA Secretary Shinseki have announced, are on their way to 199 housing authorities across Idaho, Oregon and Washington who will use them, in collaboration with Veterans Affairs centers and clinics, to provide homeless veterans with something they don’t just deserve, but have earned – a place to call home. Once they’re up and being used, it’ll mean some 3,248 vets in the three states won’t have to live life the street. When veterans return home, notes HUD Northwest Regional Administrator Mary McBride, “we should make sure they have one instead of being forced to live on the streets.” At least one more round of VASH vouchers should be awarded later this year.
UN-FURIATING
But what happens if VASH vouchers that are awarded don’t get used? That’s a question a number of agencies in Portland – the Housing Bureau, Home Forward, Multnomah County, the VA, the United Way and, yes, HUD – faced last December when they used that 1 out of every 3 vouchers – about 100 – they’d been awarded were unallocated. It was “infuriating,” one Housing Bureau official explained to The Oregonian. Turns out, though, it was no one’s fault. The statute that authorized the VASH program has a glitch. A VASH voucher can be used – and only used – to help a vet pay the rent. It can’t be used to put together a security deposit or to buy some furnishings or to connect to utility service. Small though it might seem, they can be financially out-of-reach for some. Fortunately, the folks in Portland knew what they needed to do, the Bureau, Home Forward, the United Way and the County each contributing $10,000 to a fund to cover those costs. By early April, all 305 of Portland’s VASH vouchers were in use. For more, see http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/states/oregon/stories/2013-05-16
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