Delaware just became the third state in the U.S. to end homelessness among veterans, according to an article by Megan Pauly for Delaware Public Media.
Over the past two years, the state found homes for its 415 homeless veterans, according to the article. It now joins Virginia and Connecticut, which also ended veteran homelessness.
Upon the announcement, Julian Castro, U.S. Departing of Housing and Urban Development secretary, congratulated the state on this accomplishment.
Proud to honor Delaware as the third state in the nation to effectively end veteran #homelessness! #HonoringVets pic.twitter.com/FeFCwmJn7g
— Julián Castro (@SecretaryCastro) November 11, 2016
While this step marks a major improvement, the work to end homelessness among veterans does not end now.
From the article:
But that doesn’t mean that there will never be a veteran experiencing homelessness in the First State again: a task force continues to meet every month to make sure vulnerable veterans don’t fall through the cracks.
A master list of all homeless First State veterans was created, and is still updated every two weeks.
DSHA’s Director of Policy and Planning Marlena Gibson said one of the criteria the state had to meet to receive the certificate that they’d effectively ended veteran homelessness was that once identified as experiencing homelessness, those veterans must be back in permanent housing within 90 days.
Others within the housing industry are also looking to help veterans. For example, in special honor of Veterans Days, Home Depot created Celebration of Service, a months-long project which worked with local and national nonprofits to complete projects for aging, combat-wounded and homeless veterans.
