How’s Nashville wants all homeless vets housed by 2016 Adam Tamburin, atamburin@tennessean 12 p.m. CST November 11, 2014 -jpstandalone01.JPG_20081217.jpg (Photo: John Partipilo / File / The Tennessean ) 20 CONNECT 8 TWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMORE Dennis Huey is not a veteran himself, but he has dedicated his life to serving them. As street outreach director for Operation Stand Down Tennessee, Huey spends his days walking through local shelters, scaling riverbanks and looking under bridges to find homeless veterans. It’s relentless work, but he draws inspiration from the courage his clients have shown. “These are the people that signed up to serve your country, to protect you to give you what you got,” Huey said. “They helped me out, so I’m going to do everything I can to help them out.” In that spirit, the city’s leading homelessness advocacy group is working to house every homeless veteran in Nashville before 2016. How’s Nashville, a coalition of several local nonprofits led by the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission, announced the new goal this month, along with its partnership with Community Solutions’ Zero: 2016 campaign. The campaign is working with 69 communities nationwide to bring all homeless veterans into housing by December 2015. Advocates also hope to house all chronically homeless people by December 2016. The climb will be steep, but local advocates say recent successes, paired with millions of dollars in federal funding, are boosting their confidence. Jake Maguire with Community Solutions says the team of advocates in Nashville is poised to be an example for the rest of the country. “There’s a tremendous amount of passion in Nashville,” Maguire said. “You guys have an A+ team.” At the helm of that team is Will Connelly, director of the Homelessness Commission, whom Maguire called a “transformational leader.” Connelly was the guiding force behind the formation of How’s Nashville in summer 2013. By Oct. 1 of this year, the initiative had taken 735 people off the streets. Connelly said input from the national advocates at Community Solutions would help local workers to use real-time data to more effectively gauge the success of different efforts. Funding bolsters effort Zero: 2016 complements existing federal initiatives spotlighting veterans and the chronically homeless. President Barack Obama has pledged to house all homeless veterans nationwide by 2015. Funding to further that goal has come from multiple departments. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in September announced that $207 million in grant funding would be distributed nationwide to bankroll housing costs, the latest surge in an ongoing effort. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the distribution of $62 million in funding last month. That money will go a long way in getting homeless people into apartments and houses, but the real challenge comes with keeping them in their new homes, according to Bill Burleigh, executive director of Operation Stand Down Tennessee. “There’s all this money and push to get them off the streets,” he said. “What about dealing with the issues that caused their homelessness? “The key to success would be how well the communities involved can bring the social services to those individuals to keep them in housing.” To that end, Nashville will get $1.5 million in funding from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration over the next three years to fund case management that would address the long-term needs of people who have been brought into housing. The grant will more than double the $405,000 in local funds that has annually gone to those efforts in the past. Huey is skeptical that the complex problem of veteran homelessness can be eliminated within the year, but he has seen the positive impact of the added funding and attention. Huey said veterans working through the VA get connected to housing more quickly than the general population. “They’re trying to lower the numbers big time,” he said. “I know we are here in Nashville.” Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets. 20 CONNECT 8 TWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAIL
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 22:07:12 +0000
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