Trump's Head of Veteran Affairs Planned to Cut Homeless Veteran Program; Then The Resistance Spoke Up

Soon after inauguration, Trump nominated Dr. David Shulkin as the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs.  He was confirmed by the Senate on February 13, 2017.  He has since traveled on "business trips" to London and Denmark on taxpayers dime while claiming he personally paid for many activities he did while abroad that had nothing to do with his post. He got back to work last week, seeking to put homeless veterans back on the street.

On Dec. 1, Shulkin's staff told advocates on a phone call that the agency was ending the program--one of two major VA homelessness projects..... The original VA decision was buried in a September circular without prior consultation with HUD or veterans’ groups.  A person involved with the program said the decision to cut it was made with no input from rank-and-file VA or HUD staff and surprised even employees at the VA.

The program has been HIGHLY successful.  

Under the program, HUD offers housing vouchers for veterans, and the VA provides case management — finding them apartments and making sure they stay there.   The decision would have affected $265 million immediately and $195 million more under the VA’s 2018 budget.

HUD data show there were nearly 40,000 homeless veterans in 2016, and even those with housing still need assistance. The program has reduced the number of displaced service members, serving 138,000 since 2010, and cut the number without housing on a given day by almost half. More than half the veterans housed are chronically ill, mentally ill or have substance abuse problems.

Veteran and homeless advocates, The Resistance, and Congress were infuriated by the VA's original decision.

"I don’t understand why you are pulling the rug out," Elisha Harig-Blaine, a National League of Cities housing official who was on last Friday's call, said in an interview afterward. "You're putting at risk the lives of men and women who've served this country."

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who sits on a veterans' affairs subcommittee, had called the earlier VA decision "a new low" for the Trump administration that was "especially callous and perplexing" in view of the latest data on homelessness.  Murray and the 13 other members of the Senate Appropriations Military Construction-VA Subcommittee had asked the VA to reconsider its decision.

 Fortunately, the uproar caught the attention of Congress and the mainstream media to the point that the plan to kill the program was reversed.  This is why we must speak up loudly and clearly.  Our voices are not heard individually, but rather collectively.  

After POLITICO published a story about their anger, Shulkin reversed course late Wednesday.  Shulkin has killed a plan to shift money from a major homelessness program in response to a wave of protest from veterans' advocates....  "There will be absolutely no change in the funding to support our homeless program," he said in a news release....

Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/06/homeless-veterans-benefits-trump-207781