Christine Quinn: “H.R. 3039 is a bill to provide a VA loan guarantee for transitional housing for homeless veterans. In testimony before…”

“H.R. 3039 is a bill to provide a VA loan guarantee for transitional housing for homeless veterans. In testimony before our Subcommittee on Benefits here in Washington, D.C., as well as testimony at a hearing held in Buffalo, New York, in my district, witness after witness said that the major stumbling block to providing services to homeless veterans is the inability to obtain stable funding. H.R. 3039 is intended to address this obstacle, thereby increasing the supply of transitional housing for homeless veterans. It is fairly common knowledge that veterans comprise about one-third of homeless adults in this country, and that a high percentage of the homeless suffer from substance abuse and mental illness. Four years ago the Congress called for programs serving homeless veterans to receive a proportional share of funding for the homeless. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Moreover, there appears to be a niche that is not being filled in the continuum of service necessary to move chronically affected veterans from being a drain on society to being productive citizens. That niche is transitional housing.”