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Project Foot Working to End the Shell Game of Homeless Veterans Statistics

Project Foot, a Florida based charity for homeless veterans and military families is working to shed light on potential inaccuracies in the counting of homeless veterans and to bring an end to veteran homelessness through the Veterans Bill of Rights.


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Shaun Donovan, the secretary for Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced in late December a 12 point drop in the national number of homeless veterans over just one year.
 
The un-told part of that story is that the statistics behind the announcement are based on two different methods of counting homeless veterans.
 
ABT Associates is the company that collates the homeless counts for HUD. Alvaro Cortes, the company’s project director states, "The reality is that these methodologies are changing all the time every year. I understand why one would focus on wanting to make sure that you have apple-to-apple comparisons, and you try to do that as best as possible.”

In a study published on Monday, the GAO estimated that the number of female homeless veterans has doubled from 1,380 in 2006 to 3,328 in 2010. “Absent more complete data, VA does not have the information needed to plan services effectively, allocate grants to providers and track progress toward its overall goal of ending veteran homelessness by 2015,” the report said.

According to the VA budget summary, In 2012 the VA plans to spend $940 million on homelessness prevention programs. With a total budget of over $132 billion, that equates to 7/10th of one percent of the total VA Budget.

Project Foot is recommending a different approach. Rather than working on better ways to count homeless veterans, Project Foot would like to eliminate veteran homelessness altogether through its Veterans Bill of Rights. The Veterans Bill of Rights states, “No Veteran should ever be left homeless. Any homeless veteran who has served 180 days or more of active duty should be entitled to transitional housing accommodations that are equivalent to the base housing that would be afforded to an E-1 on active duty with the same family status.”

About Project Foot

Project Foot is a charity to benefit military families and homeless veterans. The mission of Project Foot is to strengthen military families and assist homeless and unemployed veterans. Project Foot believes that the only time the words “Veteran” and “Homeless” should ever be used in the same sentence is: “Veterans Helping the Homeless.” Project Foot achieves this mission through providing a wide variety of programs that include:

  •     Housing and Food for Homeless Veterans
  •     Communication Assistance for Military Families
  •     Travel Assistance for Military Families
  •     Resume Writing and Job Search Services for Unemployed Veterans
  •     Providing Business Attire for Unemployed Veterans


Through these programs, Project Foot aims to keep the bonds of our military families strong throughout their service to our Armed Forces and to be there to pick up the pieces when one of our brave men or women falls through the cracks.Project Foot is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity approved by the Internal Revenue Service. Donations or gifts received by Project Foot are tax deductible under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.

The Veterans Bill of Rights can be found at http://www.projectfoot.org/veteransbillofrights.htm



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 Homeless Veterans
 Veterans Bill of Rights
 Female Homeless Veterans
 Military Families
 Project Foot


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