Andy BerkeFor the next year, a group of veterans, community leaders, city employees and service providers will study how to find funds and housing for Chattanooga veterans who are continuously homeless.
Local officials estimate there are about 150 homeless veterans in the Scenic City and about 20 percent are chronically homeless — meaning continuously for 12 months or four times within a three-year time frame.
Mayor Andy Berke pledged this year to end chronic veteran homelessness by 2016. And this week he met with representatives of the Obama administration as they unveiled a federal program to help cities across the nation do the same. So far Chattanooga is the only city in the state to make the pledge.
How the city will accomplish the task is yet to be determined.
The task force Berke handpicked met briefly for the first time Friday afternoon, and its members were charged with studying resources for funding and housing, researching the city’s history on the problem and available health resources.