Berke carries over goal into new year: End veteran homelessness

Heather Cook, homeless-program coordinator for the city of Chattanooga, brings some items as she visits Russell Bowman, a U. S. Army veteran who was homeless in Chattanooga for the past year. With the help of the Chattanooga Housing Authority and other agencies, Bowman got a job at Burger King, landed a housing voucher and moved into a one-bedroom duplex in Ridgedale just before Christmas.
Heather Cook, homeless-program coordinator for the city of Chattanooga, brings some items as she visits Russell Bowman, a U. S. Army veteran who was homeless in Chattanooga for the past year. With the help of the Chattanooga Housing Authority and other agencies, Bowman got a job at Burger King, landed a housing voucher and moved into a one-bedroom duplex in Ridgedale just before Christmas.
photo Russell Bowman, a U. S. Army veteran, was homeless in Chattanooga for the past year. Just before Christmas, he was placed in an apartment in Ridgedale through the city program to prioritize ending homelessness for veterans in the area. "I didn't believe there was any hope at all of getting housing," Bowman said. "After you live my life you wouldn't have much hope, either."

Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke wanted to end veteran homelessness by 2015, but didn't reach that goal. He vows to keep working until he does.

"We're not going to spike the ball until we're in the end zone," he said.

Chattanooga stands with 75 cities across the nation participating in the Zero: 2016 initiative to end veteran homelessness.

Community Solutions Zero: 2016 spokesman Adam Gibbs said the city is moving in the right direction.

"The mayor is really invested in the people of Chattanooga, and that's the biggest, most important thing," Gibbs said. "When you have the support and the drive to make ending veteran homelessness a reality, you're going to do it, it's just a matter of time."

Phoenix, Ariz., declared an end to chronic homelessness among veterans in December 2013, becoming the first city to reach its goal, three years after President Barack Obama unveiled a 10-year federal plan to prevent and end homelessness.

Salt Lake City was the second city to declare an end in January 2014.

The city of Chattanooga and area service providers are housing homeless veterans more rapidly than ever before, dramatically decreasing the amount of time a homeless veteran has to live on the street, said Lacie Stone, the city's communications director.

"The cool thing is that almost all the agencies in Chattanooga that are housing and our homeless service providers at this point are connected," said Heather Cook, the city's homeless-program coordinator. "That's exactly how it should be."

The 117 veterans housed in 2015 is more than the 80 homeless veterans counted during the 2015 Point In Time count, but housing the homeless is a moving target because a person housed today could become homeless tomorrow, said Jens Christensen, executive director of the Chattanooga Community Kitchen.

Because the count of homeless veterans fluctuates, Community Solutions Zero: 2016 advises cities they can declare an end to veteran homelessness when they have a system to house a veteran within 30 days after he or she becomes homeless.

Before the city started its effort in January 2015, it took 168 days to house veterans. That number dropped to 51 days by December 2015. But it's still 21 days away from the goal, Berke said.

The big deal about establishing the system for ending homelessness is that it can be applied to end all homeless populations, including the chronic and family homeless, said Gibbs.

Establishing a system includes bringing all agencies together that have a role in fighting veteran homelessness. The system also includes documenting veterans by name and location so that those people may be tracked and contacted when housing comes available. Veterans most at risk for death or injury by living on the street are housed first.

"The first goal is to get them housed as quickly as possible," Christensen said. "The second goal is to keep them housed."

To keep veterans housed, agencies have to match the veterans' income with the cost of housing. Then, case workers have to find services that address the challenges that led to homelessness, Christensen explained.

Nationally, half of homeless veterans suffer from serious mental illness, more than half are disabled, and 95 percent are single males from disadvantaged communities, according to the Disabled Veterans National Foundation.

Housing veterans means fighting the bigger issue of poverty and helping veterans find the income to sustain housing, Christensen said.

"There's a lot of compassion in this city," he said. "But there is a greater amount of need right now."

Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.

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