Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy took questions and criticisms on the radio this week, about his new budget proposal. One of the important milestones in this budget, however, was that Connecticut will become the second state of the union to comply with the criteria and benchmarks for achieving the end of veteran homelessness set down by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.
While ending Veteran homelessness is primarily about the community’s capacity to connect Veterans to permanent housing, the community also has the capacity to immediately offer some form of shelter (i.e., emergency shelter, bridge or transitional housing, other temporary settings) to any Veteran experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the community who wants it, while assisting the Veteran to swiftly achieve permanent housing. Access to shelter is not contingent on sobriety, minimum income requirements, criminal records, or other unnecessary conditions.
Here’s the governor:
“The most important thing you can do for a family is to give it a safe home, a decent home,” said the governor to the radio station, “a home that you can sustain yourself and your family in.”
The governor explained that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) called him last week to confirm the state’s status as having ended homelessness for veterans.
Connecticut now joins the ranks of other state, Virginia, and cities New Orleans and Binghamton to get up to speed on to end veteran homelessness in the U.S.