Today, VA Secretary Erik Shineki announced the award of nearly $100 million in grants to community agencies throughout the country. The federals will provide aid to about 42,000 homeless and at-risk Veterans and their families. The funding will be disseminated among 151 community agencies, four of which are located in California.
The VA program awarding the grants is the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program. The SSVF program awards grants to private non-profit organizations and consumer co-ops the provide services to “very low-income Veteran families living in — or transitioning to – permanent housing.”
According to the VA press release the grants “will offer Veterans and their family members outreach, case management, assistance in obtaining VA benefits and assistance in getting other public benefits. Community-based groups can offer temporary financial assistance on behalf of Veterans for rent payments, utility payments, security deposits and moving costs.”
In its second year, the SSVF program has provided approximately $60 million to help 22,000 Veterans and family members.
At the local level, Sacramento-centric entities were not among the receiving community agencies. The California disbursement went to the following:
- United States Veterans Initiative (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)
- California Veterans Assistance Foundation, Inc. (City of Bakersfield and Kern County)
- Swords to Plowshares (San Francisco Bay Area counties)
- Mental Health America of Los Angeles (Long Beach)
“We are committed to ending Veteran homelessness in America,” said Shinseki, “these grants will help VA and community organizations reach out and prevent at-risk Veterans from losing their homes.”
Read the list of community agencies that received funding here
