HELP Institutes Veteran's Homeless Prevention Program

20:36PM on September 15 2011

HELP USA has been selected by the US Department of Veteran Affairs for funding for a comprehensive homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing program for homeless and very low income veteran families in New York City.  HELP has been awarded $1,000,000 from the VA through their new Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program.  The SSVF program is designed to serve both individual veterans and veteran families.

HELP has extensive experience in the area of homelessness prevention as a pilot member of the NYC Department of Homeless Services’ HomeBase initiative.  HELP USA has been a member of this city-wide, community-based program since 2004 and presently operates two HomeBase centers in the Bronx.

The proposed SSFV program will focus on serving two populations of veterans:

The first is ‘housed’ veterans who are at-risk of homelessness.  HELP USA will assist these veteran families with anti-eviction services, short-term financial assistance,  job placement, budget counseling, and housing relocation services.  This work will add a specialized ‘veterans’ component to the City’s existing HomeBase program, and coordinate the work of HomeBase with the range of services available through the VA.  Referrals for these services will come from multiple sources including the VA and all of the City’s current HomeBase providers.

The second population is sheltered, homeless veterans who are scheduled to re-enter permanent housing within 90 days.  The SSVF program will work with shelter providers that do not have specialized veterans services, and will assist shelter staff to place these veterans back into housing in the community, and will then offer follow-up services to ensure they remain stably housed.