Gothamist: Rise in Homelessness a "Big Problem"

Lexiphane

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:25:35 -0500

I'm not that familiar with Congress' spending patterns regarding the Veterans Administration, but the General Accounting Office reported that VA allocations for veterans' mental health services in 2005 and 2006 were supposed to be $100 million and $200 million higher than 2004 levels, respectively. The GAO study found that not only could it not be determined how much of these increased funds actually went towards mental health services, but that the VA could not even spend the extra money it had earmarked fast enough to fulfill those allocations. My quick take on the GAO's abstract is that the VA appears to be throwing money at its mental health services budget faster than it can be spent, and certainly faster than the money can be tracked to make sure it's being disbursed as intended.

Lexiphane

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 15:48:56 -0500

Actually, most homeless men are not veterans. According to the National Coalition of Homeless Veterans, the figure is 33%.

kende

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 15:47:36 -0500

His homeless policy is one of his biggest failures. Vastly expanded housing assistance, truly secure shelters, increased use of the Doe Fund model, and more assertive intervention against the use of the subways and subways stations as a makeshift, mobile shelter system would go a very long way towards reducing the problem. Reducing NYC's cost of living through significant cuts to our highest in the nation tax burden and through targeted infrastructure upgrades wouldn't hurt either.

Darrin

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 14:25:40 -0500

The even sadder truth is that, nationwide, most of the homeless men are veterans... many of who need the kind of mental health care that the republican congress and George-the-AWOL cut from the Veterans Administration. In New Haven alone, a staff of one full time psychiatrist, two full time psychologists and one part time psychologist was cut to one full time and one part time psychologist. Yeah... nice talk. Who really supports our troops?