Kaptur: VA Awards $818,629 to Serve Area Homeless Veterans, To Include Lorain County’s Valor Home
Washington, DC — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) today joined the Department of Veterans Affairs to announce the award of $818,629 to Family & Community Services Inc., a Ravenna, Ohio-based nonprofit social services group that manages Lorain County’s Valor Home, a transitional housing facility for the county’s homeless veterans. Family & Community Services manages veterans’ transitional housing in Lorain, Akron, Kent and Ravenna.
The award was made through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program, which the VA deems its ‘Housing First Strategy’ aimed to help thousands of very low-income Veteran families around the nation who are in need of transitioning to permanent housing. The SSVF grant program supports outreach, case management and other flexible assistance to prevent Veteran homelessness or rapidly re-house Veterans who become homeless.
Since 2010, the Housing First Strategy has helped cut Veteran Homelessness nearly in half, according to VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald.
“No one who has served our country with dignity and honor should face the indignity of being without adequate shelter,” said Congresswoman Kaptur. “The superb work of Valor Home offers veterans and their families a helping hand through transitional, temporary housing, a chance that offers hope and the prospects of a second chance to make a better life for themselves and their families. These brave men and women served our country, and this support program is our service in return.”
Valor Home in Lorain is a 30-bed, two-story home with 7,000-square-foot livable space for veterans in need of temporary shelter. Veterans are provided individual rooms and permitted to stay a maximum of two years at the Valor Home; the national average is six to nine months.
“Family & Community Services, Inc. offers several high-quality transitional housing programs for veterans and their families in northern Ohio, namely Valor Homes, Freedom House, Veteran’s Haven,” said Matthew Slater, the Director of Veterans Services. “We also run permanent supportive housing programs, such as Miss Liberty House, The White House in Ravenna, Riddle St., and G. Street. The renewal of this SSVF grant is vital to helping Ohio reach and maintain a functional zero homeless veterans, and we are absolutely committed to making sure no veteran or their family spend one night on the street.”
Kaptur is a senior member the House Appropriations Committee, which funds and has oversight responsibilities for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Background:
For more information about the SSVF program, visit www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf.asp
For the VA announcement: https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/USVAOCLA/2016/08/30/file_attachments/611605/16-181%2BVA%2BAnnounces%2BSSVF%2Bgrants%2B-%2BFINAL.pdf
For background on the SSVF program: https://www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf/index.asp
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