Veterans Housing Program - Research Paper Example

Veterans Housing Program Analysis United s Housing and Urban development Department and VA supportive housing program (HUD-VAD) pull resources in the provision of housing facilities to the homeless veterans. The body revolves around three main parts; the first part describes the Housing program for the veterans, which also gains full support from the background information. The second part majors on the policy description, its need and the beneficiaries. It also describes the program functions and other expectations. The last part describes the program effectiveness as a social welfare policy for taking care of the housing needs of the disabled and the homeless veterans. Background information The U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) gives some necessary information about the homeless veterans like their percentage and other helpful statistics in the country. In the department, it is evident that the majority of the veterans are men with only 8% being female. Out of the men, majorities are single and 12% of the adults are veterans. Americans homeless veterans are believed to have fought in different wars such as World War II and the Korean War hence need a reward from the government and the Americans. Two percent of the veterans are between 18 to 30 years of age while less than 23% are in the 31 -50-age bracket (Tejani et al. 515). Majority of the veterans live in California that is said to host almost 1.8 million veterans. This makes the biggest veteran population in the country. Out of the 1.8 million, 15, 0000 of them find themselves homeless in each single night making up to 26% of the population. In support of ending homelessness, the California voters approved Proposition 12, the Veterans Bond Act of 2008 that provided for nine hundred million dollars in the general public bonds to be used to help the veterans. The amount was to be used to buy homes, lands and mobile houses for the settlement of veterans and their families. The proposition was emaciated through the Calvet Home Loan Program. Adjustments have been done to regulate the Act in support for the housing program. In 2013, for example, AB 639 restructured the Veterans Bond Act of 2008 authorizing six million dollars in the bond authority to fund several family houses for the veterans was made a reality. The public has been in support of the veteran program through the voting processes in different counties too. A perfect example is based on the King county in 2005, where the voters championed for the Veterans and Human Service Levy. That was the first Veterans and Human Services Levy pass, which provides funding for helping veterans and their families. In 2011, the voters overwhelmingly voted to renew the veterans and human services levy for the subsequent six years. The levy program for the veterans’ works towards breaking the homelessness cycle through reaching, engaging and providing houses for the veterans. The veterans program also focuses more on personal engagements with the social workers provided by the program. The core purpose of veteran support program is to provide long time solution for the veterans and their families hence need for trainings. The American veterans are rendered homeless because of poverty, poor living conditions due to overcrowding and lack of support. The veterans do not have jobs hence supporting themselves is a laborious task. This is the main reason as to why majority find themselves in the parks and roads. President Obama and his Secretary Shinseki committed themselves to end veteran’s homelessness in the year 2009. To implement their decision, United States interagency council on homelessness (USICH) developed the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness in 2010. Need for the housing program Statistics shows that more than 49,933 veterans are homeless at any given night. The number is facilitated by the lack of income hence need for an exclusive program. The necessity for a clean environment free from drugs contributed to the consolidation of the program. Veterans are the ones affected hence given the first priority in this housing program. They got back to the country with nothing for their benefit after the war hence ended up in the streets (Tsai et al.). Policy Description The Veterans Housing program works towards moving homeless veterans and their families from homelessness to their permanent homes. The department of housing and development has a housing choice voucher program that enables the veterans rent privately owned houses. The local authorities also pay part of the money for the house as a subsidy (Tsai, Rosenheck and Kane 313). This heavy funding comes from the Department of Housing and development among other sources. The department also gives funds local housing authorities in addition to the provision of the housing choice vouchers. Eligibility of the recipients and the selection criteria The veteran housing beneficiaries or recipients should be able to meet the McKinney Act definition of the homelessness. The homeless veterans need to be VA health care eligible. The Long Beach VA Medical Center that carries out the test determines eligible beneficiaries. There are also regulatory requirements for the housing vouchers that should be met by the beneficiaries. The local housing authorities give most of such regulations, which is the sole provider of the vouchers. One to be considered as a successful applicant for selection, he or she must be a veteran and be free from drugs and alcohol at the admission time. The veteran must be unemployed or underemployed but capable of performing any assigned tasks if employed (U.S Housing and Urban Development Department). The history of these veterans encircles military service veterans and one should also be diagonised for mental and physical disability for eligibility. Active participation in the program offered by the veterans is also a basic requirement. The veteran housing program requires eligible Veterans to be free from drugs and alcohol because this is one of its primary objectives. The responsible authority conducts regular tests and those found to have violated the rules are disqualified from the program. Qualified and well-trained counselors and nurses help in influencing the necessary skills and knowledge in computer training, life skill issues, anger management, health and hygiene. The core duty of the veteran housing policy involves three main considerations; Political feasibility, economic feasibility and administrative feasibility. Political feasibility discusses the ones supporting and opposing the initiative in the nation (Tsai, Rosenheck and Kane 315). The government also funds the program since it is part of social welfare initiative. It is the responsibility of the government to provide housing services, as well as health services. The government adopts the program as a part of the social welfare policy to improve the lifestyle of its citizens. This program is well coordinated and supervised to meet its success. The program also encourages free environment from drug and substance use. However, some political leaders and citizens are on the other side criticizing the program, while other people see the program as undemocratic and unfair. Despite this, the public who have trust in the programs are strongly coordinated to support the program through voting. Others see it unfair to provide for such large population of unemployed people when the national resources are scarce claiming of existence of better ways of imposing these resources for maximum utility. In their arguments, they say such program promotes laziness and increases overdependence. The selection criterion is also termed as unfair one since some homeless veterans are still left in the streets. These people contribute to insecurity levels hence need to include all in the housing program (Tsai, Rosenheck and Kane 316). The government has the power over the veteran housing program. It makes plans and implements them through the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The public supports the policy since they see it as a welfare improvement tool for the society. With the success of the program, insecurity levels are reduced and overdependence is minimized hence economic and social prosperity (Husock 52). Economic feasibility considers availability of funds for the program, the source, adequacy, the current and future estimates and pay-go financing. Funds for the program come from different sources. The main provider is the government, which does the funding by giving the local housing authorities finance for issuance of housing vouchers. Various organizations and community bodies in the nation grant other sources of funds. The fund is not adequate because still there are more veterans who are been introduced into the program. Local authorities also give some subsidies by paying some percentage of the housing money to the property owners directly. That move makes the housing program cheaper and manageable. Pay-go financing hence refers to taking care of expenditures with the finance that is currently available. Pay-go financing is solely made to cater for revenue reductions. In the case revenue is expected to reduce in a certain area due to decreased tax rate, for instance, the reduction should be offset in another line by increasing that lines tax rates (Husock 55). Administrative feasibility considers factors like the program supervision, resource requirement and availability, skills and expertise needed and acquired, target accomplishment and cost effectiveness in relation to an alternative. The sitting government through the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) supervises the program (Husock 58). Through these departments, the government sources for funds, funds the program through Housing authorities, which provide Housing vouchers for the veterans. With the vouchers, the homeless veterans can rent private houses and move in with their families. There are different resources needed in the program. The program not only provides housing assistance but also provides health service and support services. Those support services need resources like finances and well trained human resources to handle the outstanding areas of specialization. The government through the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides the necessary resources for the program implementation. Skills and expertise are also part of the main objectives of the program. Providing housing only for the homeless veterans will not help solve other problems like poverty and drug addictions (U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development). The recipients need a program or rehabilitation process where through a particular period, they can live without drugs; gain some relevant vocational skills that they can use to help themselves. In the selection criteria, the ones eligible should be able to be employed if they are unemployed at the moment. With the gained skills, the homeless veterans can involve themselves in different tasks hence contributing towards nation building. The program has well-trained nurses to offer health services, counselors to help them do away with drugs as well as instructors who influence the necessary skills (Tejani et al. 516). The program is meeting the target because the number of veterans in the streets is reducing rapidly. The largest portion of finance goes to the Housing authorities that give the homeless veterans the housing choice vouchers (Tejani et al. 517). The Housing and Urban Development and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) choose to use this kind of financing instead of giving the veterans the house rents directly. The choice is the best because it ensures there is good management of the finances hence better cost control. The other available alternative can be giving individual homeless veterans funding to support themselves in housing. The choice is invalid since the homeless veterans will not use the finance as needed as most of them may use the money in drugs and fail to buy housing facilities. Consequently, the housing program is an initiative by the government to bring together the homeless veterans and change their lives hence adopting this alternative imposes negligence to the efforts of this program (Tsai et al.). Homeless Veterans who are eligible for the veterans housing program benefit in many ways. They receive housing benefits, financial assistance benefits and education benefits. These veterans cannot qualify for veteran’s services if, one is a veteran, but he has neglected to take care of his dependents. In the case, one is an ex-offender, who once committed a crime is also automatically disqualified. When a veteran can support himself but chooses not to render disqualification automatically. A divorced spouse of a veteran who has been discharged from the program for violating some of the rules cannot earn a second chance too (Tsai, Rosenheck and Kane 314). Conclusion The housing program is an initiative by the government to take care of the homeless veterans. Many of the veterans in the United States are homeless and, therefore, the government through Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides the homeless veterans housing with their families. The program has counselors offer rehabilitation services that enable veterans live free from drugs. The government and other grants from other organizations, as well as community policies, fund the program. The program effectiveness is measured by economic, political and administration factors. This program works towards reduction of homeless veterans, encouragement of drug-free living, productivity of the veterans as well as better social welfare for all citizens. With better implementation, there will be a balanced social welfare among all citizens hence reduced insecurity, drug and substance use as well as improved national development because every citizen will be able to contribute to nation building. Works Cited Husock, Howard. Americas Trillion-Dollar Housing Mistake: The Failure of American Housing Policy. Chicago: Ivan R., 2003. Tejani, N. et al. Incarceration Histories of Homeless Veterans and Progression through a National Supported Housing Program. Community Ment Health J 50.5 (2013): 514-519. Web. Tsai, Jack et al. Factors Related To Rapidity of Housing Placement in Housing And Urban Development-Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program of 1990S. The Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development 48.7 (2011): 755. Web. Tsai, Jack, Robert A. Rosenheck, and Vincent Kane. Homeless Female U.S. Veterans in a National Supported Housing Program: Comparison of Individual Characteristics and Outcomes with Male Veterans.’ Psychological Services 11.3 (2014): 309-316. Web. U.S Housing and Urban Development Department, HUD History. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2015. Print. Read More