Progress Illinois

Calling it "a national disgrace" that veterans still constitute such a large share of Illinois' homeless population, Sen. Dick Durbin and members of the state's congressional delegation met with Veterans Affairs Assistant Secretary Tammy Duckworth yesterday to come up with a plan to address this issue. Last year alone, veterans filled an estimated 18,000 shelter beds in the Chicago area. After meeting with Reps. Bill Foster, Debbie Halvorson, Mike Quigley, and Dan Lipinski, Durbin noted that it's going to require some creative thinking to stretch federal resources and begin solving the problem. The AP reports:

"A possibility might be to turn foreclosed homes into opportunities for training and employment for veterans — maybe even ultimately a residence that they can live in," said Sen. Dick Durbin, the delegation's chairman and the Senate's second-highest ranking Democrat.

"Some homeless veterans are struggling with addictive issues and issues of mental illness, and they need counseling, and that has to be part of it."

Encouragingly, the Obama administration increased spending on homeless veterans programs by $3.2 billion this year. A majority of the funding ($2.7 billion) will be used to fill gaps in medical care and counseling services across the nation. The remaining $500 million is earmarked specifically for homelessness initiatives. Because Illinois and the Chicago area in particular have been struggling with an affordable housing crisis for years, the state's share of the funding will only go so far. To mitigate the impact on veterans, Durbin is co-sponsoring the Zero Tolerance for Veterans Homelessness Act (S. 1547), which would extend 30,000 federal housing vouchers to veterans in 2010 and phase in up to 60,000 vouchers by 2013.