Homeless Veterans Stand Down06/07/2013 - The sequester, budget cuts that took effect March 1 because of a congressional mandate to shrink the federal deficit by $85 billion, is complicating a two-year local effort to house military veterans who are homeless.
The Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County froze about 40 Housing Choice vouchers, previously known as Section 8, in April and May pending guidance from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, then learned late in May that HUD granted 25 vouchers to Santa Cruz to house homeless veterans.
The sequestration "stopped us dead in our tracks," said Phil Kramer, who began working last year on the 180-180 project to house 180 people in Santa Cruz who have been homeless by July 2014.
Although vouchers for veterans were "protected, not frozen," the freeze on the other vouchers "affected our ability to move people into housing," Kramer said.
He said interviews with 600 homeless people found 65 military veterans. A handful are recent veterans, but most served during the Vietnam War, the Korean War or during the Persian Gulf War era. read more>>>
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