Gov. Maura Healey announced a $20 million campaign Tuesday to end veteran homelessness in Massachusetts, a move pitched as the largest targeted investment to bring the number of vets who do not have stable shelter to “functional zero.”
State officials are tapping federal dollars allocated during the pandemic to increase access to behavioral health services; acquire, rehab, or construct new affordable housing for veterans; shuttle dollars to service providers; and provide technical assistance on grant writing, strategic planning and operations.
A one-night survey conducted in January 2023 found about 545 homeless veterans in Massachusetts living in transitional housing, with about 30 considered completely unsheltered, according to Veterans Services Secretary Jon Santiago.
Ending veteran homelessness “is not only possible to solve, it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
“We put forth a plan to get us to functional zero, effectively ending veterans homelessness in Massachusetts. You may be asking what is functional zero and when is it achieved? Functional zeros with veterans homelessness is a rare, brief and non-recurring episode. It’s where all homeless veterans have been identified, and housing opportunities for veterans have been made available in an integrated manner,” Santiago said.
The veteran homelessness campaign draws funding from dollars allocated to Massachusetts by Congress in the American Rescue Plan Act, a 2021 proposal that was passed in the midst of the pandemic as states were struggling to fund a variety of different programs.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch said federal lawmakers made the decision to leave it up to states to decide how to spend the money.
“I am just so grateful that when we sent the federal money back to the states through ARPA, that our governor, our mayor, our Legislature, had as a priority, a major priority the welfare of our veterans, not only to put a roof over their head, but the wraparound services that some veterans need,” he said.
Santiago said it was still unclear how many housing units will be constructed or rehabilitated under the plan, though multiple requests for proposals “will be coming out in short order.”
“We’ll be committing at least $10 million to support those out there seeking to invest and build veteran housing. I should say this is an addition to the 200 plus units right now that we are working on in Chelsea,” Santiago said.
