Helping Houston's Homeless Veterans
November 11th marked Veterans Day, a day to honor the men and women who serve our country. Unfortunately, on any given day in Houston, more than 1,100 veterans are homeless. They make up more than 20% of the people who are living on the streets. Challenged by post traumatic disorders, difficulties of finding the right job, and fitting back into a life that continued on while their world seemingly paused during service, many veterans find themselves experiencing something they never imagined...homelessness.
Recently, SEARCH had the unique opportunity to work with a remarkable initiative called "Housing Houston's Heroes: The First 100 Days". When developing this ground breaking program to accelerate the pace of housing chronically homeless veterans, the Veterans Administration and both the Houston and Harris County Housing Authorities recognized the importance of connecting with SEARCH and select service providers who'd had experience and success with this population. SEARCH identified and screened the targeted individuals who needed this housing most then fully engaged and facilitated their follow through to success. This initiative resulted in 101 chronically homeless veterans obtaining permanent housing in 100 days. With this, an innovative, enduring precedent has been set supporting the importance of fostering interagency collaboration while providing tangible long term housing solutions for some of the most challenged individuals in our community.
Harold, the client featured this month, is one of the hundreds of men and women SEARCH works with each year to find permanent housing, jobs, and stability. Thank you for joining us in supporting veterans like Harold who need our relentless dedication and creative approaches to solve this long-standing and intractable social issue.
Please feel free to contact me at: tcostis@searchhomeless.org
Thank you,
Thao Costis
President/CEO
SEARCH Homeless Services
2505 Fannin
Houston, Texas 77002
