During this unprecedented time, the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs (MDVA) remains committed to serving Minnesota Veterans, especially those in our Minnesota Veterans Homes who have entrusted us with their care. We are following CDC and Minnesota Department of Health guidance to provide a safe environment for both the Veterans we serve and our employees. We are taking aggressive but necessary prevention and preparedness steps.

All MDVA services remain available and the Agency is striving to operate in as normal a manner as possible. MVDA is transitioning many staff to working remotely to minimize exposure to the virus and support the goal to minimize risk of transmission or “flatten the curve” to reduce the impact on our local healthcare system. As we complete this process, there may be some disruption or delay in service; however, staff working remotely will have the tools necessary to provide full service by telephone or email.

Our five Minnesota Veterans Homes have adopted a Restricted Visitor Policy because of the vulnerability of our Veterans Homes’ population.

Please visit our website for ongoing updates at MinnesotaVeteran.org

Veteran Suicide

I am proud to announce that Minnesota has been selected to participate in the “Governor’s Challenge” to eliminate Veteran death by suicide, a collaborative effort with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA).

Death by suicide has claimed more than 100 Minnesota Veteran lives per year during the past five years. Reducing and preventing Veteran suicide is a priority not only for MDVA, but Governor Tim Walz has made it a priority for the State of Minnesota. He has directed that agencies work collaboratively along with other state, federal and local partners to end the tragedy of Veteran death by suicide in Minnesota.

Minnesota will be one of seven states taking part in the 2020 Governor’s Challenge and working to implement state-wide suicide prevention best practices for Service Members, Veterans and their families using a public health approach. SAMHSA is providing technical assistance for this initiative. We recently completed a kick-off meeting of the Minnesota team and look forward to continuing this important work in the months ahead.

Veteran Homelessness

/mdva/resources/homelessnessandprevention/homelessveteranregistry.jspMinnesota’s goal is to become the fourth state in the country to effectively end Veteran homelessness. We housed 536 Veterans in 2019, the highest number housed in one year since this initiative began in 2014.

As of March 16, our Homeless Veteran Registry lists 238 Veterans experiencing homelessness in Minnesota. MDVA’s public-facing dashboard is available on the MDVA Website. I encourage you to visit the website to see real-time data on Veteran homelessness across all 10 Continuums of Care in Minnesota.

We continue to seek landlords who will open their doors to homeless Veterans. We have incentive, mitigation, and vacancy reserve funding available for landlords who are willing to rent to Veterans on the Homeless Veteran Registry with barriers to housing. Interested landlords should call HousingLink at 1-866-522-2827 to list current or upcoming vacancies on the Veterans-exclusive vacancy list.

MDVA is here for all Veterans and their families. Contact us via our website at MinnesotaVeteran.org, call 1-888-LinkVet, email or chat online, or visit with your County Veterans Service Office.

And as always, thank you for your service!