It’s hard to believe that seven years ago, Minnesota did not have an organized effort to ensure that those who have served our country would have a safe place to call home once they completed their term of service to their country.

Since then, I am proud that the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs has collaborated with a number of community partners to help effectively end Veteran homelessness in 85 of Minnesota’s 87 counties. The most recent was St. Louis County, where on June 16 we recognized this latest community to achieve the effective end of Veteran homelessness in their local area. This achievement contributes toward the total of almost 3,000 Veterans who had been homeless and have been housed since 2014.

Minnesota is committed to becoming the fourth state in the nation to end Veteran homelessness across the entire state. And that goal is within reach, with only Hennepin and Ramsey Counties remaining to hit this target in their communities.

The “effective end” to Veteran homelessness doesn’t mean that a county, or continuum of care that makes up a number of counties, will never again have a homeless Veteran. It means that every community will have a comprehensive response in place that ensures homelessness is prevented whenever possible. If it can’t be prevented, it will be a rare, brief and one-time experience, according to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH).

During the last state legislative session, we received support from our legislators to ensure we have the necessary programs to house all homeless Veterans. Many of the Veterans on our Registry have multiple barriers and require additional resources to secure housing.

The support we received from the State Legislature included funding to

• Continue the Temporary Housing Program that uses hotels to provide immediate housing to homeless Veterans. The federal program that has supported this activity during COVID will soon be reduced and possibly eliminated. This state funding will continue this successful temporary housing program that has proven to move Veterans quickly to permanent housing.
• Provide incentives for landlords and partners. A lack of available rental units is one of our biggest challenges. We are addressing this shortage by incenting landlords to rent to at-risk Veterans. I encourage landlords or property owners to support us in this effort and to contact MDVA for more information.
• Secure low-barrier, affordable housing where Veterans desire to be housed. We will accomplish this through our partnership with the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV). In some cases, we understand that we have to create low-barrier housing to find locations for our Veterans with high barriers.

Since this work began in 2014, we have housed nearly 3,000 formerly homeless Veterans. Minnesota is home to more than 304,000 Veterans and we currently have 277 Veterans on our homeless list. While this is a small percentage, we believe that every Veteran deserves a home!

We will continue working with our Veterans “one Veteran at a time” to ensure that all Veterans have a safe, secure place to call home.

As always, if you need information or support on any Veteran issue, please visit our website, contact your County Veterans Service Officer, or contact LinkVet at 1-888-LinkVet.

Thank YOU for your service!