Swords to Plowshares Receives $8.1 Million in New Grant Funds to End Veteran Homelessness by 2017
San Francisco, California (PRWEB) October 02, 2014 -- Swords to Plowshares, a San Francisco-based veteran service agency, has been awarded $2.7 million annually over the next three years in additional new grant funds from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as part of a nationwide effort to end veteran homelessness.
Under the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program (SSVF), the funds will help as many as 90 additional veterans and their families every month in San Francisco and Alameda Counties. The grant is aimed at non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives that provide services to very low-income veteran families living in—or transitioning to—permanent housing. These funds are in addition to the agency’s existing SSVF funding ($1.8M per year) that targets 5 Bay Area Counties.
In 2013, Swords to Plowshares helped 359 veterans and family members secure permanent housing and/or prevent eviction. Delivered by community-based organizations and funded by the VA, SSVF is a low-cost and high-impact program with proven success. Nationally, the average cost per family under the SSVF program is $2,450 and the national housing retention rate is 84 percent. The VA renewed funds for organizations that successfully operated the SSVF, and additionally awarded these “surge funds” to high-performing organizations in high-need regions.
“Because we’ve held up our end of the bargain in making sure that veterans get the housing they need, the VA is asking us to expand upon what we’re doing,” said Michael Blecker, Executive Director of Swords to Plowshares and a Vietnam combat veteran. “This grant creates a wide safety net for all veterans—young, old, chronically homeless and those high-priority veterans who have no shelter and all, plus their families and their children.”
Leon Winston, the Chief Operating Officer of Swords to Plowshares and a formerly homeless veteran, stressed the need for the grant to continue over the next three years as originally planned. Swords to Plowshares first began operating the SSVF program in 2012.
“The surge funding will allow us to provide rapid re-housing services and eviction prevention services to hundreds of additional veterans, and move us closer to meeting the VA’s and Swords to Plowshares’ goal of ending veteran homelessness,” Winston said. “In order to get our veterans and their families off the streets once and for all, and prevent others from falling into homelessness, it’s critical that the funding continues next year and beyond.”
Through Swords to Plowshares, veterans will receive assistance with eviction prevention, housing acquisition, and a number of services to provide the stability needed to prevent homelessness. The expanded SSVF services will greatly complement Swords to Plowshares’ existing array of services, including employment and training, case management, and counseling and benefits advocacy. As a result of this funding, Swords to Plowshares will have $1.7 million available to serve more than 500 San Francisco veterans and their families, and $1 million to serve approximately 375 East Bay veterans and their families each year until 2017. A significant portion of these funds go toward direct financial assistance to homeless and at-risk veterans and their families.
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About Swords to Plowshares:
Founded in 1974, Swords to Plowshares is a community-based not-for-profit organization that provides counseling and case management, employment and training, housing and legal assistance to homeless and low-income veterans in the San Francisco Bay Area. Swords to Plowshares promotes and protects the rights of veterans through advocacy, public education, and partnerships with local, state and national entities. Learn more about the work of Swords to Plowshares, and ways in which you can help, by visiting our website at http://www.stp-sf.org.
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Brian Jarvis, Swords to Plowshares, http://www.swords-to-plowshares.org, +1 (415) 252-4787 Ext: 250, [email protected]
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