Voucher System Matches Homeless Veterans with Housing
By: KODE/KSN, Joplin, MO
Updated: June 14, 2012
A new proposal could open up free housing for homeless veterans. Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing - or VASH - vouchers are like a gift that keeps on giving.
The Joplin Housing Authority is using them to provide rental assistance to homeless veterans.
"Once you get the voucher, it is continually used until that person stops using it, and then you offer it to somebody else. So I think right now we have about 26 currently in use," explains Matthew Moran, executive director of the Joplin Housing Authority.
But that leaves Joplin with nine remaining vouchers. Agency leaders have proposed offering them to homeless vets in Springfield, and opening up that territory to veterans in Joplin.
"Because we are under-utilized and because Joplin is such a tough market for affordable housing right now there's just not a lot of available units for anybody," Moran says. "I think we have to go as far as Mt. Vernon and Springfield to find a space that is available."
To qualify - you have to be a veteran who is homeless.
The program also requires veterans to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Mt. Vernon for medical and job hunting services.
"With the center being in Mt.Vernon it's just an unusual arrangement because normally you would have both the center and the Housing Authority in the same community. We're doing what we have to in Southwest Missouri to use them where we know we have veterans that need them."
If approved, transportation to Mt. Vernon could be an issue for some veterans.
But administrators say it's a small price to pay for a program that has the potential to change lives.
There's a philosophy that a lot of people buy into that if you can provide the housing for people coming out of homeless situations that a lot of their other issues are more easy to address so that's kind of what we feel like we are a part of."
The Joplin Housing Authority is using them to provide rental assistance to homeless veterans.
"Once you get the voucher, it is continually used until that person stops using it, and then you offer it to somebody else. So I think right now we have about 26 currently in use," explains Matthew Moran, executive director of the Joplin Housing Authority.
But that leaves Joplin with nine remaining vouchers. Agency leaders have proposed offering them to homeless vets in Springfield, and opening up that territory to veterans in Joplin.
"Because we are under-utilized and because Joplin is such a tough market for affordable housing right now there's just not a lot of available units for anybody," Moran says. "I think we have to go as far as Mt. Vernon and Springfield to find a space that is available."
To qualify - you have to be a veteran who is homeless.
The program also requires veterans to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Mt. Vernon for medical and job hunting services.
"With the center being in Mt.Vernon it's just an unusual arrangement because normally you would have both the center and the Housing Authority in the same community. We're doing what we have to in Southwest Missouri to use them where we know we have veterans that need them."
If approved, transportation to Mt. Vernon could be an issue for some veterans.
But administrators say it's a small price to pay for a program that has the potential to change lives.
There's a philosophy that a lot of people buy into that if you can provide the housing for people coming out of homeless situations that a lot of their other issues are more easy to address so that's kind of what we feel like we are a part of."
