Thank you to all the witnesses who are here today, I look forward to hearing your testimony and I would like to also thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for holding this hearing.  One of my greatest passions is correcting the problem of homelessness among veterans and I appreciate this opportunity to discuss this important topic. 

Though it is difficult to get an exact count, it is estimated that on any given night, over 150,000 veterans are homeless in this country.  In my home state of South Carolina, we believe there are as many as 1400 homeless veterans.  While that number has been going down in recent years, it is still far too high. 

We don’t always know why veterans become homeless, but we do know that veterans are overrepresented in the homeless population, studies suggest that 30-40% of all homeless are veterans.   We also know that homeless veterans suffer from mental illness, substance abuse and other health problems at a higher rate than non-veterans. I am proud of the work we have been doing as a committee and as a Congress to combat this problem, but there is still a good deal of work to be done.  We must continue to work with HUD to provide adequate housing and critical support services that address substance abuse problems many homeless veterans have.  I hope that through discussions like this we can find the solutions to not only continue to reduce the number of current homeless veterans, but also prevent the soldiers serving in the current conflicts from becoming homeless.

I thank you again for being here, I look forward to your testimony and I yield back the balance of my time.