Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Buyer, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak.  And thank you to the witnesses who are here today.

As a 24-year veteran of the Army National Guard and the highest ranking enlisted man in Congress, I know that taking care of our active duty forces and our veterans is one of the most important issues facing this country and this Congress today.  Making sure we can work toward eliminating homelessness among our veterans, and preventing a new generation of homeless veterans from emerging, is incredibly important.  While we have made advances, I am concerned that we are not doing enough on either front.

It is unacceptable that in the United States today that there is a single homeless veteran.  The number of veterans who are homeless appears to have dropped somewhat recently, and that would be a very good thing.  VA reports that on any given day in 2007 there were about 154,000 homeless veterans, down from about 194,000 in 2006 and down even more from earlier years.  But veterans are still over-represented among the nation’s homeless population.  And there are troubling signs that veterans of our current conflicts may already be showing up homeless early.  I am encouraged that some of the programs we have in place have been successful and efficient in serving homeless veterans and supporting providers of care to them.  But at the same time I am concerned that some of those successful programs may not be getting the funding they deserve.  The main question I have is how we can build on that success to reduce – ultimately to zero – the number of veterans who are homeless.

I look forward to hearing from the witnesses today and to working with the members of this committee, the Congress and the VA to ensure that we succeed at eliminating homelessness among our veterans.