Chairman Filner, Congressman Buyer, Committee Members, My name is Phil Landis and I am the Chief Executive Officer of the finest homeless veteran only, drug and alcohol treatment facility in the United States.  Prior to assuming duties as CEO, for the previous  11 years I was blessed to be a member of the Board of Directors and ultimately chair of Veterans Village of San Diego (VVSD), formerly known as Vietnam Veterans of San Diego. In addition to the Veteran Recovery Center, VVSD is the founder of the National Stand Down which annually, for three days in July, hosts over 700 homeless veterans and their families in a tent city where they can access medical and dental services, employment services, VA, Social Security, and have available to them the services of other providers in the San Diego area.  While at Stand Down, veterans also have the opportunity to have legal issues examined and potentially have misdemeanors and their records cleared at “Homeless Court”, also founded by VVSD in partnership with the San Diego Public Defenders Office.  As you can readily see, I have been involved with/in the homeless veteran issue for many years.

First, let me say that homelessness in the United States of America is a fact of life that we as the richest nation in the world should be ashamed of. Further, the fact that in San Diego County alone there are over 2000 homeless veterans each and every night is a national travesty.  Our veterans should not be relegated to a life on the streets with no hope for a return to a healthy, sober and productive life. 

Homelessness and drug/alcohol addiction go hand in hand and they are not limited to any one socio economic level.  At Veterans Village of San Diego, we count among our successful alumni a Medal of Honor recipient, navy fighter pilots, army helicopter pilots, officers and enlisted, senior and junior, infantry to administration. 

Until the last couple of years, most of our clients have been Vietnam Veterans, Cold War Era veterans, Gulf War Veterans, most with a time lag before they seek help of up to several years.  Recently, we are seeing a startling trend with our young OIF/OEF/GWOT veterans, the time between separation from the service and becoming homeless and addicted is diminishing from years to, in some cases, months.  The issues are remarkably similar to those carried by their predecessors, drug/alcohol abuse and addiction, mixed with post traumatic stress disorder or some other treatable mental illness.  We cannot let this happen again, the lessons we learned from our Vietnam Veterans should be applied to our OIF/OEF veterans through early identification of mental health issues, specifically PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  If this early treatment is available for not only veterans but active duty as well, and they are encouraged to participate in the treatment, then perhaps we can stop the cycle before it has a chance to become an embarrassment  to our great country.

For the last 20 years, VVSD has sponsored the National Stand Down.  Each year the number of veterans participating has continued to grow to over 700 this past year, with at least that number anticipated this July. If the number continues to grow, we as a nation are not addressing the needs of our veterans and this generation of combat heroes will relive what their comrades in arms from past conflicts have lived, more homelessness and addiction.

For the last 8 years the city of San Diego has funded an emergency shelter program, two shelters, one for the general population and one for veterans only.  VVSD has operated the Veteran Only Winter Shelter for the city each year of operation. This year’s shelter program ended on April 2, 2008 and over 400, non-duplicated social security numbers of veterans were recorded. What does this mean, the issue of homeless veterans is not going away and may in fact be growing.

What can we do?

 VVSD is just a small part of the answer, currently we operate 224 early treatment beds where homeless addicted veterans receive residential recovery services, mental health therapy and a safe environment to learn how to stay clean and sober.  Once clean and sober, our employment services department enters the game, skills and aptitude assessment, training if required, assistance with writing a resume, and finally placement in a job with a life sustaining wage. After employment, VVSD provides 64 beds in three sober living facilities where the veteran can stay for up to 24 months. All of this, and more, information is available on our web site, www.vvsd.net.

What do we need?

After becoming clean and sober, gaining life sustaining employment, and getting physically healthy, our veterans need affordable supportive housing, both transitional and permanent. Studies have demonstrated that the longer a person stays in a supportive environment, the greater the likelihood of long term success is.  We need additional funding to build or purchase additional transitional/permanent housing beds, not just in San Diego or California, but throughout the United States, in any city where there resides a veteran who for what ever reason must spend the night on the street, under a bridge or in a doorway.  We also need additional funding to expand the supportive services that are provided, specifically weekly case management and therapy.

The Department of Veteran Affairs is meeting the challenge of providing services and treatment of our newest veterans head on. However, resources seem to be limited and the need continues to escalate. Though the VA budget for healthcare has steadily increased, more needs to be done.  I am sure that Secretary Peak would happily provide the committee with the budget needed to meet the growing requirements.  Again, this is step one, treat the veteran before he falls into the cycle of drug/alcohol addiction and ultimately homelessness.  Our veterans deserve no less.

New to the homeless veteran issue is prevention. Armed with the lessons learned from treating Vietnam Era veterans, many with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), now is the time to act to prevent the veterans of the Iraqi and Afghanistan Theatres of war from entering the cycle that leads to homelessness and addiction. To that end VVSD has embarked on a new program, privately funded by a grant, called the Warrior Tradition Program.  This program will be targeted to our most recent veterans and active duty service members, to provide them with a safe place to voice their concerns, receive peer support and guidance from experienced facilitators who have experienced the rigors of combat and PTSD and referral to other services as the needs are identified.

On a slightly different note, I would like to address a VA policy that impacts service providers to veterans such as VVSD.

The VA Grant and Per Diem program is the largest government funder of homeless veteran programs in America.  This important and successful program provides transitional housing and services to thousands of homeless veterans through over 300 programs across America.

Approximately one year ago, the VA Grant and Per Diem Program informed grantee that to open any new beds  or to receive a per diem rate increase, agencies are now required to provide a valid, Indirect Cost Rate to determine the cost of administrative overhead.  This requirement is difficult for homeless veteran providers like VVSD to meet for three reasons:

1. The amount of work to determine this rate is overwhelming.  It took our Chief Financial Officer, who has both a Bachelors and Masters in Accounting, four months to put the required information together.

2. The Indirect Cost Rate places a huge financial burden on the resources of homeless veteran agencies. Some agencies such as HUD have a maximum Administrative Rate of 5%. Others, like some city grants, pay no administrative overhead. Some government funders provide up to a 20% rate.   Under the Indirect Cost Rate, a small nonprofit like VVSD must use its precious and limited non-governmental funds sto subsidize a grant that pays less than the agency’s average Indirect Cost Rate.

3. Because of this requirement, VVSD was near walking away from a foundation grant of almost $1 Million., that helps Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans and active duty members cope with PTSD.  Only after the Foundation unhappily agreed to include an Indirect Cost Rate and budget realignments was the grant saved.  Currently, VVSD is in danger of discontinuing our contract with the City of San Diego for the 4 month long, 150 bed Emergency Winter Shelter for Veterans for the same reason:  being required to operate the program at a deficit.  This would be tragic.

Most nonprofits receive funding from multiple government agencies:  federal, state and local, and they each have different rules and allowances for administration.  The Indirect Cost Rate places the burden of covering administrative overhead on the usually small nonprofit that is juggling these grants to provide the best possible services to veterans.  The Indirect Cost Rate requirement reduces services for homeless veterans and should be discontinued.

This concludes my remarks.