Carson Wants 'Flexibility' from Congress on Forthcoming Proposals to End Veteran Homelessness

Carson Wants Flexibility in Fighting Veteran Homelessness

Carson Wants 'Flexibility' from Congress on Forthcoming Proposals to End Veteran Homelessness

 

BY NICHOLAS BALLASY NOVEMBER 28, 2018

CHAT 64 COMMENTS

 

WASHINGTON – Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie told PJM he’s been “amazed” by the attention President Donald Trump has given to him regarding solutions to opioid addiction, metal health and homelessness among veterans.

Wilkie, who has led the VA since July, joined Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson recently to announce a drop in the number of homeless veterans in the United States. According to HUD’s latest Annual Homeless Assessment Report, “the total number of reported veterans experiencing homelessness in 2018 decreased 5.4 percent since last year, falling to nearly half of the number of homeless veterans reported in 2010.” In total, “37,878 veterans experienced homelessness in January 2018, compared to 40,020 reported in January 2017.”

The Obama administration had set a goal to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015. PJM asked both Carson and Wilkie if the Trump administration has set a similar goal.

“The goal, obviously, is to get homelessness under control in this country for veterans and for non-veterans, for everybody. It’s a major focus; the Interagency Council has therefore been reinvigorated,” Carson said on the conference call with Wilkie and U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Matthew Doherty. “The date would be as soon as possible.”

When asked what HUD and the VA need from Congress and the White House to combat veteran homelessness, Carson said, “What we need from Congress, obviously, is their cooperation. We’re going to be coming up with various programs and various proposals – we are going to need flexibility in order to be able to carry those things out, so we just need a cooperative sprit from both sides of the aisle.”

Wilkie agreed with Carson’s statements and expressed confidence in the White House following through on its “commitment” to veterans.

“In my brief tenure, I’ve been amazed at the attention the president has given to me as the secretary of the VA, and he’s focused really on three specific issues regarding veterans: homelessness, opioids and metal health. And, again, I go back to my first answer, they are all part of the continuum, and homelessness in many cases being a byproduct of problems with those other issues I just raised,” he said.

“I have absolute confidence in the commitment from the White House in addressing the issue and it’s an amazing study in America… it’s not a one-size-fits-all homelessness crisis. The issues in Alaska are very different from the issues in West Los Angeles, which are different from the issues here in New Orleans. As long as we understand those nuances, I think we can get a better handle on addressing the issues nationwide,” Wilkie added.

Carson said the Trump administration’s timeline to end veteran homelessness is “as soon as possible.”

“I don’t think I can be more specific than that, but we’re obviously very much concentrating on this. I have to say it’s been wonderful working with Secretary Wilkie and with some of the other agencies as we focus on this particular problem,” he said.

Despite the recent drop in the number of homeless veterans overall, Doherty said the population of homeless veterans is rising in larger cities like Los Angeles.

“It’s something we are certainly working on and paying a lot of attention to and providing assistance to those communities,” Dougherty said on the conference call. “But in the majority of communities, we’re seeing a decline in veteran homelessness.”

Veterans Abused by Govt

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. NOW COUGH UP THE CASH. 

Thousands of California soldiers forced to repay enlistment bonuses a decade after going to war.

Short of troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade ago, the California National Guard enticed thousands of soldiers with bonuses of $15,000 or more to reenlist and go to war.
Now the Pentagon is demanding the money back.
Nearly 10,000 soldiers, many of whom served multiple combat tours, have been ordered to repay large enlistment bonuses — and slapped with interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens if they refuse — after audits revealed widespread overpayments by the California Guard at the height of the wars last decade.
Investigations have determined that lack of oversight allowed for widespread fraud and mismanagement by California Guard officials under pressure to meet enlistment targets.
But soldiers say the military is reneging on 10-year-old agreements and imposing severe financial hardship on veterans whose only mistake was to accept bonuses offered when the Pentagon needed to fill the ranks.

This is a disgrace. But these guys are little people, and little people are the only ones who have to worry about the rules nowadays.

REWARD FOR SCREWING UP A MAJOR VA HOSPITAL?

REWARD FOR SCREWING UP A MAJOR VA HOSPITAL?

PLUSH JOB, FREE HOUSE IN THE PHILIPPINES: “Rima Nelson disappeared from public view after the St. Louis Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital she managed potentially exposed 1,800 patients to HIV, was closed twice for serious medical safety issues and ranked dead last in patient satisfaction,” reports the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group’s Luke Rosiak.


Nelson wasn’t fired, she was transferred to the Philippines capital of Manila to run VA’s only foreign facility. It’s a small staff that provides outpatient care to the few remaining U.S. and Filipino WWII veterans. She kept her $160,ooo a year salary and lives in a government-provided condo in a country in which the average person makes about $2,500 annually.

Nelson is just one of nearly 100 highly paid VA executives the department has transferred three or more times in eight years, often leaving management dysfunction and chaos behind. The reality of the federal government’s workforce is that it’s easier and less time-consuming to transfer poor performers than to fire them. And VA isn’t the only federal department that does it; the problem is government-wide.

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Posted at 8:39 am by Mark Tapscott 

VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson Wants Repeel of Civil Service Reform Act of 1978

IS IT SNOWING IN HADES THIS MORNING? How else to explain the fact the number two man at the Department of Veterans Affairs just asked Congress to get serious about cutting the bureaucrat protections that prevent firing incompetent managers in the federal civil service. The Merit Systems Protection Board – which recently reversed three VA firings of bad hospital directors – is one of the biggest of many such roadblocks.
Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson wants to strip VA members of the Senior Executive Service and the department’s doctors of the right to appeal adverse personnel actions to the MSPB, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s Luke Rosiak.If Congress goes along, which seems likely, Gibson could become the guy behind the most significant and positive civil service reform since, well, the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 that created the MSPB. Once it happens at VA, which federal department will be next?

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Posted at 10:01 am by Mark Tapscott