WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown today announced funding to provide rental assistance and clinical services for homeless veterans in Toledo as a part of the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing voucher program (HUD-VASH).  The funds will provide housing assistance for homeless veterans while partnering them with a local Department of Veterans Affairs medical center. 

“The men and women of the Armed Forces have been made a promise that if they defend our country, a grateful nation will provide them with services and benefits they have earned,” Brown, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said. “We must end veteran homelessness and this rental assistance for homeless veterans in Toledo is a down payment in the promise to support those who have already given so much to our nation.”

The HUD-VASH program in Toledo will work in partnership with the Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority to provide rental assistance and the VA Ann Arbor Health Care System and the Toledo VA Outpatient Center to provide medical assistance.  The grant provides $109,533 which will provide funds for rental assistance and medical care for 25 tenant-based vouchers.

Brown is the only Ohio Senator to serve a full term on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and is Co-Chair of the Senate Air Force Caucus.  Brown has been working to reduce the VA claims backlog and recently announced in Toledo that he has introduced the Veterans Services Outreach Act.  This legislation would require the VA to notify veterans filing claims electronically that they can receive help and important time-saving information that could significantly reduce their wait time. Brown will also work to pass the Claims Processing Improvement Act of 2013, legislation that would hold the VA accountable by requiring it to publically report information on both its projected monthly goals and actual production so that Congress and the public knows if the VA is working toward eliminating its backlog. The bill would also establish a task force to hire and train claims processors, and develop tactics to attack and eliminate the backlog.

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