Statement of Heather French, Miss America 2000, before the Subcommittees on Benefits and Health of the Committee on Veterans Affairs United States House of Representatives. The Honorable Jack Quinn and The Honorable Cliff Stearns, Chairmen. Washington, DC.

Chairmen Quinn and Stearns, I thank you for the opportunity to present my views here today. On any given night there are the equivalent of 17 infantry divisions on the streets of this great nation with no place to call home. These are men and women who served our nation during its greatest times of need and now live without shelter or food or medical care. They are the once young men and women now aging who we sent abroad to defend our country but cast aside upon their return. They are our country’s forgotten heroes those who at one time may have been awarded a Medal of Honor or Purple Heart.

Today as Miss America 2000 I serve as a national role model and advocate for our homeless veterans. I care about our veterans because, first and foremost beyond the crown, I am the daughter of a disabled Vietnam veteran whose struggles have changed my life forever. I had my first experience with the plight of our veterans when my father began taking me to the VA Medical Center with him at the age of four. At that time appointment at the VA was an all day event. They used to have a light board from the number 1 to 1,000 and it always seemed my father received number 999!

I would wait in the VA lobby for hours waiting for my father’s turn to receive treatment. During that time I was able to hear the most intriguing stories of trauma and victory from the veterans that surrounded me. That was the first time I learned to listen…not just with my ears but also with my heart. Through the eyes of my father, I have seen challenges that face our nation’s homeless veterans veryday: the pain of psychological trauma, especially Post Traumatic stress disorder resulting from perils of war; the struggle to overcome drug and alcohol addiction; the heartache of rejection from potential employers, landlords, neighbors, friends and sometimes even family.

As the first Miss America of the new millennium I have chosen to do so as a bold spokesperson and advocate for our nation’s homeless veterans. I have dedicated, not just my year of service, but also my life to creating unprecedented awareness surrounding this issue. I will travel over 20,000 miles each month speaking to as many citizens as I possibly can about the needs of these heroes. And I will continue to do so and ask the news media to join me in a partnership that informs and educates young and old alike because I believe their stories deserve to be heard. The story of our veterans is one of ultimate sacrifice, the greatest of love stories, because these soldiers were once willing to lay down their lives for our nation.

Since becoming Miss America in mid-September, 1999 I have been visiting homeless veteran programs all over the nation from VA programs, to community-based nonprofit organizations, to Stand Downs which are community events by many organizations and government agencies for outreach to veterans. I have been able to hear countless personal stories of veterans and observe first hand different community-based programs serving the needs of these forgotten heroes.

Homeless veterans want to be able to regain personal pride by taking personal responsibility to remove the barriers that have prevented their transition to productive citizenship. In order to do this they need access to substance abuse recovery and mental health programs, affordable housing, and employment opportunities.

During my travels I have seen first hand programs that are helping in a significant and meaningful way to reconstruct lives and reunite families. Every visit connects me with successful stories from the streets, men and women who were formerly homeless now with careers, a reconnected family, a home, and a new outlook on life. These veterans are now able to live a part of the "American Dream" that they were promised but were denied for so long.

It is very clear to me that it takes a network of partnerships to be able to provide a full range of services to homeless veterans. No one entity can provide this complex set of requirements without developing relationships with others in the community.

Community-based nonprofit organizations are most often the coordinator of services because they house the veteran during his transition. These community-based organizations must orchestrate a complex set of funding and service delivery streams with multiple agencies that each play a key critical role.

We look to the Department of Veterans Affairs to take the lead in providing health care and benefits for homeless veterans. Community-based organizations recognize the tremendous improvements that have been made in the last ten years within the Department of Veterans Affairs. Recognition by the VA that they can share in the successful reintegration of homeless veterans with other members of the communities they serve by forming alliances has made a positive change in reaching more homeless veterans. In talking with community-based providers these are the improvements I would suggest:

• Require the DVA to setup and Homeless Veterans Advisory Committee under the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs that would provide an unfiltered and unrestricted channel of information to the DVA Secretary concerning the issues affecting homeless veterans.
  
  
• Require the DVA to Measure, Report, and Implement System-wide Services to Homeless Veterans.
  
  A mission to serve the needs of homeless veterans, written into VA's strategic plans for the long term, would secure the place of these forgotten men and women. VA needs to dedicate funding of homeless veteran services not just on a year-to-year basis that does not allow for long-term focus or results. The State Veteran Home Program would be a comparable model.
  
  Currently it is unclear what the staffing and funding levels in each medical center are dedicated to homeless services. We suggest that Congress request a reporting, by each medical center, the current level of service and what plans each center has to build comprehensive services for homeless veterans.
  
  The DVA Director of Homeless Services should be used as a consultant on all DVA policy decisions relating to services for homeless veterans. The Director has the opportunity to provide unique insight into the working relationships of community-based organizations and the DVA.
  
  
• Fund the VA Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem at $50 million
  
  In the FY 1999 Appropriations Bill, Congress allocated $14 million for VA's homeless grant program, and another $6 million for its homeless per diem program. These programs, begun in 1992 to fund the development and operation of transitional housing programs for homeless veterans who are free of drugs and alcohol, have made over 4,000 beds available with only $41 million over those years. Like Department of Labor, Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program, the money activates the genius of community-based organizations with veteran-specific programs.
  
  Congress needs to make the per year allocation to VA's Homeless Providers’ Grant and Per Diem Program a line item appropriation at $50 million in FY 2001 through FY2005. VA continues to play -- and >must continue to play -- a key role in providing health care to homeless veterans, both through its own facilities and direct care programs, and through contracts with community-based providers whose unique programs and locations and understanding of homeless veterans make them better fit to meet specific needs.
  
  In addition, half a dozen years of experience show that VA's regulations for its Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program need revisions to allow:
  
  
  • Providers to use in-kind contributions to count toward the matching funds they must provide for operational expenses.
  • Give priority to proven effective organizations serving veterans.
  
  
  
• Develop a formal nationwide expedited claims process for homeless veterans
  
  Veterans become homeless while waiting for their VA claims to be processed and often a resolved claim can provide the means for a homeless veteran to get into housing. It is unconscionable that a veteran would be forced to live in homelessness while waiting months or years for a claim to be resolved. There are several model DVA Regional office programs that provide exemplary models that should be developed into a national DVA model, with sanctions for not complying.
  
  Employment -- having and keeping a job with a routine and decent pay and benefits -- is the key to ending homelessness. Having a job at the end of the tunnel is often the difference between success and failure for vocational rehabilitation and substance abuse treatment. Employment is central to keeping homes and families together.
  
  
• Appropriations at authorized level for the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program
  
  The capstone of employment efforts for homeless veterans has been the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP) of the Department of Labor (DOL), which has been authorized at $15 million for FY2001.
  
  Members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee were true veteran advocates in the last session of the 106th Congress by reauthorizing HVRP at increased levels through FY2004 and by influencing the appropriators to provide full funding of the authorized level in FY2000 for the first time in the history of this program. That is a record that should be continued and your leadership is appreciated.
  
  Housing
  
  Community-based organizations express the need for safe, clean, sober housing for veterans as being one of the most pressing needs in their efforts to assist veterans, if indeed not the most pressing need.
  
  
• Ensure that Veterans Receive an Equitable Portion of HUD Resources Nationwide
  One of the biggest frustrations I have heard in talking with community-based organizations is that homeless veteran specific programs receive such a small percentage of the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) homeless funding. While veterans are 23% of the total homeless population and 33% of the male homeless population, veteran specific homeless programs receive less than 3% of HUD funding.
  
  Congress should take all necessary steps to ensure that homeless veterans are in the process of resource allocations in every state and in all 900 plus areas for distribution of HUD homeless funds, as full partners in the process. State and community boards must include veteran representation in creating and distributing grant proposals and funding. NCHV urges Congress to require that HUD report to Congress annually:
  
  
  • Veteran community-based providers participation in fund allocation at every level.
  • What funds veterans receive for any purpose at every level.
  • A customer satisfaction survey to veterans who are potentially eligible for or who actually receive HUD-funded services.
  
  
• Allocate $750,000 in FY2001 to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV) for technical assistance to homeless veteran service providers
  
  The appropriations would be for NCHV to provide technical assistance to build the capacity of service providers to meet the needs of veterans to help them transition out of homelessness.
  
  Currently NCHV does not have the resources to expand capacity to meet the needs of community-based providers. The Department of Veterans Affairs is not able to provide that technical assistance and HUD does not address the specific needs of veterans.
  
  NCHV is the only group that has direct lines of communication already established with grassroots organizations providing direct services to homeless veterans (and other local organizations), veteran service organizations, the VA, HUD, DOL (and other federal agencies), and a myriad of national and local homeless organizations.
  
  Community-based organizations are where the rubber meets the road. They are responsible for services delivered and they have stated that they need help leveraging their resources, getting funding and finding solutions to inadequate funding.
  
  Veteran specific providers want to be competitive within HUD and other federal, state and local agencies grants programs, as well as within the private sector. NCHV can be the bridge that helps each veteran arrive back home. Veteran-specific programs can more effectively target homeless veterans, who comprise one-third of the homeless male population in the United States.
  
  
• DVA provide changes to policy of loan guaranty for manufactured housing
  
  Veterans’ choices would be enhanced if they could more easily choose to finance their manufactured home as either real or personal property. The current The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regulations do not allow that. The VA could study the value of changing it regulations by working with community-based providers to amend the VA regulations as necessary for this pilot project – using manufactured homes as a source of affordable housing for homeless veterans.
  
  The VA loan guaranty program has a component that allows the VA to guarantee loans on personal property manufactured homes. The program has seen very little volume for a number of years for a couple of reasons. The program for personal property manufactured homes requires a minimum down payment of five percent. Conventional lending programs (non-government guaranteed or insured) generally offer similarly low down payment loans without the paperwork required in a VA-guaranteed loan.
  
  The VA loan guaranty program for homes that are financed as real estate requires no down payment from the veteran. It does, however, require that the home be installed on a site-built foundation and that the home and land be treated as a single real estate transaction under state law. The site-built foundation requirement often eliminates a traditionally installed manufactured home from consideration for a VA loan, even though the home may be installed in a manner that is just as safe and secure as if it were on a site-built foundation. Converting a manufactured home from personal to real property under state law is often not a simple transaction. Mortgage lenders, furthermore, often avoid financing manufactured homes as real estate for fear that adding this complication to the transaction could endanger their security interest in the home.
  
  VA’s program for guaranteeing loans on personal property manufactured homes requires only that the home be installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s installation instructions. This transaction also would not require that the home become a fixture to the land or that the home and land be treated as a single real estate transaction. Unfortunately, lenders are discouraged from offering and veterans are discouraged from pursuing VA-guaranteed loans on personal property manufactured homes. It could not hurt to examine if this can be remedied.

As my year of service continues I will share my personal encounters with these forgotten heroes that I have met. I have seen in their faces the face of my own father and I can tell you that the most beautiful faces in this nation are not those whose heads are adorned with crowns but those who have borne the battle…our veterans.

Looking in the eyes of men and women who were once decorated with medals only now to be replaced with broken spirits I encourage this committee to implement policy changes that will finally end homelessness among veterans.

Thank you for this holding this hearing and for your commitment to all our nation’s veterans.

Education:
University of Cincinnati
Pursuing Master’s Degree in Fashion Design Illustration
Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Design
Recipient of more than $80,000 in Miss America Scholarships

Ambition:
To complete a Master’s degree. Also to complete fashion illustration textbook for college-level design students. To pursue a career as a designer of women’s career wear.

Platform:
The Forgotten Heroes: Honoring Our Nation’s Homeless Veterans that will finally end homelessness among veterans.

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