President Proposes Modest Increases in Homeless Veteran Programs for FY 2006

President Bush's proposed Fiscal Year 2006 budget is being viewed with skepticism by Veteran Service Organizations and many homeless service providers who contend vital programs for veterans, the poor and elderly are not adequately funded.

The president requested $99 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program, the full amount authorized by Congress, and a 15% increase over the amount allocated in FY 2005. The VA Domiciliary Care Program would receive $60.5 million, a 3.2% increase. Inpatient care programs for veterans with psychiatric and substance abuse problems would receive an additional $240 million.

The Veterans Health Administration would receive an increase of $880 million, but Veteran Service Organizations say more than 85% of that increase would come from increases in prescription copays and a $250 enrollment fee for a large number of veterans seeking health care through the VA system.

Under the president's plan, the Department of Labor Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program – which funds employment assistance, supportive services and transitional housing for homeless veterans – would receive $22 million, an increase of $1 million over the FY 2005 level. The Veterans Workforce Investment Program (VWIP), however, would be reduced by $980,000 to $7.5 million.

HUD McKinney-Vento homeless assistance programs would receive an additional $174 million over FY 2005 levels, and $200 million is earmarked for the Samaritan Initiative, which would fund permanent housing and case management for the chronically homeless. But advocates say those increases would be paid for by significant cuts in other homeless and low-income assistance programs.

Among programs that would be cut are Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS  
(-$18 million); Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities (-$118 million); the Community Development Block Grant program (which would be transferred from HUD to the Department of Commerce and cut by as much as 40%); and elimination of the Community Services Block Grant Program (-$637 million).

To view the president's proposed FY 2006 budget, go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/.

A summary of the president's proposed budget, including amounts for homelessness-related programs, is available on the National Alliance to End Homelessness website at http://www.endhomelessness.org/pol/approp/FY06budget1.html.

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