This important legislation, named for Miss America 2000, recognizes her year of advocacy on behalf of our nation s homeless veterans. During her year of service as Miss America, Heather French Henry challenged this nation to meet the unmet needs of our homeless veterans. From coast to coast and border to border, Heather French Henry has taken her message of our national responsibility to provide homeless veterans the assistance they need and deserve. Through her efforts, public awareness about the hundreds of thousands of veterans who are homeless has been increased. We now need to answer this challenge.
Homelessness is a complicated problem that requires a comprehensive approach.
My legislation fortifies and expands existing programs that are effective in addressing many of the problems that underlie homelessness. It enables VA to investigate new approaches to providing effective care to veterans. It forges new alliances to address the multiple issues that lead to homelessness among veterans. Finally, it seeks to prevent homelessness by providing veterans short-term assistance that can prevent their homelessness. I have attached a summary that describes the bill in more detail.