Minnesota says it has effectively ended veteran homelessness, becoming the fourth state to hit what officials call "functional zero." The label doesn't mean no veteran will ever lose housing; it means local agencies can rapidly spot veterans who are homeless or at risk and quickly move them into permanent housing and services, MPR News reports. The statewide registry now lists about 150 homeless veterans, down from more than 600 in 2010. Officials say everybody on the registry is on a path to housing.
Gov. Tim Walz said the effort is about building a durable safety net, not declaring victory and walking away. "It's not something you just say, 'Oh, we fixed it. Veterans' homelessness is over,'" he said at a press conference. He said that while it's impossible to ensure that a veteran never becomes homeless, "the state of Minnesota has made sure there's a net underneath that, that there is a safety net to make sure that that is brief." The Democratic governor said the milestone is "a testament to the commitment of a bipartisan legislature to attack this issue," KTTC reports.
Officials credit a "housing first" approach and stable funding, with groups like the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans using state and federal money to secure housing and support services. A state is considered to have "effectively ended" veteran homelessness when it reaches several milestones set out by the federal government, per KTTC. "One of the factors is that anyone who becomes homeless, we have to give them housing within 90 days," said Brad Lindsay, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Veterans' Affairs. "That's part of the system. We can't have any chronic or long-term homelessness." Connecticut, Delaware, and Virginia have previously reached similar benchmarks.
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