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The city of Huntington has launched a pilot program designed to eliminate homelessness among military veterans.
Mission Zero has an aggressive goal: to identify every homeless veteran in Huntington and get them housed within 30 days.
Mayor Patrick Farrell’s office kicked it off at Harris Riverfront Park on Tuesday by joining a Surge event organized by the local office of Veterans Affairs. The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs has organized a national Surge effort to focus attention on solving the issue of unhoused veterans.
“This was a pledge I made on day one,” Farrell said in a press release. “If you served this country, you should never be sleeping on the street. Mission Zero delivers on that commitment, starting with yesterday’s partnership with the VA on the Surge event and continuing with the work ahead.”
Farrell’s senior advisor, Jan Rader, said the partnerships with social workers, healthcare providers, mental health professionals, the Huntington Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team, and substance abuse counselors, are part of the program and a necessary component of support for long term success.
“A lot of our unsheltered population do suffer from substance use disorder and severe mental illness, and they have the right to refuse medication or treatment if it’s offered to them,” Rader said. “And so we want to find creative ways to keep them engaged and keep them housed.”
Rader said one goal of Mission Zero is to build on the successes of the veteran’s program to create similar projects with other homeless populations.
Huntington’s homeless population was 255 during the annual Point In Time Count in January. Of that number, Rader said, about 15 identified as veterans.