The Syracuse VA Medical Center says they have exceeded their goal for housing homeless veterans, part of a nationwide effort by the VA to combat homelessness among our nation’s heroes.

Marine Corps veteran David Brown is one of the 141 veterans the organization’s Homeless Outreach Team helped to find housing, out of a goal of 133. 

“No reason, in the country as great as ours, that we should even have any homelessness, much less people going hungry,” said Brown.

He acknowledges how difficult it can be for himself, and his fellow veterans experiencing homelessness to ask for help.

“I just slept out on the street and took care of myself,” he said. “I guess it’s a sense of pride, I don’t know. I just never really wanted anything for nothing,”

When health challenges forced his hand, the Syracuse VA was there to help.

“I finally have my own place where I could feel safe and just have someplace I can call my own, it means a lot,” he said.

Homeless outreach coordinator Jessica Horning says the Syracuse VA works year round to help veterans experiencing homelessness find housing.

“We have a homeless outreach team where we do street outreach, if a veteran is in a shelter we do outreach to all of our local emergency shelter,” she said.

She says last year, the VA had a nationwide challenge; to house 38,000 veterans, the Syracuse VA Medical Center was responsible for 133 placements. They exceeded that goal with 141.

“It extremely empowering to give back to a population that gives some or all to us,” she said.

Veterans like Brown are forever grateful.

“I’m a firm believer that veterans ought to be given a lot more than they are,” he said. “We’re not asking for the world, we just get down sometimes and sometimes we have nowhere else to go."

The Homeless Outreach Team urges any veteran who is in need of assistance or experiencing homelessness to get in touch with their office.