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 <title>America Needs 435 Real Americans to run for Congress - The Homeless</title>
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 <title>USA: There are Still 250,000 Homeless Veterans</title>
 <link>http://benfrank.net/patriots/homeless/veterans</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hud.gov/offices/cir/test92001.cfm&quot;&gt;HUD Testimony to Congress&lt;/a&gt; - Sept 20, 2001&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote &gt;&lt;p&gt;At least 600,000 people in this country are homeless on any given night. VA estimates that more than a quarter million are veterans; of those, approximately 80 percent are disabled. Each year, half a million veterans find themselves without a home at some point.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;...HUD will provide approximately $150 million in Emergency Shelter Grants for FY 2002. These grants are used for the rehabilitation or conversion of buildings into homeless shelters...
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And how is the situation today, 4.5 years later? The same, if not worse.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;small &gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/veterans.html&quot;&gt;From the Whitehouse website&lt;/a&gt; 2006 FY Budget&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote &gt;&lt;p&gt;VA estimates that there are more than 250,000 homeless veterans in the Nation, or one-third of the adult homeless population.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Five years later and there are still 250,000 homeless vets? I think with common sense and true compassion, we could help these people out- &lt;strong &gt;within a year&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Why are they still homeless? The $150 million was to &quot;convert buildings into homeless shelters&quot; - typical - the money goes to landowners - not the homeless themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As ususal, it&#039;s &quot;All American&quot; for the gov&#039;t to give millions to wealthy landowners, but it&#039;s &quot;welfare handouts to bums&quot; if you give it the poor.&lt;/p&gt;
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 <category domain="http://benfrank.net/patriots/issues/the_homeless">The Homeless</category>
 <pubDate>Sun, 05 Mar 2006 20:48:48 -0500</pubDate>
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