The Department of Veterans Affairs is taking decisive action to end Veteran homelessness in five years. The Department of Veterans Affairs has a National Call Center for Homeless Veterans hotline to ensure Veterans who are homeless or at-risk for homelessness have free, 24/7 access to trained counselors.

The hotline is intended to assist homeless Veterans and their families, VA Medical Centers, federal, state and local partners, community agencies, and service providers in the community.

To be connected with a trained VA staff member call 1-877-4AID VET (877-424-3838).

What will happen when I call?

■You can call for yourself or someone else.
■You will be connected to a trained VA staff member, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
■Hotline Trained hotline staff will conduct a brief, free and confidential screening to assess needs.
■Homeless Veterans will be connected with the Homeless point of contact at the nearest VA facility.
■Family members and non-VA providers calling on behalf of a homeless Veteran will be provided with information on homeless programs and mental health services available in your area.
■Contact information will be requested so staff may follow up.

Suggestions on how you can help:

Print this story, circle the phone number above and the web address below and give it to the next homeless Veteran you see on the street.

And, yes, we realize someone on the street probably won’t have a phone or access to a computer. You could suggest they use a computer at a library or ask to use the phone at a VA Medical Center or Vet Center…or at one of the many faith-based and charitable organizations or Veteran Service Organizations in their community.

The help is there. You could be the connection to the help for a homeless Veteran. Here is a quick link to the many valuable programs VA has to help end homelessness: http://www.va.gov/homeless

Thank you.

I don’t think this is a job for our town to tackle. The majority of homeless are mentally ill, yes mental illness can be caused from being in the military. Let the military house these people then. If they are not mentally ill they are destitute due to some other reason, destitute means desperate and desperate people commit crimes to stay alive. The last thing we need are more comprehensive services to attract more homeless.

If the state or federal government wanted to deal with homelessness they would. The FED gives most of the homeless barely enough to survive on, i.e., whatever their SS check is. Our USFS works hard to keep these people out of our town by not letting them live in the woods. The police also arrest them for vagrancy.

It is true we treat dogs and cats better because people love animals and our fellow humans are not very nice most of the time, the dog and cat will not break into my house or car. I know a very nice woman who made her life’s work traveling around the world collecting art and antiques and selling them, she was a medicine woman. She owned the most amazing store filled with treasures in Auburn, CA. She helped the homeless and took them in and provided showers and food. One day a homeless guy she had helped for some years burned her home and store to the ground while she was out of town. Of course we can’t blame him as he was mentally ill. Whose fault is this kind of occurrence? Unfortunately it is her fault as she invited him into her life by being a good Samaritan. No amount of money can repair what he did to her, she lost everything and it can’t be replaced. She was in her early 60’s when this happened. She could have been in her house asleep when he burned her house down.

I went to Bisbee on a short trip and we took all our things out of the car one night because we saw our vehicle was being cased by a black man who we learned later was mentally ill and homeless. He watched us bring all our things into the hotel. We parked our car in front of the hotel with the cameras on it. During the night this homeless, mentally ill man took a flag pole off the front of the hotel and smashed my car up because he was mad we didn’t let him break into the car to steal!

Do us all a favor, keep the homeless out of our town so we are less likely to be targets for these people. I am not volunteering to help the homeless by enabling you to promote Sedona as a homeless destination. When I read liberal ideas like the one Councilwoman Litrell puts forth I can only assume she has never been the victim of any serious crime and lives in a Sedona bubble thinking the world is a safe place and people are good. If I wanted to live in an unsafe town I would live in Phoenix.