Mayor: Lexington first city in state to effectively end veteran homelessness

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ)- Lexington is the first city in Kentucky to effectively end veteran homelessness, Mayor Linda Gorton said Thursday.

The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) verified and affirmed on March 21, 2019, that Lexington-Fayette Urban County has created a system and infrastructure to make veteran homelessness “rare, brief, and non-reoccurring.”

In 2014, then Mayor Jim Gray joined other mayors across the country in accepting President Barack Obama’s challenge to end veteran homelessness. Since that time, the City’s Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention, and the providers of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Continuum of Care in partnership with HUD and the VA, have worked tirelessly to create a coordinated system to identify, assess, connect and permanently house veterans experiencing homelessness.

This designation does not mean no veteran will ever become homeless in Lexington, the Mayor said. “But veterans who do experience homelessness, or are at-risk of homelessness, will get the support they need to quickly obtain a permanent home.”

Lexington is the only city or county in Kentucky that meets the strict data-driven criteria and benchmarks outlined by the federal government for creating an effective end to homelessness for veterans. Lexington has created a system and the capacity to quickly identify and house veterans who accept permanent housing, making veteran homelessness “rare, brief, and non-reoccurring.”

Christopher Taylor, HUD Deputy Regional Administrator for Region IV, said, “We want to congratulate and thank the City of Lexington and their partners as they have worked extraordinarily hard to end local Veteran homelessness. It took extraordinary leadership on the part of all concerned to make this momentous achievement a reality on behalf of our Veterans and it speaks to what can be achieved as part of the Every Veteran Housed collaborative effort.”

Polly Ruddick, Director of the City’s Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention, the lead organization of the Continuum of Care, said the City earned the designation by working together. “This accomplishment would not have been possible, and cannot be sustained, without the collaboration of committed community partners,” Ruddick said. “This work is a road map for Lexington to continue its cross-collaboration to effectively end homelessness for everyone in our community.”

In 2014, 203 veterans were found to be experiencing homelessness in the annual homeless point-in-time count, compared to the 78 found in 2019. Twenty-one 21 were living unsheltered in 2014, compared to zero in 2019.

Keys to success include:

• Lexington Housing Authority set a veterans preference for all Housing Choice Vouchers, with an additional 75 VET vouchers.
• Permanent housing and services investment from HUD of $1,690,069 annually
• Housing and services investment from the VA of $3,590,135 annually
• Strong coordination between all partners and stakeholders
• Strengthened efforts to identify and match housing and services for veterans
• Improved data collection and quality
• Housing First model programs