Nashville HUD Supporting Permanent Affordable Housing for Local Homeless Veterans

Patriot Place Living room & kitchen

Nashville Field Office Director Sernorma Mitchell signing the last topping out roof board for Patriot Place

In honor of Memorial Day and to support the Mayor's Challenge to end Veterans Homelessness, Ms. Sernorma Mitchell, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) Nashville Field Office Director, along with Mayor Karl Dean, Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County participated in the topping out event for Patriot Place, an affordable housing community for homeless veterans.

"We are honored to have a role in such a wonderful housing development. One of the HUD Secretary's primary goals is leading the Mayors Challenge to End Veterans Homelessness by 2015. With the collaboration among our funding partners, Patriot Place is clearly an example of how leveraging public and private funds help honor and house our homeless veterans while also working to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015," said Mitchell.

Located in Madison, TN, the Patriot Place community will have 34 one-bedroom apartments. Thirty-two (32) of the units are subsidized by HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) project-based vouchers. The remaining two apartments are reserved for chronically homeless people referred through HUD's CoC Continuum of Care (CoC) program, which Metropolitan Development Housing Agency (MDHA) administers in Davidson County and Buffalo Valley, Inc. administers in 19 surrounding counties. This development also, is funded in part by HUD HOME funds. Patriot Place partners invested nearly $2.2 million in the project for land acquisition and construction.

The Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness is a way to solidify partnerships and secure commitments to end Veteran homelessness from mayors across the country. Specifically, the call to action - announced by First Lady Michelle Obama and amplified by the HUD Secretary, by leaders across HUD, VA, USICH, and by the National League of Cities - is for mayors to make a commitment to ending Veteran homelessness in their cities in 2015.

The HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program combines Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) rental assistance for homeless Veterans with case management and clinical services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). VA provides these services for participating Veterans at VA medical centers (VAMCs) and community-based outreach clinics. Every year since 2008, HUD and VA have awarded HUD-VASH vouchers based on geographic need and public housing agency (PHA) administrative performance. The allocation process for HUD-VASH vouchers is a collaborative approach that relies on three sets of data: HUD's point-in-time data submitted by Continuums of Care (CoCs), VAMC data on the number of contacts with homeless Veterans, and performance data from PHAs and VAMCs. After determining which areas of the country have the highest number of homeless Veterans, the VA Central Office identifies VA facilities in the corresponding communities. HUD then selects PHAs near to the identified VA facilities, taking into consideration the PHAs' administrative performance, and sends the PHAs invitations to apply for the vouchers. There is at least one site in each of the 50 states, in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

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