Patriot Place Prepares to Open to House Local Homeless Veterans

Left to right: Brigadier General Tommy Baker, Assistant Adjutant General-Army, Tennessee National Guard; Jerry Risner, Buffalo Valley Executive Director; Future Resident (Consuelo Brown); Future Resident Male (unknown); Mayor Megan Barry (Metropolitan Government of Nashville); Jim Harbison, Executive Director Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency; Many Bears Grinder, TN Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner; Rod Bragg, Assistant Commissioner of Tennessee Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services; Suzanne L. Jené, Interim Heath System Director, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System; Sernorma Mitchell, Nashville HUD Field office Director

Exterior view of Patriot Place

Metropolitan Housing and Development Agency (www.nashville-mdha.org/) along with Buffalo Valley Inc. (www.buffalovalley.org/), Mayor Megan Berry (www.nashville.gov/Mayors-Office.aspx), HUD Field Office Director Sernorma Mitchell and Brigadier General Tommy Baker, Assistant Adjutant General-Army, Tennessee National Guard (www.tnmilitary.org/army-national-guard.html) participated in the grand opening for the Patriot Place which is located in Madison, TN and consists of 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. Patriot Place was also funded in part by HUD HOME funds. Patriot Place partners invested nearly $2.2 million in the project for land acquisition and construction.

"How can we not, as a community, step up to make sure our veterans have everything they need? They have served our community," said Mayor Megan Berry.

The ceremony included a ribbon cutting, remarks from Nashville Mayor Megan Berry, and tours of the Patriot Place apartments. Residents will move in on March 15th, 2016.

"To know all the main expenditures are taken care of, I can't thank everyone enough, I can't but I'm grateful. I'm grateful," related Consuelo Brown, Resident.

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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