The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday it will subsidize more housing for homeless veterans in Oregon and Washington.
The department is giving housing agencies in the states an additional $2 million, which it said will provide housing vouchers for nearly 300 more veterans in the Northwest.
According to HUD, the agency already provides vouchers for some 4,000 homeless veterans in the two states.
Lee Jones, a spokesman for HUD, said homeless veterans are referred to housing agencies by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“The veteran moves in and we essentially, like is true of all of our rental housing programs, try and make sure that they don’t spend any more than 30 percent of their income towards rent," he said.
Housing agencies in both small and large communities received funds, including Seattle, Redmond, Vancouver and Eugene.
“Hopefully the money will be put to work quickly and veterans who need housing will be able to find it and have a permanent place to call home," Jones said.
The Obama administration set a previous goal was to end veteran homelessness by 2015. According to the VA, homelessness among veterans has dropped by more than 30 percent since 2010.
Charles Dharapak
/Homeless veterans are referred to housing agencies by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Copyright 2016 Oregon Public Broadcasting
