Mayor Steve Benjamin announces two grants coming to Fast Forward. With him are (l) Dee Albritton, executive director of Fast Forward and Patricia Bradford, Veterans Administration Network coordinator. On Tuesday, July 5, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin and Fast Forward Executive Director Dee Albritton announced $190,000 in two grants coming to Columbia’s Fast Forward from the national department of labor. The money will be directed to job–targeted education programs run by Fast Forward. One grant is for homeless veterans, and the other is for homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children. What is happening in Columbia is part of a federal effort across the country.

The labor department announced July 2 with the U. S. Interagency Council on Homelessness 97 grants, totaling more than $24 million, to provide approximately 14,000 veterans with job training to help them succeed in civilian careers. Chair of the Interagency Council is Shaun Donovan, secretary of housing and urban development (HUD). The grants are being awarded under the labor department’s Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program.

The statistics to identify the need are readily available. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, about one–third of the adult male homeless population are veterans, 89 percent of whom received an honorable discharge. During the Viet Nam War, about 58,000 Americans died. A number close to that is the current count of homeless Viet Nam veterans.

Patricia Bradford, a Veterans Administration Southeast Network coordinator based at Columbia’s WJB Dorn VA Medical Center, stood with Benjamin and Albritton and said the total number of veterans homeless on any given night comes to about 107,000. Veterans make up only eight percent of the overall American population, but almost 23 percent of the country’s homeless population are veterans. Close to 56 percent of all homeless veterans are African–American or Hispanic, despite accounting for 12.8 percent and 15.4 percent of the U. S. population, respectively.

The number of homeless families with children in the U.S. has increased by 30 percent during the past two years.

According to The Economist

magazine ( June 28, 2010), the country’s public schools this year reported more that 956,000 homeless pupils, a 20 percent increase over the previous year. Each night on average across the country, more than 640,000 men, women and children seek shelter, live in their automobiles, or sleep on the streets.

The city’s emergency shelter near CanalSide is a winter–time accommodation. Presently, it is not open. Last year in the country about 1.6 million people used such an emergency shelter.

On June 22, the Obama administration presented a multi–agency country–wide strategy to confront homelessness. The president’s plan, called “Opening Doors,” is the first federal comprehensive strategy to end the country’s trend toward growing homelessness. “Opening Doors” is a four–pronged attack: (1) End chronic homelessness and intercept the phenomenon of continuous homelessness for a year or more. (2) End homelessness among veterans in the next five years. (3) Within 10 years, end homelessness for families and children. (4) Pursue other strategies to tackle other types of homelessness.

Locally, to hear Dee Albritton tell it, what’s needed now most is a gain in job opportunities to meet her people coming out of Fast Forward education and job training. She can share an impressive list of success stories gainfully employed in greater Columbia, but Albritton can always take more calls looking for her qualified graduates. The school and Albritton’s offices are at 3223 Devine Street (corner of Devine and Millwood between Earth Fare and Dreher), Suite 3. Call Fast Forward at 343.2577.

The Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program is the only federal program that focuses exclusively on employment of veterans who are homeless. For more information, go to www.dol.gov/vets.