WASHINGTON — Montgomery County has declared victory following an effort to house every homeless veteran officials were able to identify over the last year.
According to a Montgomery County Council announcement, by the end of 2015, 58 homeless veterans and their families will have found permanent housing.
At a news conference announcing the county’s goal of “Functional Zero” for homeless veterans, council member George Leventhal explained that the issue of homelessness hasn’t disappeared.
“We have systems in place now, so that where a veteran became homeless in Montgomery County, we will prioritize that veteran and … have the resources available to house that veteran,” he said.
Leventhal said efforts are limited to those who become homeless as Montgomery County residents.
“Montgomery County does not have the wherewithal nor are we going to house every person everywhere,” he said.
He said the county hopes to take the model used to find homes for veterans and expand it to attack homelessness in the larger population.
Advocates for the homeless say veterans returning from war face a number of challenges: coming to a tough job market, finding affordable housing, and sometimes struggling with medical or substance abuse issues.
Ishmael Meredith, a U.S. Army veteran whose father served as a Marine, thanked the coalition of government and nonprofit agencies that helped find him and his young family a permanent home.
“You may think we’re heroes, but you all are the real heroes sometimes,” Meredith said.
Meredith said there were times when he felt despair as a father of two trying to provide for his family.
Cradling his 1-year-old son Raphael in his arms, Meredith told those attending a news conference “there were times I’d be alone, it would just be me and him, and I’d be praying and my tears would be falling on him.”
But Meredith, a deeply religious man, told all those involved in helping veterans find housing, “God is using you. He used you to answer someone’s prayers. He used you to answer my prayers.”
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
