A search last month for homeless veterans found 418 of them living on the streets in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties. They are now being entered into a database to receive housing benefits through the Veterans Administration.
The VA’s Ken Mueller said they found fewer chronically homeless veterans than in years past. “There’s been a lot of effort into housing a lot of the chronically homeless veterans,” said Mueller. “There’s just been a lot of resources put into that in recent years.”
The homeless veterans were concentrated mainly in downtown Orlando, Sanford and Kissimmee, also many were found living in the woods in eastern Orange County. They are now in a database, and next they’ll be in housing.
“This means we’re going to need more resources,” said Andrae Bailey, head of the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness. “Some veterans it might take three, four, five weeks until their veteran’s benefits come together, and we’ve got to be able to keep them off the streets during those three to four weeks.”
Bailey said central Florida is on track to getting every homeless veteran into housing by the end of the year.