ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) _ Central Florida leaders are expected to announce that more than 400 veterans have been found living on in the area’s streets or woods in the past month.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that local leaders will announce the statistics on Wednesday as they continue trying to count, interview and house all homeless veterans by the end of the year in order to meet a federally mandated deadline.
The “Veterans Surge” initiative is the first large-scale effort to house the homeless in the region’s history, and one that government leaders and veterans groups have deemed a success.
Of 416 veterans identified, only a few of the most vulnerable have been housed immediately. The rest are waiting for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to comb through their paperwork and verify their service.
