Veterans Homelessness: Mesa Mayor John Giles Uses "Double-Talk" @ U.S. Conference of Mayors 2017

Last year - as noted on the blog site - mayors of two cities, New Orleans LA and Mesa AZ - were named as Co-Chairs for the Committee To End Veterans Homelessness in 2016 taking a pledge to do so One mayor accomplished that goal and one did not - Mitch Landrieu succeeded. John Giles did not. . . maybe he was too busy with his highly partisan privately-financed by special-interest groups $500,000 bogus PR campaign to sell a tax hike that got rejected by voters.

Veterans homelessness is a very visible "issue" here in Mesa in spite of all the hype from City Hall and the Mayor's office
Homeless camp threatened by ADOT, but can stay for now

By Jim Walsh, Tribune Staff Writer Dec 23, 2016

A group of homeless veterans and non-veterans camped near a Mesa freeway won a temporary Christmas reprieve from the Arizona Department of Transportation, after ADOT initially told them they had to leave by Saturday.
“Camp Alpha,” run by Veterans on Patrol, has been operating west of Country Club Drive and north of McKellips Road for about a year, but is now at its third location after running into resistance from some businesses and government agencies.
Camp organizer Lewis Arthur said he has been on a “search and rescue mission” to find homeless veterans since the summer of 2015, after the U.S. government said they no longer existed. He readily admits that many people at the camps have substance abuse issues and psychological issues stemming from their military service, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Read entire report from less than four weeks ago here

If you didn't get a chance to watch the live video yesterday, this article from Cronkite News written by Joseph Guzman appeared yesterday:
Giles says veteran homelessness in Mesa nears ‘functional zero’
Mesa Mayor John Giles, speaking at a conference of mayors in Washington, D.C., said his city’s efforts to help homeless veterans have brought it close to ‘functional zero’ for the number of vets in need of shelter. (Photo above left by Joseph Guzman/Cronkite News)
The Department of Housing and Urban Development gives cities the “functional zero” designation when they meet strict criteria in relation to permanent housing placement for veterans, the length of time vets are homeless and the number of homeless in the community.
Giles added that very few communities that have participated in the program have met the criteria to be considered a function zero city.
WHAT? All of these cities achieved their goal: [ Information from HUD Portal ]
Albany, NY
Austin, TX
Bergen County, NJ
Buffalo/Western New York
Commonwealth of Virginia
Cumberland County/Fayetteville, NC
Des Moines, IA
Flagler County, FL
Hattiesburg, MS
Houston, TX
Lancaster City & County, PA
Las Cruces, NM
Las Vegas, NV
Long Island, NY
Lynn, MA
Middlesex County, NJ
Mississippi Gulfport/Gulf Coast Regional CoC
Mobile, AL
Montgomery County, MD
New Orleans, LA
Philadelphia, PA
Reading/Berks County, PA
Rochester, NY
Rockford, IL
San Antonio, TX
Saratoga Springs, NY
Schenectady, NY
State of Connecticut
Syracuse, NY
Terrebonne Parish, LA
Troy, NY
Volusia County/Daytona Beach, FL
Winston-Salem, NCGiles noted that although Mesa has made significant strides in housing homeless veterans it has yet to be designated a functional zero city.


The United States Conference of Mayors' 85th Winter Meeting is taking place now January 17-19, 2017 in Washington, DC.
http://usmayors.org/85thWinterMeeting/

Mayor's Twitter account > https://twitter.com/MayorGiles