You Fought for Our Home...
Now We Fight for Yours.

Veterans Matter: We Take Care of Our Own

FIRST: If you are an unhoused veteran or you know one in need of help, or feel you/they might be qualified for this program, call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans: 1-877-4AID-VET (1-877-424-3838) Or click this link.

Ask them for the HUD-VASH program contact for your area. Once qualified, they can provide the money for long term, supported housing, and help you/them find that housing in order to get you/them off the streets or out of the shelter right now!

If the rent deposit and/or first month are the last thing stopping you from getting into that ready HUD VASH housing, we got your back and can provide it directly to your landlord at black ops speed.

Operation Objective

To help house every single one of the 60,000 unhoused veterans abandoned on our streets.

It has become acceptable in the United States for our veterans, those most damaged by the physical or mental traumas of war, to be abandoned and forgotten on our nation’s streets. Our streets, where they have been beaten, robbed, or even killed. Yet if this happened behind enemy lines we would not stand for it.

We all know this, veterans are dying on our streets! Veterans Matter: We MUST take care of our own. If we don't, who will?

Veterans Matter is an innovative, incredibly focused rapid response pilot program created by the John Mellencamp and ZZ Top supported non-profit 1Matters.org. Our job is to eliminate the last single small gap preventing the veteran from getting into readily available – and waiting – fully funded - long term - HUD VASH provided housing, immediately, at black ops speed… meaning in minutes.

Our Mission

Through innovation translating to direct action, Veterans Matter is working to assure the 60,000 homeless veterans in our nation get housed - 1 at a time.

By land we partner nationwide exclusively with local VA programs nationally and leverage those partnerships by providing urgently needed rent deposits directly to the landlords. This gives Veterans Matter a 100% success rate. Our efficiency of design, and replication has allowed 100% of the money raised from the public to actually help homeless veterans off the streets.

By air we will engage more artists and the social media to help us with our “60,000 Soldiers Housed” campaign and get the word out that there are still over 60,000 veterans, warriors who fought for our homes, who are now without their own, living on our streets and in our shelters. Veteran still Matter, don't they? Then we MUST take care of our own.

Backstory: Black Ops Speed

How about 11 days from idea, to full funding, to housing our first veteran family.

Veterans Matter was conceived by Ken Leslie, a formerly homeless addict/alcoholic and founder of 1Matters. After getting clean in 1990 he founded a small modestly successful retained search firm, became a long time advocate for the unhoused, and created and self-funded several new programs in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, including the founding funding for the local continuum of care governing body. Because he had been there he knows even 1 more night on the streets is 1 too many.

So with single focus Veterans Matter was conceived 2/6/12 after Ken asked Shawn Dowling, local VASH program manager, why more ready veterans weren’t in VASH housing? She said, “The deposit, an average of $700.” That night he created the Veterans Matter pilot. Next morning he called Barb Petee, an executive at Promedica Health System about getting funding from the Toledo Community Foundation’s Promedica Advocacy Fund, asked her to also waive the normal 3 month foundation vetting process and fund the pilot program with $26,000 at Black Ops Speed. 7 DAYS later, on Valentine’s Day at 5.36 pm, Barb called Ken with full funding. Three days later, we housed our first waiting veteran family out of the family shelter. 11 days from idea to funding to execution. That’s Black Ops, Baby!  Since then the growth of Veterans Matter has been well documented in the local press.

If you feel compelled to support us in any way, to support a program that has a 100% success rate helping veterans, contact us right now, today, at black ops speed. There are over 60,000 warriors on our streets and in the shelters. Some even in YOUR area. They fought like hell for our home, now let’s fight like hell for theirs.

Operations

Our pilot program has now proven the concept and already housed 70 chronically homeless veteran families in 19 cities in three states, Ohio, Michigan, and Texas. The Houston team, initiated and led by Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, raised $50,000 in 60 days to match ALL the available VASH vouchers in Houston.

The most important thing to us is getting the unhoused veteran off the streets as fast as possible. Even one more night on the streets is one way to many.

With the current system it is often very difficult, not to mention several time, minutes and bus pass consuming weeks, even months for veterans to acquire deposits, particularly outside of the top 20 cities and in most rural areas. To give you an idea in our pilot program we helped reduce the time to get housing from 137 days to 71 days, getting the veteran families housed TWO MONTHS FASTER!

We also created an online system that has reduced the time from VASH referral to approval from weeks, to JUST MINUTES! Even 1 more night....

Veterans Matter partnered with the VA for a blitz outreach of abandoned buildings in Flint, Michigan to find the "hidden homeless" veterans. We met Sgt. Kevin and "his men" in a, um, "re-appropriated" house they had turned into a home.

Field Conditions

The incredible results to date (5/20/13): 84 veterans have been housed in 21 cities in three states. 52 Veterans where housed Operation Hometown and 32 in Operation Houston. 38% are Vietnam veterans, 31% are from Desert Storm, 16% OEF/OIF/OND, and 15% are other interventions or peacetime. 51% are from the Army, 24% are from the Navy, 17% are from the Marines, 5% are from the Air Force, and 4% are from the National Guard. 26% are families, 9% are single female head of household. 79% are male, 21% female.

All the pilot development work has been a labor of love, love for our veterans, and love for those on the streets. One volunteer designed/runs the pilot program and generous in-kind contributions provided the videos, (Thank you David Rein Henderson and Jacob Walsh and Infinity 3D) as well as our secure national online system. (Thank you to Martin Snyder and Mike Snyder of Main Sequence Technology!)

If we find the funding through private donors, foundations, and corporate sponsorships.we would like to hire a couple a couple people to actually run and expand the program. As we were founded by a man who himself is formerly homeless there will be complete transparency with all salaries etc.posted publicly on this website.

Let's Get 60,000 Soldiers Housed

HUD estimates there are over 60,000 of our nation's heroes who are living exposed on our communites' streets and in our cities' shelters. They came back from serving us to living in poverty.

Let's bring them home at last.

The Veterans Matter 60,000 Soldiers Housed campaign is our national effort to partner with the VA, HUD, businesses, organizations, and individuals to house our heroes. One donor, Sgt. Joe Mansheim, told us to "take care of my boys." Yes, sir.

Like Dusty says in his video, "How do you house 60,000 soldiers?"

"One at a time." And it's happening. Please join the effort.