SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough is calling attention to the plight of homeless veterans.
He flew to Sacramento this week to participate in the biennial point-in-time count of Sacramento County’s homeless population.
"We found 16 homeless veterans,” McDonough said, of Wednesday night’s count. “When we find those veterans, we will get them into housing and into the care for the issues that led to housing (insecurity) in the first instance as soon as possible — often times that night and surely within the next couple of nights."
He said addressing homelessness among American veterans is a priority of his.
"We are very dedicated to getting the number of homeless veterans in America to zero,” McDonough said. “Calendar year 2022, we set a goal to permanently house 38,000 veterans (nationwide). We permanently housed 40,401. Calendar year 2023, we repeated, again, the goals to permanently house 38,000 veterans. We have far exceeded that goal, including far exceeded the goal that we set for Sacramento.”
ABC10 also asked the Secretary about a controversial new lawsuit.
On Thursday, the Transgender American Veterans Association filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, accusing the VA of leaving transgender veterans waiting for promised coverage of gender-affirming surgery, something both President Joe Biden and Secretary McDonough have said the VA will cover. The VA has been in the rulemaking process for this change for 2.5 years, so ABC10 asked the Secretary about a timeline.
"I'm not going to comment about any legal matters, but I will repeat what I've said, which is that this is important care for our veterans, and we will provide it, as we've announced that we will. I don't have an update on the timing for that, but we will provide the care,” McDonough said.
ABC10 also asked the Secretary about the implementation of PACT Act, something ABC10 has been covering. In 2022, President Biden signed legislation expanding eligibility for VA healthcare and benefits to more veterans exposed to burn pits, agent orange and other toxic substances while they served.
“About 1.3 million claims have been filed since the PACT Act was enacted. We have made decisions on about 800,000 PACT Act-specific claims. Of those, we’ve awarded a service connection in over 670,000 of those cases, meaning we are awarding at a grant rate of 75%,” McDonough said. "That's the beauty of the new law: it no longer requires the veteran to go through an onerous process of providing evidence. It's now on us to build the case for evidence for the veteran. So far, we're doing that in a very meaningful way, having very real impact on veterans and on survivors across the country."
Under the PACT Act, he said, hundreds of thousands of more veterans are eligible for VA healthcare and benefits. More information on the PACT Act is available HERE.
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