Support the very things everyone on this panel has said they want. You can find this discussion online archived in cspans video library. Live now to a newly opened Housing Development for veterans in washington, d. C. Ben carson will be speaking along with the va secretary about ending homelessness among veterans. Good morning, everybody. I guess its still morning. Weve had a chance this morning to spend some time in this facility which is the first time for both of us. Ki te i can tell you we are extraordinarily proud of what has been put together here to serve our veterans and the broader homeless community. This building is about a year old, serves now over 60 veterans who were previously homeless. Secretary carson and i asked about the waiting list here and its 409 because we still have 409 Homeless Veterans here in washington, d. C. Across the country, that number is 40,000. And so we are committed to continue our efforts until we get every veteran off the streets to find a home such as this. Whats so inspiring about what we saw today is this is truly the model for working together. Federal agencies like the department of housing and urban development and the department of Veterans Affairs sharing resources and knowledge and putting together support so that groups such as Community Solutions and others can develop projects like this to serve veterans who are homeless and others who are homeless. And what we know is the reason why weve been able to reduce the number of Homeless Veterans across the country by over 50 now since 2010 is because of Community Efforts like this where its not only federal agencies but in this case state and the district of columbia as well. We heard about 50 all together pulling resources to make this a reality. It is these Community Based efforts that we know work and that we have to continue to help support. Both secretary carson and i and our agencies are firmly committed to continuing the work to make sure that we end veteran homelessness. So we have a lot more work to do, but the good news is we have found the formula that we think works. I just want to finally thank the not only the staff here, but the veterans themselves who this morning we had time to spend time and hear their stories, hear how important this facility is, how much they value it. Actually, their gratitude for having a safe and nice place to be able to call home, which is so important and we think every american deserves that and absolutely we believe every veteran deserves that as soon as possible. But thanking the veterans for not only talking to us about their own experience, but showing us their apartments. We just had the chance to see a beautiful apartment of mr. Williams who was kind enough to show us his home. But whats also important, i think the message that we heard here is its not just a home, but its the sustainment efforts. The staff who help make sure that the veterans continue the get the help they need. The coordination of services, the medical care and everything that is so important. And to hear how much those services are valued, so putting together the continued efforts of hud and the department of Veterans Affairs i think makes us extremely proud of the efforts going on here. Just want to say thank you on behalf of the department of veteran affairs and our commitment to use this as a best practice to move forward across the country. Im going to turn this over to my colleague dr. Carson. Thank you. Today there are millions of americans who are going back to work after their thanksgiving, spending time with their families, being thankful for the many things that we have available to us in this country. And im sure there were many prayers for the health of our country and for the veterans who have made it possible for us to be free in this country. And we should be grateful to the veterans, not only on veterans day or thanksgiving, but every day of the year because 1 of our population protects the other 99 . And when you think about what theyve allowed us to be able to do, we should be willing to go the extra mile to make sure they are taken care of. It was wonderful today having an opportunity to meet with four veterans to hear their stories, to see the kind of things that they have gone through. And its wonderful that a facility like this exists and the gratitude they express not only for the facility but for the individuals who have dedicated their lives to improving life for the veterans, it makes all the difference in the world. You know, we tend to be a very giving people. Were the first ones in the line when theres a disaster someone else in the world. We ought to be the first ones in the line when theres a disaster of one of our veterans also. Theyre the ones who really give us the ability to do what we do. You know, a facility like this comes to pass because of Public Private partnerships and the ability of the federal government, of the agencies like the Veterans Administration and hud to work with cities, with nonprofits, with faith based organizations, with a host of people who are actually concerned about their fellow man. Its one of the really wonderful things seeing this facility and several others ive seen around the country when the local Community Gets invested in whats going on, not only in the people but in the facility it. That way they make sure that it is maintained. The old paradigm the government would ride in on a white horse with a big bucket of money and say build this facility for this group and ride away. That didnt work. But when you get buyin from the rest of the community, i think that makes a huge difference. Also this facility is a good example of how the low Income Housing tax credit can be used to great avail for the public good. Ive been assured that the low Income Housing tax credit is going to be maintained in the new tax bill. Because i think people from both sides of the aisle recognize how critical it is for us to provide the stimulus and incentive so that there are winwin situations presented throughout our society. It makes all the difference in the world. Now, we still have a lot of work to do. Every night there are 40,000 veterans in shelters and on the streets. And we need to recognize that when people are out there, when theyre under a bridge, when theyre not being taken care of, theres a strong likelihood that sometime in the course of that year theyre going to wind up in the emergency room, frequently being admitted. A weeks admission costs more than a year of shelter in an appropriate setting. We need to be thinking about that. So Housing First is a great concept, getting them off the street, taking care of them costs less money than leaving them on the street. But housing second is also important which means you diagnose the reason theyre in that condition. And housing third is also important, you fix it. Thats what true compassion is, empowering and enabling our fellow americans just as they empowered and enabled us through the sacrifices that they have made. I want to give a big thank you to secretary shulkin who has been a real stalwart to make sure these programs continue and expand. And also to everyone working at conway house, im very grateful for what youve been doing. I know this is going to act as a template to help others recognize how this is done. And there are so many cities that are starting to declare an end to homelessness for veterans and in many cases for everybody. It started out as just some of the smaller municipalities and cities. But renal recently pittsburgh and atlanta. I do believe in this country we have the ability to end homelessness for veterans and for the rest of our population if were willing to put forth the kind of effort that weve seen here today. Thank you. [ applause ]. You talk about how you want to continue to use this type of project to address the 40,000 home he is vless veterans but T Administration has called for cutting back home funding which was used to fund this program and also hasnt called how a able to continue this type of project . Its not because anybody has a krimpl criticism of the progr. Its because we have excess vouchers left over. We still have quite a few that havent been used. What were looking at now are ways to be able to transfer those vouchers around to places where theyre needed so theyre more evenly distributed. As far as the cuts in the home program and things like that are concerned, i think the objection has been the inefficiencies in the program, not the good things that are accomplished through the programs. Were not process of reworking a lot of that right now. Ill add to that. Where are you from . Npr. Great. If you take a look at the president s budget for 2018 for the department of veteran affairs, there are significant increases in the president s commitment to ending veteran homelessness. Those are facts that are out there. So the president s budget supports not only continuing what were doing but actually accelerating and putting more resources and more dollars into the 18 budget. But as far as housing, is there going to be enough funding to have more projects like this . As i mentioned, the real key here is a new paradigm. The old paradigm doesnt work with the government just dumping money on problems. The new paradigm with Public Private partnerships ive seen it very effective across the nation and creating wonderful communities. I was in atlanta about a month ago and one of the worst communities historically in terms of education, in terms of crime has been turned into lowe is now at the highest level. You know, those are the kinds of things that can happen when we bring in lots of resources, create win win situations, get the private sector involved. We just have to get away from the ideal that the only solution to our problems is government dumping money on it. You know, i would also say, and other people, were not in competition with npr, we encourage that, but we have housed over 480,000 veterans and their families in the program that the department of veteran affairs has done starting in 2010. This is a successful program. We want to continue this. Thats why were really pleased to see the additional commitment to funding for this. So we have 40,000 more to go, but what we know is, and thats why we love this model so much, i think, as secretary carson is saying, this is not just the federal government. Were a piece of it, and i think it couldnt continue without our involvement and v. A. s social workers and others who are here today. But this is that Public Private partnership that hes talking about. And this wouldnt have happened without the district of columbia and without privatet resources, but this is such a great model. We want to do more of this. This is really what we want to see for the other 40,000, but we know that if its not a sustained effort, that this will just go backwards. So this is probably a lifelong effort that were committing to. Any other Media Inquiries . Okay. Sure. You mentioned 40,000 veterans. 40,000 veterans in the streets. And thats pretty alarming, but a lot of it may have to do with something on the secrecy level where theyre using electronic gadgets, secret gadgets on peoples minds, brain waves in the middle of the night and pushing them out in the street also. Sonic waves. Like in the cuban diplomatic crisis where they said the tactics were not cuban. They were others. Its in apartment buildings, motels, hotels, houses, and from the east and west coast. And not just here. Just for the media, sorry. Anybody else . Thank you very much. I want to say, you have to give expresident obama credit because he started this program. He helped me to achieve where im at. Because i was homeless. You know, and i am a u. S. Vet, i went to cwp program for six months and a work permit at the v. A. I thank president obama. Thank you for bringing that up. I have said all along, were all in this together. And we work together. Things that have happened in the past are very Good Building blocks. We keep building on them. The whole concept of, you know, the division thats occurred and we ancant give credit to the other side, thats a bunch of garbage. Wrapping up live coverage of the briefing here on veterans homelessness. We have more on veterans in our archives, in our video library. Type Veterans Issues in the search bar. Youll find it at cspan. Org, and join us on cspan later this afternoon for a discussion on private Sector Development in afghanistan. That will be hosted by the center for strategic and International Studies live at 1 00 eastern time. You can also watch live online at cspan. Org or listen live using the free cspan radio app. Congress returning from the thanksgiving recess today with a busy month ahead. Current government funding runs out next friday, december 8th. The senates in at 4 00 eastern time with votes on judicial nominations late in the afternoon, and the rest of the week, the focus is on tax reform. Well have more on that in a minute. You can watch the senate live on cspan2. The house returns for legislative business tomorrow, and on wednesday, it will consider a resolution requiring anti antiharassment and discrimination training for house members and staff. They vote to reauthorize the brownfield waste Cleanup Program and awaiting an additional 44 billion in Disaster Relief by President Trump. You can watch live house coverage on cspan. The Senate Budget committee is expected to meet early this week to combine the senates finance committee pass tax reform bill and the Senate Energy committees provision for oil drilling in the Arctic National wildlife refuge. The revised bill will then go to the senate floor later week. A simple majority required for passage there. Its approved, theyll work on a compromise bill between the house and senate versions, and once negotiators come to an agreement, the new measure goes back to the house and senate for final votes and on to President Trump for his signature. Republican leaders say they hope that will happen before christmas. Tonight, on the communicators, the newest member of the federal communications commission, brendan carr, joins us to discuss net neutrality, the justice departments effort to sue at t over its plan to buy time warner, and media ownership rules. Mr. Carr is interviewed by politico Technology Reporter john hendal. Do you have faith in the independence of doj antitrust authorities and kind of how you see that overall, given it is a pretty big situation to be unfolding right now . My general view is the fcc again has a pretty limited role to play in mergers, which is to say when a transaction comes before us, we take a look and say is there a transactionspecific harm . If there is, we try to find a narrowly tailored remedy for the harm. If that addresses the harm we identified, we can move forward with the Public Interest determination. One thing you saw the fcc do over the last couple years is view mergers as sort of a Christmas Tree where you could hang whatever regulatory agenda on it. Thats not my approach and not the approach i think lawfully under the Communications Act the fcc should take. Watch the communicators tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. The Senate IntelligenceCommittee Held a confirmation hearing for President Trumps nominee to be the