And the inspired action you took to come to the aid of the veteran in crisis. Thank you all for the work that you do day in and day out on behalf of those who have served. A few weeks ago i had the honor of meeting with robert mcdonald, the secretary of the va. Secretary mcdonald is a man who has time and again answered the call of duty to his and our nation. He graduated from the United States military academy at west point in the top 2 of his class in 1975. An army veteran. Mr. Mcdonald served with the 82nd airborne division, completed jungle, arctic, desert warfare training, earned the ranger tab, that expert infantry men badge. Senior parachutist wing. Upon leaving military service, captain mcdonald was awarded the Meritorious Service medal. But mr. Mcdonalds expertise as a soldier is equal by his business beingaccumen. He earned a degree from the university of utah and has a career in the private sector. Before joining the va, chairman mcdonald was chairman, president and chief executive officer of procter gamble, a consider where, by every measurable metric, he was an astounding success. But throughout his career mr. Mcdonald carried with him the values that he learned from his military service. And when his nation called once again upon him for service, he accepted without hesitation. Secretary mcdonalds devotion to country is equal by his devotion to those who defend it. He was confirmed by the United States senate as the eighth secretary of veteran affairs on july 29th, 2014. In the year zipsince, secretary mcdonald has set about restoring the Nations Trust in the va establishing the va as the veteran Centric Institution in both that it should be and that it can be. He has established an extraordinary degree of transparency at va so he can bring all state quarters to the table to contribute to help to make the va better. He is putting the needs and expectations of veterans and beneficiaries first. Rebranding the va as myva, my va, so that all veterans feel a sense of ownership and empowerment in a system that exists solely for them. And it is working. Already this year va has increased veteran access to care and completed 7 million more appointments this year than that of last and doubled the capacity required to meet last years demand. So what does the va look like today under secretary mcdonald . Lets take a look. The va has agreed to create housing for thousands of Southern CaliforniaHomeless Veterans. With us to talk about the deal is the u. S. Secretary of veterans affairs, robert mcdonald. Youve said that you think it is possible to end homelessness for veterans in Southern California by the end of the year. The big idea here, larry, is the first step to ending homelessness for the community to come together. All of you have xlcommitted yourselves to not just counting a number but to each individual story. Because while this is a city of so much, it is also a place that alongside the l. A. River, freeway offramps and underneath our freeways, here on in skid row and throughout the city, there are thousands too many people who are homeless. One of the things you learn in the army and you learn in the military service of this country is you never leave a buddy behind. Whether the persons alive or theyre dead, we never leave somebody behind. Well, unfortunately, weve left some people behind. Theyre our Homeless Veterans. But im here to tell you that we at va are totally committed to helping the city of los angeles, helping the mayor, helping all of you achieve that goal of ending veterans homelessness by the end of this year. When i met with the secretary, along with the delegation from justice for vets, the buffalo and rochester treatment courts, i was struck by his sincerity and his strong support for veterans treatment cour courts. I can report to all of you that we have a champion at the va who is committed to ensuring the partnership between Veterans Treatment Court and the va remain strong. As we all know, mentors are the foundation of Veterans Treatment Court success. It occurs to me that during our meeting with secretary mcdonald that he is also a mentor for all of our veterans. Right that we make him an official member of the justice for Vets National volunteer veteran mentor court. What do you think . And you know, were having our veteran mentor boot camp, and at the conclusion of the boot camp, each of the veteran volunteer mentor participant will receive and wear one of these shirts when theyre inducted. When secretary mcdonald, before he leaves today, he will receive, also, his shirt. Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great honor to welcome to the stage our leader of the United States department of veteran affairs. Please, let us welcome secretary robert mcdonald. Thank you very much. It is thrill for me to be here this morning with you. As the judge said, i many a the biggest believer in veteran treatments courts that there could ever be. I cant think of any better way to keep veterans out of incarceration, stop veterans homelessness, and im just so thankful to all of you here today for the work that you do to help us care for veterans. One of the things that became very clear to me in los angeles as you may have seen in that film is that we in the va cant do this job by ourselves. We need the help of all layers of government, nongovernment organizations, businesses and others to be able to care in the right way for veterans. Its important to have collaborati collaboration and partnerships. I love this picture of judge russell and myself and were shaking hands across the table at va, because thats the kind of partnerships that we need to have. Thats the kind of collaboration that we need to have. Nationally, weve got a monumental task. So it has to really be a community effort. We have to Work Community by community, city by city, state by state. Locally it is a huge undertaking. We know that we cant succeed only from the federal government. Weve got to make those collaborative connections. 2016 is fast approaching, and we in the va have made a number of commitments for the end of 2015. Obviously our goal is to end veterans homelessness, and we have a huge role to play in doing that. But so do you. Were incredibly thankful for your partnership. Theres an inextrickab kabl lin between justice involvement and homelessness. As i looked at all the studies that i looked at when i came into this role, it was very clear that incarceration is like a oneway ticket to homelessness. So if we can Work Together to end incarceration, we have a great chance of ending homelessness. We need to give veterans an offramp from that inextricable link. Two weeks ago president obama described the United States as a nation of Second Chances. And i deeply believe that. Well, nobody deserves a Second Chance more than those who have protected our country, the 1 that has protected the 100 of our country. They give us the opportunity to prosper. They preserved our liberty and our freedom. How many of you are veterans here in this room . If you wouldnt mind, please stand up and accept the applause of all of us here. Thank you for your service. And how many of you are serving through mentor boot camp . I know we have a crew. Anybody here going to mentor boot camp . Well, good luck to you and thanks for your commitment. To a commitment to make peoples lives even better. I think theres nothing more noble than to live a life of purpose. Wouldnt it be terrible to simply mean ander through life without direction . But all of you have purpose. And thats representing by you being here. Let me tell you a quick story. It is probably a story youre familiar with, but it is about an old man and a young man. And the old man is on a beach. The beach is littered with starfish up and down the beach and the tide has gone out. As a result of that, these starfish were kind of baking in the sun and were vulnerable to lose their lives. The old man would walk the beach, hed bend over, pick up the starfish and throw it back in the sea. The young man saw this. As you know, oftentimes when were young we become cynical. We become iconoclastic and the young men goes up to the old man and says, old man, what are you doing . The old man says well im picking up starfish and throwing them back in the sea. But the young man said, yeah, old man, but look down this beach. You see thousands and thousands and thousands of starfish. There is simply no way youre going to be able to pick up all those starfish and throw them back in the sea. So even why bother . And the old man picked up another starfish and he put it back in the water and he said, it makes a difference to just one. And making a difference to just one is really how to measure our lives. Do we make a difference in the life of at least one person every single day . Thats certainly the question i ask myself when i leave my office in the evening. Have i made a difference in the life of at least one veteran that day . Well, im here to thank you for the difference youre making in it the lives of so many veterans through the work that youre doing. We in the va think that we have the most highest order calling in the world, and thats to care for those who have born the battl battle, their survivors and their families. Theres no higher calling. We also think we have the best values in the world, integrity, commitment, aide vid advocacy, and excellence. If we live our lives according to that mission and according to those values, there is no question that we can make a difference for all the veterans who have served our country. Serving justice for all veterans is an important part of that. You are embracing that mission. Youve got your arms around it. And even as you wrap your arps around it, we have many veterans who need us and who need you. Look at the marines in this formation. Which would you imagine are going to going involved in the criminal Justice System . Which would you imagine could potentially be homeless . Well, too many have, and more will. But thanks to you, thanks to you, theres an offramp, an onramp to a Second Chance. And for that, we thank you deeply. Now youve heard the testimonials. Charles said veterans treatments courts kept me alive, kept me going. Eric said veterans treatments courts offered me the chance of a lifetime. Nick said he told me this story. He said veterans treatments courts saved my life. I heard many of these stories. They start with the criminal Justice System. They start with a peer counselor. They start with the veteran treatments courts. Then the individual goes on. They use their gi bill. They get Community College training. Maybe they get a fouryear degree. Maybe they even go on to law school and maybe they end up paying it forward like many of you here of working on behalf of other veterans. These are the mission of the va. This is the i care values at work. No other group of People Better personify that mission or these values than you do. So i thank you all and i hope and pray that god will continue to bless you all in your work. Youre helping one of our priorities. Youre helping veterans return or reintegrate with communities and families successfully. You showed us this way. Veteran treatments courts is a huge innovation, and since judge russell kicked things off, we now have 351 veterans courts nationwide. Were working every day to increase that number and to increase the number of counselors that we have to work with you. While va leads the way in health care, weve done things like the first liver transplant, the first cardiac pacemaker, the first time that a nurse came up with the idea to use a bar code to connect patients with medicine, with medical records. The first Electronic Medical record. We invented the nicotine patch. We also invented the shingles vaccine. So a lot of innovations have many kcome from the va, and as result of that we have have three nobel prizes and seven lack lasker awards. You taught us how to do this. Your model of collaboration of a core concept executed federally and locally tailored to meet every specific need. Youve taught us this. This is a perfect example at how communities can collaborate in holistic ways. Theres the judge, the court staff supervising. Theres va and Community Providers delivering treatment simultaneously. Theres volunteer veteran mentors providing moral support, camaraderie and training. This is the best in class kind of collaboration we could possibly have. All of us working together synergistically for the benefit of the veteran. Let me remind you that were also working hard in all of this to help families as well. As part of our homelessness effort, of course we have hud vouchers but one of my favorite is a program to provide support for families so that we show were not only caring for the veteran but were caring for their family as well. Because certainly when a veteran joins the service or when a Service Member joins the service, the family goes with them. When they deploy, the family goes with them as well. And so we have to care for families. We need more of that kind of innovation. We need more Creative Solutions that we can use. We in the va are willing to try anything that will work. All were concerned about is getting the numeric outcome at the end, making sure we get the human outcome of a veteran who is better off. Were also working on many technological solutions, things like telehealth and also regional a veterans courts. Were committed to crowaeative approaches to make these crucial partnerships work. You all here in this room are at the nexus of justice involvement and homelessness. We want to share where we are with any veterans homeless. Down from 2010 to 2014. Down 40 for chronic homeless. This is because of the president s strong support, his focus and the funding that weve received, funding is important for Supportive Services for permanent and transitional housing, for prevention and treatment, for employment and job training. Since 2008, funding programs benefiting veterans homelessness have increased 170 . From 2. 4 billion in 2008 to 6. 5 billion in 2015. But its about a lot more than just money. We have to know how to spend that money. Well, weve learned what works, and importantly very importantly, weve learned what doesnt work. We settled on evidencebased strategies. You see them here on this chart. Housing first. Housing first. What a beautiful strategy. I mean it recognizes the hierarchy of needs. You have to get the lowest level needs out of the way work so we can work on the higher needs. If theres no way we gdont geta veteran under the roof can we deal in yes of tssues that may d homelessness. Second, no wrong door. Coordinating assessment and Entry Systems and providing help no matter where the veteran terms. I love it when i go into a city like los angeles i visited recently. They have an Access Program where every door you go in leads to the same access to the treatment and the housing. Outreach and engagement. Seeking Homeless Veterans getting to know them and their needs, caring and sharing lists with partners. While we in the va are doing a good job to try to hire social workers and counselors, there is no substitute for the peer counselor. For veteran whos been there, the veteran whos been through the need. I was recently in tucson. There were a lot of veterans out in the desert living there homeless. And i met one young man, doug was his name, who literally goes into the desert and comes back and brings those veterans in and gets them under a roof. And its the fact that doug has been a veteran and hes been homeless and hes been in the desert that gives him that ability to build trust with veterans to get them out of the desert. That outreach engagement is so critically important. Justice outreach. Connecting veterans with services. This becomes critically important. Grassroots mobilization. How do we get things mobilized at a local level, get the local government involved, local service providers, local landlords. One of the biggest issues we have in homelessness all across the country and in housing veterans is finding the landlords willing to rent at the hud vash vouch every amount. We go into cities, i get with the mayors. We ask all the landlords to get in a room like this room here today and we say we would like you to join the Mayors Challenge that you rent to veterans for the hud vash voucher amount. We will provide the care for the veterans but we need that roof and many, many of the veterans have stood up. In fact, theres an issue mayor lee in San Francisco told me that he was so thrilled because the chineseamerican community in San Francisco saw it as their patriotic duty to rent their spaces to veterans for the correct amount. I cant stress enough the importance of the grassroots effort. Only so much can be done nationally. Only so much can be done by federal agency like the va. We provide the strategy and support. We provide the funding. But ending veterans homelessness has to happen community by community. As i said, its so much more than money. Its people like you who are committed to veterans and evidencebased strategies that work. Another Community Strategy which is working is the Mayors Challenge. Phoenix, salt lake city, new orleans, have all reached major milestones over the past year. In 2014, new orleans of course was the first major city to declare that they had ended veterans homelessness. Houston recently announced that theyve created a system that will help end and prevent homelessness from now going forward. We expect many more cities to declare their results over the coming months. But let me tell you, nobodys done more to help veterans homelessness than First Lady Michelle Obama and the president. Theyve been there all alon