West Easton had previously notified residents through the borough’s newsletter that it was accepting donations for The VALOR Clinic Foundation, a local non-profit organization that assists homeless veterans.
According to a press release last month from The Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Trump administration announced there was a 2.1 percent decrease of homeless veterans in the United States from January, 2018 to January, 2019.
It boasted of 793 more veterans having roofs over their heads.
The data was derived from Point In Time (PIT) estimates conducted during just the last 10 days in January for each of those years. According to the PIT estimates, there were only 857 homeless veterans in the entire state of Pennsylvania, claiming only 37 of those were living on the streets.
Most believe the numbers to be skewed.
The data, gathered with only a sampling of locations during what can be among the coldest days of the year, is used to create the official estimate. Veterans that briefly find warmth in temporary shelters are not counted as homeless, nor are those who continuously couch surf in winter months, shelter in tents found in wooded and isolated areas, or have gone “off the grid.”
Non-profit veteran support groups would probably agree that homeless veterans are in greater numbers than the government wants to admit.
VALOR Clinic Foundation provides assistance accessing benefits and shelter to Veterans with limited or no access to care; helps find shelter for Veterans who, due to health or means, are unable to find or keep shelter of their own, and Post Traumatic Stress resources to Veterans through their Veterans Unstoppable program.
VALOR sets up across from Safe Harbor in Easton at 10am, the 4th Saturday of each month, to hand out food/clothing to homeless veterans and others.
They would greatly appreciate donations of Chapstick, pocket tissues, new or gently worn clean winter coats, jeans, hoodies, etc.
Food items requested include non-perishable food items of any type, including peanut butter, canned/foiled meats such as tuna fish and spam; and V-8 individual juices.
Keep in mind they also help homeless female veterans as well. They are in short supply of women’s hygiene products, deodorant, new underwear and bras.
If your grocery store has banana shipping boxes for free, please pick those up for VALOR, to be used for package distributions.
Your donations may be dropped off at Borough Hall during normal business hours for this month’s pick-up. You may also contact West Easton Borough resident, Beth Lutz at blutz.valor@gmail.com.
Disclaimer: On January 4, 2016, the owner of WestEastonPA.com began serving on the West Easton Council following an election. Postings and all content found on this website are the opinions of Matthew A. Dees and may not necessarily represent the opinion of the governing body for The Borough of West Easton.
