What comments do you have regarding the proposed goals, objectives and action steps for the Virginia Beach Strategic Plan to End Homelessness?

It doesn't appear to be a good solution to a chronic world wide problem. The generosity of people will come through church groups, civic leagues, etc. To tax us more is not the answer. Building another place that needs salary types to run is just an endless pit of money and may attract more homeless to our area. People often make choices starting at a young age that lead to their living on the street. It is impossible to stop this problem and comfort should come from charity not taxes.

Good plan. The plan should also consider homeless camps in the rural half of the City. The focus of the report is on homelessness in the visual urban half of the City.

It looks like a lot of time was given to write goals , objectives, and steps to achieve those goals. However, no where were there specific descriptions of how these goals would be achieved , who would be held accountable for the specific step, cost to implement and where the funds would come from.
I do not agree that Virginia Beach would be responsible for "entitlements" including FREE education, food, job training, child care, medical care, mental health care , and housing etc. without the person working for your objectives. They can work in facility or city offices for payment of any area they want. By giving them a job within our city, they will automatically be given benefits that pay for a lot of what you feel they need.
I do not see why there needs to be a brand new facility. There are strip malls, city owned buildings like old rec centers & schools and other structures which are empty. Why not adapt one of those facilities for these services.
I did notice that you have a specific goal to remove homeless from the oceanfront. That was the only area in all of Virginia Beach that had it's on goals. Good luck with that.
When you developed these goals , objectives and action steps, did you consult the homeless to understand what they will use? Let me point out that there are many homeless individuals who choose this life. I do understand that some of the homeless are because of circumstances . These are the people who could use an opportunity to change their circumstances. Please do not make it a handout but provide incentives.

I'm no expert on homelessness, but from what I understand, there is a significant percentage of military veterans among the homeless population, especially in areas like Hampton Roads. Perhaps it's naive, or even silly of me to suggest this, but couldn't the federal government in the form of the Veteran's Administration be required to help defray some of the costs insofar as they relate to housing homeless vets? Or is this a completely separate issue that is addressed elsewhere?

I've also been lead to believe that mental illness and drug addiction are two of the root causes of homelessness. Because of this, many who are homeless are so because they CHOOSE to be. Will this project include the necessary treatment for those with mental health issues or drug addictions? If not, we can build a hundred shiny, new, state-of-the-art facilities in which to house them, but they'll just keep returning to the streets because of the freedom it affords them to live without having to follow "house rules" and/or a regimented program with which they are either unable or unwilling to comply.

Great work putting all this together. It is clearly apparent that a lot of work and planning and feedback from the public and private sectors has accompanied this endeavor, and I am grateful for it. As for all those who say that ending homelessness is a pipe dream, please pay no attention to them. It was a pipe dream to create a vessel that could carry a human being under the water for exploration purposes, until the submarine was invented. It was a pipe dream to create a vessel that would carry a human being in the air for traveling purposes, until the airplane was invented. Same thing about the idea of men flying through space and landing on the moon. We will always have whiners, and naysayers, and those with zero vision who only care about their own agenda. I congratulate you for dreaming big and taking the necessary action to begin making that dream a reality. You can be sure that the homeless community is delighted with your efforts, and I am, too.

Since mental illness is the primary underlying cause of homelessness; extensive focus on mental health would be beneficial.

We need to take care of the human beings first and foremost! New commercial developments with tremendous tax breaks using citizen (human beings) taxes/money needs to be slowed down or stopped until some of these problems are updated and taken care of. Homelessness has been proven to not have any set group or persons as targets. We are all subject to this sad situation!

The premise of "Ending homelessness" is a pipe dream. The goal should be efficient management of homelessness, by turning a liability into an asset where possible. Just as there are varied reasons for people becoming homeless, a multi faceted approach, perhaps incremental, must be used to manage these liabilities. I strongly support the establishment of "work centers" where homeless people can be put to work by the city in return for housing, sustenance, and education to become productive, self sustaining assets to our community.

I commend the city for putting an action plan around this problem. I would like to see more emphasis on making homelessness temporary. Perhaps develop jobs within the city government that some of these homeless individuals could be placed in. Providing permanent living assistance provides no incentive to rectify the underlying causes of their homelessness. I see an initiative mentioned in the plan to partner with higher education for internships. Those internships are generally limited in nature and should not end up penalizing students paying for their education by limiting their opportunity to take advantage of limited internship opportunities. For example, let's train some of the 18-24 year olds mentioned in the plan to be landscapers. We have plenty of city property that needs to be landscaped that we pay a hefty dollar for. Let them earn their housing money while learning a skill they can take out into the free market. Let's partner with our health care providers to provide coordinated care. Help navigate these individuals through their necessary care. Keeping them on their medications and getting them care before it requires an inpatient stay is a win win for all of us. I would like to see more emphasis on planning for resolving dependency and less on acquiring handouts and developing more low income housing.

The local neighborhoods were given no notice of this plan until well after the land was bought with intent. And an open forum was only held when working people are occupied. In addition, it was stated that the location was choose because it was away from residential property which it is not. It is a five minute was down a bike path from a neighborhood of elderly residents. Also new low income apartments are going to be built directly across from it. The project shod be halted or the cities rational for its location is a sham. And they have little to no plan to safe guard the public from the massive increse in crime that will occur. And yes, it will happen. All studies by independent researchers with no vested interest In projects like this show as much a a three hundred percent increase in crime. This is another example of poor stewardshipathfinder.