"In St. Louis...about 12 percent of the homeless are veterans."

Oh BOY! How generous of our guvmint. St Louie gets a paltry $1.8 mil while we've spent $566 billion and counting to wage our most recent debacle. By the time it's all said and done, according to MSNBC, "estimates vary but all agree price is far higher than initially expected;" more than likely surpassing a trillion bucks. Hell, not even Dick and George have that kind of money; well, at least not until they get the domestic oil drilling bans lifted....

Nearly $1.8 million to help city's homeless veterans Of that, $300,000 will help them find jobs, and $900,000 will go toward housing. Jake Wagman. St. Louis Post - Dispatch. St. Louis, Mo.: Aug 8, 2008. pg. C.3

The Bush administration's homelessness czar was at City Hall on Thursday announcing nearly $1.8 million in federal and state funds to help homeless veterans.

Philip F. Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, joined Mayor Francis Slay and U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., to describe the efforts that will benefit from the new money.

The funding comes as St. Louis and other cities are celebrating a decline in the number of people on the streets. In St. Louis, according to Slay, about 12 percent of the homeless are veterans.

Among the $1.78 million that has been made available locally, $300,000 will be used by the city's Human Services Department for a "reintegration" program that will assist more than 160 homeless veterans with obtaining employment.

The city's Housing Authority will also receive 35 Section 8 vouchers for homeless veterans in the city.

Another $900,000 will go toward housing 50 veterans with substance abuse problems, mental illness or both at a renovated apartment building downtown, the old Days Inn on Tucker Boulevard and Washington Avenue.

An additional $360,000 has been tagged to help veterans who are ex-convicts.

The federal Housing and Urban Development Department recently reported that, last year, there were nearly 32,000 fewer people living on the nation's streets and in shelters than in 2006, part of a reduction in "chronic homelessness" since 2005.

"These are the numbers we've been waiting for," Mangano said.

Mangano's appearance Thursday comes three years after he was here to support the launch of a 10-year plan by St. Louis city and St. Louis County to abolish chronic homelessness. At least 290 such plans are in place across the country.

Mangano said the focus must continue to be on eliminating homelessness instead of simply managing it. For more than 20 years, the priority of treating instead of curing was in place, he said.

"Someday, your children will go to a museum, see the 10-year-plan laying there under glass with your names on it and see what homelessness once was," Mangano said in a meeting with homeless service providers. "Won't you be proud?"

Credit: Jake Wagman; ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH; Doug Moore of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed to this report.