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Bryan Meyer and Jason Kander led a tour of our VCP Village in Kansas City.
This morning, on September 11, Veterans Community Project (VCP) hosted United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough for a tour of our VCP Village tiny home community in Kansas City. At the Village, we provide transitional housing, wraparound services and emergency assistance to Veterans currently or at risk of experiencing homelessness.
“It is a meaningful day,” Secretary McDonough reflected, with the flag outside of VCP at half-mast behind him. Throughout the visit, he asked detailed questions about the challenges faced by the Veterans we support – a number of whom served after 9/11 – and explored opportunities for future collaboration.
While VCP is an independent nonprofit that is largely privately funded, we have a strong working relationship with VA regional offices and frequently assist residents in navigating their earned benefits. Secretary McDonough noted that VCP and the VA share the goal of “making good on the promises our country has made to [Veterans].”
VCP Co-Founder and CEO Bryan Meyer and President of National Expansion Jason Kander were proud to host Secretary McDonough, with Meyer saying, “The visit was an honor as well as an incredible testament to the work our supporters are making possible here at Veterans Community Project.”
Meyer also reflects on how telling the story of VCP while giving a tour has evolved since our founding in 2016, “It’s been a paradigm shift. In the early days, the story was the idea… now, the story is the proof.”
Proof, such as how our model has demonstrated an 85% success rate for Veterans to transition from homelessness to permanent housing – a figure that we are working to scale across the United States, where an estimated 35,000 Veterans are experiencing homelessness on any given night.
“I am so impressed by what you are doing,” said Secretary McDonough.
At our VCP Villages in Missouri, Colorado and South Dakota (with more VCP Villages in progress across the country), residents are able to stay in the tiny homes for as long as they need, with the average stay of around 16 months. During that time, they receive intensive 1:1 case management services in areas like health, employment and finances.
For Meyer, that comprehensive support is “the enforcement of the social contract for society to take care of those who raised their hand to serve our country.” Many VCP employees, including founders, chose to join the Armed Forces following 9/11.
Secretary McDonough, who served in the Obama Administration as White House Chief of Staff and previously as Principal Deputy National Security Advisor, was among a small group in the Situation Room during the Special Operations Forces raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
In an interview with USA TODAY about the night of the raid, Secretary McDonough said, “I just remember watching what we were able to witness there and thinking to myself: ‘I wish the country could see what I can see.’”
“There’s so much second guessing whether the country can do big things,” he continued, “and I’ve seen time again − that night and here at VA − that we do big things and we do them well."
At Veterans Community Project, we’re on a mission to do a big thing: fix Veteran homelessness.
Consider enlisting with us.