NEW CASTLE, Lawrence County — Officials declared an “effective end” to veteran homelessness in Western Pennsylvania on Thursday.

The region's government agencies and service organizations met a set of federal criteria. With various boxes checked, the 20-county Western Pennsylvania Continuum of Care was cleared to declare itself the U.S.'s 78th community to “end veteran homelessness.”

Joe DeFelice, a regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, spoke at an event in New Castle's Ben Franklin Early Leaning Center on Thursday morning. The event aimed to celebrate the end of veteran homelessness.

“I know, you can't tell me there's no homeless veterans,” DeFelice said. “That's not what we're trying to say. What we're trying to say is, if and when a homeless veteran is identified, they can be permanently housed within 90 days. We have the systems in place to be able to do that.”

To DeFelice's point, the new designation required achieving statistical benchmarks in the region. The biggest federal requirement is data on how quickly homeless veterans must be aided.

When a vet becomes homeless, according to the federal criteria mandate, they must be identified by local resources and housed within 90 days.

On average, that's being met throughout the 20 counties making up the Western Pennsylvania Continuum of Care.

Continuum of Care is the name given to regional groups in Pennsylvania working to provide and fund housing for homeless people. The 20-county continuum containing Butler County wraps around Allegheny County without including it.

Pittsburgh has its own continuum, and it has already declared an end to veteran homelessness.

Linda Thompson, an executive director for the continuum, said the region is clocking in well below the benchmark.

Thompson said numbers over the last 90 days show “that our (continuum) has moved 88 veterans into permanent housing in an average of 33 days from the time we identified each veteran as homeless.”

Officials did not have data specific to only Butler County available Thursday.

The other requirements the region needed to hit to declare veteran homelessness “ended” include identifying and helping the long-term homeless veterans in the region, gathering enough housing resources to house all homeless vets, and having enough long-term housing for homeless people that short-term housing is used only when a special service is required.

Amanda Feltenberger, Butler County Human Services' director of integrated services, also serves on the continuum's executive committee.

“Our community has the capacity, skills and resources needed to identify and assist veterans experiencing homelessness in our region in regaining housing,” Feltenberger said.

The continuum's efforts began officially in 2015.

Since then, the continuum has conducted an annual count of homeless veterans on a single night in January. Over five years, it saw a 39 percent reduction from 2015's 135 homeless veterans to 2019's 88 homeless veterans.

Most of the counted veterans were in shelters or transitional housing programs.

Along with Feltenberger, several Butler County social workers were present. Several VA Butler Healthcare system workers attended, as did some Center for Community Resources personnel.

The VA brought along a success story to deliver a speech to the group. Thomas Sawyer, a Navy veteran, talked about how Butler's VA system helped lift him out of poverty.

“It was hard for me to admit that I needed care,” Sawyer said. “I needed help. And a friend told me the only way you can get help is to be able to receive it.”

He ended up in Western Pennsylvania and applied for a program known as Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing, or VASH. The program turned his life around.

VASH is a keystone program at the heart of the continuum's efforts to curb veteran homelessness. The continuum's officials all point to VASH when describing how they hit their veteran homelessness markers.

VASH connects homeless veterans with various community housing agencies. Waivers from the VA pay for the services.

The existence of Mary Chitwood's organization, Robin's Home, challenges the idea that Western Pennsylvania ended veteran homelessness this year. The home opened this year specifically to provide housing for homeless women veterans.

“I doubt that we'll ever effectively end homelessness,” Chitwood said.

But the actual efforts celebrated in New Castle Thursday are worth applause, Chitwood said.

Through VASH, the VA sends homeless veterans to organizations like Robin's Home.

“VASH is connecting people to help very quickly,” Chitwood said. “The collaboration between the VA and community providers for housing is really beneficial for connecting people with services.”