With Bon Jovi's help, VA tackles veteran homelessness

With Bon Jovi's help, VA tackles veteran homelessness
Posted Saturday, Jul. 14, 2012
BY FARAH MOHAMED
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- On a cold night in Monmouth County, N.J., a lone dishwasher stayed late, taking on extra work to buy time. The restaurant's owners, trying to close, guessed that the man had no place to go. And when they tried to find him one, they struck out.

The restaurant is owned by rock legend Jon Bon Jovi's foundation, and Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea Hurley, discovered that night that finding services for the homeless is no easy task. For the Veterans Affairs Department, which is trying to tackle the serious problem of veterans' homelessness, figuring out how to make the task easier is pivotal.

After Bon Jovi couldn't find information that night, he wondered whether he could use technology to help him do so. Months later, he had a conversation with then-White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, and now Bon Jovi's vision of real-time access to services for the homeless is part of the VA's push to eliminate veteran homelessness.

"Fighting homelessness doesn't happen behind the desk -- unless it's my desk. It happens out in the field," said Jonah Czerwinski, the director of the Veterans Affairs Innovation Initiative, which pairs government and nongovernment individuals to tackle veteran challenges. "If you can't take the data and information with you, you are inherently hobbled in your ability to make great progress."
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