Just ahead of Veterans Day, Nevada County Supervisors received an update, at their Tuesday meeting, from Veterans Services Officer, David West. He told the Board that veterans represent about 10-percent of the county’s population. But only 21-percent are getting some type of VA benefit. With only a half-million dollar budget to work with, and just three full-time employees, including himself, West says the Office managed to generate over four-million dollars in Federal benefits. And the focus this year has been upgrading technology to reach more vets. That includes an online booking feature…

click to listen to David West

Also this year, the Veterans Services Office joined the national homeless initiative called Built for Zero. Functional zero is achieved when a community has fewer vets experiencing homelessness than can be routinely housed. West stated that progress had been made. But the county was unable to achieve that very ambitious goal by Veterans Day…

click to listen to David West

The county was also welcomed into a cohort of 80 communities nationwide who’ve reached that last mile of ending homelessness for a specific population.