VA Housing: Guaranteed Loans, Direct Loans, and Specially Adapted Housing Grants

[Excerpt] The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) administers several programs that assist individual veterans in purchasing and/or rehabilitating homes. The specific ways in which the VA assists veterans include (1) guaranteeing home mortgages from private lenders (through the Loan Guaranty Program, a form of insurance) to help veterans obtain financing for home purchases, improvements, or refinancing; (2) providing direct loans for home purchases to Native American veterans and to purchasers of homes that are in the VA inventory due to default and foreclosure; and (3) extending grants and loans to veterans with service-connected disabilities so that they can adapt housing to fit their needs through the Specially Adapted Housing Program. This report discusses some of the legislative history behind each of these housing programs, and provides details about how the programs currently operate. There is a separate section on funding for VA loan programs, and the final section of the report discusses VA efforts to assist borrowers who face default and foreclosure. While the VA also provides housing assistance for homeless veterans, this report does not address these programs

Harmonic functions on locally compact groups of polynomial growth

We extend a theorem by Kleiner, stating that on a group with polynomial growth, the space of harmonic functions of polynomial of at most $k$ is finite dimensional, to the settings of locally compact groups equipped with measures with non-compact support. This has implications to the structure of the space of polynomially growing harmonic functions.Comment: 20 page

Veterans and Homelessness

[Excerpt] The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan brought renewed attention to the needs of veterans, including the needs of homeless veterans. Homeless veterans initially came to the country’s attention in the 1970s and 1980s, when homelessness generally was becoming a more prevalent and noticeable phenomenon. The first section of this report defines the term “homeless veteran,” discusses attempts to estimate the number of veterans who are homeless, and presents the results of studies regarding the demographic characteristics of homeless veterans as well as those served in VA homeless programs. At the same time that the number of homeless persons began to grow, it became clear through various analyses of homeless individuals that homeless veterans were overrepresented in the homeless population. The second section of this report summarizes the available research regarding the overrepresentation of both male and female veterans, who have been found to be present in greater percentages in the homeless population than their percentages in the general population. This section also reviews research regarding possible explanations for why homeless veterans have been overrepresented. In response to the issue of homelessness among veterans, the federal government has created numerous programs to fund services, transitional housing, and permanent housing specifically for homeless veterans. The third section of this report discusses these programs. The majority of programs are funded through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Within the VA, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which is responsible for the health care of veterans, operates all but one of the programs for homeless veterans. The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), which is responsible for compensation, pensions, educational assistance, home loan guarantees, and insurance, operates the other. In addition, the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) operate programs for homeless veterans. Several issues regarding homelessness among veterans have become prominent since the beginning of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The fourth section of this report discusses three of these issues. The first is the VA’s plan to end homelessness among veterans. A second issue is ensuring that an adequate transition process exists for returning veterans to assist them with issues that might put them at risk of homelessness. Third is the concern that adequate services might not exist to serve the needs of women veterans. This report will be updated when new statistical information becomes available and to reflect programmatic changes

The Possible Detection of Dark Energy on Earth Using Atom Interferometry

This paper describes the concept and the beginning of an experimental investigation of whether it is possible to directly detect dark energy density on earth using atom interferometry. The concept is to null out the gravitational force using a double interferometer. This research provides a non-astronomical path for research on dark energy. The application of this method to other hypothetical weak forces and fields is also discussed. In the the final section I discuss the advantages of carrying out a dark energy density search in a satellite in earth orbit where more precise nulling of gravitational forces can be achieved

Statement of Arnold E. Perl Before the Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations

Testimony_Perl_081094.pdf: 191 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020