we kicked off the tour on september 15th and now have visited 12 state capitals. our next stop is tallahassee, florida. we'll be there on december 6th with live interviews during washington journal. earlier today ben carson discussed ongoing efforts to address homelessness among

veterans. the two pyappeared at a newly on building that says nearly 60 units set aside for veterans that needed a home. this is just under 20 minutes. >> good morning, everybody. i guess it's still morning. almost 11:38. we've had a chance this morning to spend some time in this facility which is the first time for both of us. we're sproodly proud of what has been put together here to serve our veterans and to serve the broader homeless community. as you probably know this building is about a year old.

serves now over 60 veterans who are previously homeless. the secretary carson and i asked about the waiting list here and it's 409 because we still have 409 homeless veterans here in washington, d.c. across the country that number is 40,000. we are committed to continue our efforts until we get every vet van off the streets to find a home such as this. this is truly the model for working together. federal agencies like the department of housing urban development and the department of veteran affairs sharing its resources, sharing its knowledge and putting together support so that groups such as community solutions and others can develop projects like this to serve

veterans who are homeless and others who are homeless. the reason we have been able to reduce the number of homeless veterans across the country by over 50% now since 2010 is because of community efforts like this where it's not only federal agencies but in this case state and the district of columbia as well as many not for profit organizations. we heard about 50 altogether pulling resources together to make programs like this a reality. it's these community based efforts that we know work and we have to continue to help support. we're firmly committed to end the work to make sure we end veteran homelessness so we have a lot more work to do. we have found to formula we thinks works and will continue to support with all our efforts.

i want to thank not only the staff but the veterans. we had time to hear their stories. hear how important this facility is and how much they value it. their gratitude for having a safe and nice place to be able to call home which is so important and we think every american deserves that and i absolutely we believe every veteran deserves that as soon as possible. thanks the veterans for not only talking to us about their own experience but showing us their apartments and we just had the chance to see a beautiful apartment of mr. williams who was kind enough sthoe us his home. the message we heard here is it's not just a home but the sustainment efforts, the efforts of staff who are here, va social workers who work out of our d.c.

facility but are stationed here to help make sure the veterans continue to get the help they need. the services and medical care and everything that's so important and to hear how much those services are valued. putting tot the continued efforts of the deft of housing development and the department of veteran affairs really makes both of us feel extraordinarily proud of the efforts going on here. just wanted to say thank you and our commitment for continuing to not only learn from this model but to use this as a best practice to move forward across the country. i'm going to turn this over to dr. carson. >> thank you. there are millions of americans going back to work after thanksgiving spending time with their families.

i'm sure there were many prayers for the health of our country and for the veterans who have made it possible for us to be free in this country. we should be grateful to the veterans not only on veterans day or thanksgiving but every day of the year because 1% of our population protects the other 99%. when you think about what they've allowed us to be able to do, we should be willing to go the extra mile to make sure that they are taken care. it was wonderful today having an opportunity to meet with four veterans. it's wonderful that a facility like this exists and that

gratitude that they express not only for the facility but for the individuals who have dedicated their lives to improving life for the veterans. it makes all the difference in the world. we ought to be the first in line. they are the ones who give us to do the ability of what we do. a ta silty like this comes to pass. the ability of the federal government. the work with cities with

non-profits. not only the people but in the facility itself and that way they make sure that it is maintained. the government would ride in on a white horse with a big bucket of money and say build this facility with this group and ride away. that didn't work. when you get buy in from the rest of the community, i think that makes a huge difference. also, this facility is a good example of how the low income housing tax credit can be used to great avail for the public

good. i think people from both sides of the aisle recognize how critical it is for us to provide a stimulus and the incentive to there are win-win situations presented throughout our society makes all the difference in the world. we still have a lot of work to do. every night there's 40,000 veterans in shelters and on the streets. when we need recognize that when people are out there, under a bridge, not being taken care of, there's a strong likelihood that sometimes in the could you rephrase that year they'll wind up in the emergency room frequently being admitted. a week's add mission costs more than that year of shelter in an appropriate setting.

housing first is great concept. getting them off the street costs less money than leaving them on the street. housing second is also important which means you diagnose the reason they're in that condition and housing third is also important, you fix it. empower and enabling our fellow americans just as they empowered and enabled us through the sacrifices that they have made. to everyone working at conway house, very grateful for what you've been doing.

there's so many cities that are declaring an end to home letsness for veterans and everybody. it started out as some of the smaller municipalities. recently pittsburgh, atlanta within the past couple of weeks opinion i think this is the beginning of something that's going to be really great. i do believe in this country we have the ability to end homelessness for veterans and the rest of our population if we're willing to put forth the effort we have seen here today. thank you. [ applause ] >> any questions? >> both of you, if you don't mind. you talk about how you want to continue to use this type of

project to address the 40,000 homeless veterans still out but the trump administration has called for cutting back home funding that was used to fund this program and also hasn't called for new hud vouchers. how are you going to continue this type of project? >> well, as far as not calling for new hud vouchers it's not because anybody has a criticism of the programs because we have excess vouchers left over. when we use those we'll be looking for more. we still have quite a few that haven't been used. we're looking at now are ways to be able to transfer those vouchers around to places where they are needed so more evenly distributed.

>> where are you from? npr. great. if you take a look at the president's budget for 2018 for the department of veteran affairs there's significant increases in the president's commitment to ending veteran homelessness. those are facts that are out there. the president's budget supports not only continuing what we're doing but accelerating, putting more resource, more dollars into the '18 budget than into '17. >> as far as housing, is there going to be enough funding to have more projects like this? >> again, as i mentioned, the real key here is the new paradigm. the old paradigm doesn't work with the government just dumping money on problems opinion the new paradigm with public-private

partnerships i've seen it very effective across the nation in creating wonderful communities. i was in atlanta about a month ago in one of the worst communities. has been turned into all kinds of people wanting to be the school system performing at the lowest level is now at the highest level. those are the things that can happen when we create win-win situations, get the private sector involved. we just have to get away from the ideal that the only solution to our problems is government dumping money on it. >> i'd also say with competition of npr.

we have housed veterans this is successful program. we want to continue this. that's why we were really pleased to see the additional commitment to funding for this. we have 40,000 more to go. this is not just the federal government. we're a piece of it. i think it couldn't continue without our involvement and va social workers and others who are here today but this is that public-private partnership that he's talking about. this wouldn't have happened without district of columbia and without private resources but this is such a great model we want to do more of this. this is what we want to see for the other 40,000. we know that if it's not a sustained effort that this will just go backwards.

this is probably a lifelong effort that we're committing to opini opinion any other media inquiries? >> sure. you mentioned 40,000 veterans in the street. that's pretty alarming. a lot of it may have to do with something on the secrecy level where they are using electronic gadgets, secret gadget ons people's minds, brain waves in the middle of the night and it's pushing them out in the street also. p son sonic waves. the attackers were not cuban.

it's in apartment buildings, motel t hotels, houses. >> any other media questions. >> he started the program to achieve where i'm at. i was homeless. i went to u.s. vets for a year. i went to cwt program for six months. i'm working permanent at the va. >> thank you for bringing that up. i've said all along we're all in this together.

the whole concept of the division that's occurred and we can't give credit to that, that's a bunch of garbage.

with a busy week ahead for congress, our live coverage includes the senate banking committee tomorrow considering jerome powell to be the next federal reserve chair. that will be live tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. also tomorrow the senate budget committee reviews its tax reform bill. see that live tomorrow. on wednesday, the senate health committee considers the nomination of president trump's pick to replace tom price.