swords to plow shares brought me on as americorps vista working throughout california and gave me the ability to right my ship and my life. i was able to go seek services at the vr, get my physical ship in order and work on our physical initiative. during that time i was recognized for my service by americcorps vista. during that time i lived in the city of san francisco with an income of less than $13,000 for the year and that was quite the struggle, so i very much know how low income veterans here in the city are very much affected by housing rates and other cost of living. during that time i helped organize and form a convening for corporations, nonprofits, throughout the state, helped do research and administer employment grants throughout the state of california and now texas, work with dozens of partners helping bring down veterans unemployment by a couple percentage points the last number of years and my main focus this year is helping mayor ed lee and the city of san francisco achieve the goal of ending veteran homelessness by the end of the year. after my position they brough

poverty area where states can leverage resources, federal and state flexible resources, send americorps and vistavolunteers to those communities, provide greater mobility for those americans living in the high poverty communities. it's not only in the interest of people in those communities, because when you have a high poverty community, you're limiting both the life chances of individuals but also the human capital that can contribute to the state's broader economic growth. that's one area where we're looking to explore new and innovative ideas to partner with states across the country, and we think this is generally a bipartisan idea. the second is that one in three americans in this country has some kind of criminal record. this is a barrier to employment, it's a barrier to education and training, it's a barrier to housing, to good credit, to all kind of things. and so one of the things that we're looking at is a suite of policies at the state level. there's obviously things that local governments can do, state and federal government employers, but states have a lot of policy tools at their d

poverty area where states can leverage resources, federal and state flexible resources, send americorps and vistavolunteers to those communities, provide greater mobility for those americans living in the high poverty communities. it's not only in the interest of people in those communities, because when you have a high poverty community, you're limiting both the life chances of individuals but also the human capital that can contribute to the state's broader economic growth. that's one area where we're looking to explore new and innovative ideas to partner with states across the country, and we think this is generally a bipartisan idea. the second is that one in three americans in this country has some kind of criminal record. this is a barrier to employment, it's a barrier to education and training, it's a barrier to housing, to good credit, to all kind of things. and so one of the things that we're looking at is a suite of policies at the state level. there's obviously things that local governments can do, state and federal government employers, but states have a lot of policy tools at their d