John Mellencamp, ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill, and singer/songwriter Kix Brooks have added their voices to a campaign to find permanent housing for homeless military veterans. The campaign is sponsored by Veterans Matter, a 501(c) 3 non-profit that partners with the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help homeless veterans who have been approved for voucher-assisted housing but are unable to pay rental deposits. The organization was founded in 2012 by Ken Leslie, who was homeless for a time before he kicked drugs and alcohol in 1990. He is now the CEO of an executive search firm in Ohio.

“There are over 60,000 homeless veterans on the streets of America,” said Mellencamp, “Streets where they have been beaten, robbed, even killed.  If this happened between enemy lines, we would be outraged. We must take care of our own.”

“The public would rather not know it exists, but it does, it matters. How do you get 60,000 unhoused veterans off the streets? One at a time,” added Hill.

Learn more at VeteransMatter.org.