DOVER – The Kent County Levy Court commissioners unanimously passed a resolution officially signing the county on to the Mayors Challenge to End Veterans Homelessness Tuesday night.

The working group promoting the Challenge, known as the Delaware Veterans Welcome Home Team has been hard at work spreading the message across the state with their most recent pledge of support coming from Gov. Jack Markell last week.

The Challenge’s goal is to end veterans homelessness but individual municipalities are setting mile markers like the City of Dover which hopes to house 50 veterans by the end of 2015.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) seeks to place these homeless veterans in permanent homes, not temporary ones or homeless shelters.

Many of the services veterans need to acquire housing are available, it’s only identifying the veterans in need and helping through the process that’s the difficult part.

The working group seeks to create a database of homeless veterans who will be identified upon entering a homeless shelter or seeking veterans services so they can be helped on an individual basis by setting them up with the services they need.

Through the cooperation of the various agencies and municipalities involved, red tape has already begun to disappear.

The approval made Kent County the 14th entity in the state to sign on for the program.

Levy Court meets next on May 19 at 7 p.m. at 555 Bay Road in Dover. An agenda for the meeting will be available online at co.kent.de.us.