U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki traveled to Mankato earlier this week to tour facilities dedicated to rural veterans' health care and homelessness prevention. Accompanied by First District U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, Shinseki stopped at the VA's Mankato Community-Based Outpatient Clinic, which currently does not provide primary care services to veterans.

The VA is trying to expand the clinic to include those services. Right now, the Mankato clinic provides only mental health care. Veterans seeking primary medical care still need to make the 90-minute drive to the Minneapolis VA, which is difficult for older vets struggling with mobility and for younger vets juggling work, school and families.

A congressional subcommittee earlier this year estimated there are nearly 3 million veterans who use the VA health care system in rural areas. That number includes more than 100,000 veterans who reside in especially remote areas. This trend is likely to continue since a large number of service members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are recruited from rural communities, the subcommittee reported.

Last year, the VA authorized almost $22 million to fund more mobile clinics, establish new outpatient clinics, expand fee-based care and increase the use of such technologies as telemedicine. With more than 6 percent of its veteran population in rural areas, the Minneapolis VA received $1.5 million.

Shinseki and Walz also stopped at the Radichel Townhomes, 11 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless vets run by the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans, which was started in 2006. Shinseki said he would work to end homelessness among veterans in the next five years.

"We have 107,000 veterans in this country homeless today, 107,000 in this great and wonderful country of ours after what they did to serve us and defend us," he told the local Fox affiliate.

Mark Brunswick • 612-673-4434