The effort will serve as a pilot program for possible use in other cities. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1nMCALJ) reports that it launched Wednesday.

The program is mainly funded by a one-year $750,000 Department of Housing and Urban Development “rapid housing” grant.

About 50 homeless veterans were on hand as Mayor Francis Slay spoke at a news conference in the morning. Within hours, many of them were in apartments.

The effort focuses on the “chronically homeless.” Census figures show 112 chronically homeless people in St. Louis, 50 of them veterans.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com