Partners board member and Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker was recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama at an event at the White House on Wednesday for his efforts to end chronic homelessness among veterans in Salt Lake City. Mayor Becker was present with the First Lady as she announced a new initiative, the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness, with 77 mayors, four governors, and four county officials on board as of the annoucement.

In her remarks, Michelle Obama praised the successful efforts of Mayor Becker at effectively eliminating chronic veteran homelessness in Salt Lake City:

As you heard, Mayor Becker, as well as his counterpart in Phoenix, Mayor Greg Stanton, they’ve already effectively ended chronic homelessness among veterans in their states. In New York, they’ve housed more than 2,000 veterans in the last year alone. Governor John Hickenlooper in Colorado has been making some incredible progress on this issue for almost a decade. And Governors Mark Dayton and Dan Malloy in Minnesota and Connecticut are also on board, as well. And we’ve got mayors like Chris Coleman from St. Paul, Minnesota, Mitch Landrieu from New Orleans, and Annise Parker from Houston. And all of these leaders are involved because this isn’t just the right thing to do for our veterans, it’s also the right thing to do for their budgets.

Michelle Obama

Read more at the Salt Lake Tribune››

View the video of the event: