BOSTON (SHNS) - U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough will be in Boston this week to visit the Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center and will be available to the media, his office said late last week. McDonough will be available to local press Wednesday afternoon at the Jamaica Plain VA, where the secretary plans to meet with facility leadership and employees to highlight the programs and services the federal government offers through the VA across Massachusetts. Members of the media are asked to RSVP by 4 p.m. Tuesday to ensure access. At the end of September, VA Boston Healthcare System announced that it had housed 363 homeless veterans in the greater Boston area during the last fiscal year, 98 percent of whom have not returned to homelessness. The VA said it engaged with another 219 unsheltered veterans in the area to ensure they have access to housing and wraparound services. Nationally between 2022 and 2023, the VA permanently housed nearly 87,000 veterans, it said. The number of veterans experiencing homelessness in the U.S. has fallen by nearly 5 percent since early 2020 and by more than 52 percent since 2010, according to the VA. "No person who has served this country should ever have to experience homelessness," McDonough said in a statement last month. "As a result of this year’s efforts, more than 43,000 formerly homeless Veterans now have access to the homes that they deserve. And make no mistake: we won’t rest until every Veteran has a safe, stable, accessible, and affordable home to call their own."