Fort Snelling apartments to aid homeless vets

Officials broke ground Thursday at Fort Snelling on a housing project for homeless veterans.

The $17 million project will convert five historic Fort Snelling structures into 58 studios and apartments. Public and private money is bankrolling the construction.

At the ground breaking ceremony, officials touted efforts to provide housing to veterans but said they know of 317 homeless veterans who are living on the streets in Minnesota.

"We're going to work towards the goal of making this not only better but we're going to eliminate veterans' homelessness in the state of Minnesota,"said Minneapolis VA Executive Director Patrick Kelly, who cited the national goal of eliminating veterans' homelessness by 2015.

Construction of the housing at Fort Snelling is expected to be completed next spring.