By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — About 100 people marched through center city Philadelphia today to combat homelessness, especially among veterans.

The Fannie Mae “Help the Homeless Veterans Walk” is a Philadelphia-specific version of an overall effort by the federal mortage finance company, according to Lincoln Straehle of the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service and Education Center.

And he says it’s not their first project.

“Fannie Mae and their employees have been absolutely wonderful, coming in to our facility, painting our facility, doing a lot of fundraising activities to benefit the veterans we serve,” he tells KYW Newsradio.

The Philadelphia area has a lot of homeless vets, but the center has programs to get them off the streets.

“We have a ‘perimeter’ program which procvides day-service, immedate needs, breakfast, lunch, shelter, providing haircuts, laundry facilities,” Straehle says, “but most importantly access to our transitional housing units and access to our permanent housing units as well.”

Pennsylvania has about ten percent of the nation’s homeless vets.