The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced its goal to house 41,000 unhoused veterans.
The VA works with local organizations like Liberation Veteran Services in Richmond, which provides transitional housing and other services to men who served in the military.
VPM News Morning Edition host Phil Liles recently spoke with Fletcher Johnson, director of donor and community engagement at LVS, about the experiences of veterans seeking permanent housing.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Phil Liles: Why are veterans particularly vulnerable to being unhoused and how do they come to you?
Fletcher Johnson: Our clients come to us with substance abuse issues, mental health issues and, of course, post-traumatic stress disorder. So, it is our goal and mission to help them to deal with the barriers that they come to us with.
But the way a veteran comes to us is — they first have to go to the VA hospital, and then he is put into a facility that can help him with whatever his barriers are. A client pays nothing to be at our place — nothing. Meals are provided.
What effect is there on families and the larger community when a veteran is unhoused?
Most veterans that we see burn bridges with family, for the most part.
One of the things that we love to do is reconnect veterans with families. A lot of times, their marital situation, we might not be able to help, but we do a pretty good job of getting our veterans reconnected with their siblings or kids.
How is Liberation Veteran Services working to find permanent homes for unhoused veterans?
That is what our ultimate goal is: permanent housing. So, we’ve been doing this for 10 years, and we average about three gentlemen a month that go into permanent housing. So, we’re housing 35 to 36 men every year and we have an 86% success rate.
Once a client finishes our program, we get them into permanent housing. And we have a housing specialist who follows our veterans for one full year.
But one that sticks out in my mind was about seven years ago: I had a gentleman that came to us from the VA, and he had been living in his car. This gentleman had no idea about what he was entitled to as a veteran of the armed forces.
He came to us — it took us about 30 days to get him acclimated to what was going on and how we did things at LVS. Sixty days after that, we did some paperwork to find out what he was entitled to. Another 60 days passed — this gentleman gets a lump sum of more than $38,000.
He was a service-connected veteran. And, he was classed at 50% disability, which was another $1,800 a month. So, now that gentleman has income; it made it much easier for us to find him housing. And to this day, this gentleman is doing well.
I am so happy for him.
It just does my heart well. Even after all this time, when I watch one of our guys put a key into an apartment [door], it still brings tears to my eyes.
For people who would like to get involved, what do they need to do and what do you need?
I have a list that’s in my head of things I need on a daily basis to keep our gentlemen comfortable. I always need toilet paper and paper towels, cleaning supplies, trash bags, laundry and dishwashing detergent.
And we are always looking for volunteers. Always.
