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HOMELESS FLORIDA VETERANS SPUR LOCAL EFFORTS --
"I'm dismayed to hear some of the statistics.
It's pretty disturbing."
Story here...
http://www.news-journalonline.
com/NewsJournalOnline/News/
Local/newEAST02020307.htm
Story below:
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Homeless veterans' plight spurs local efforts
By DEBORAH CIRCELLI
Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- Each day about 50 homeless veterans walk through the
doors of a local assistance center to eat lunch and seek services,
officials said.
About 25 percent of the estimated 2,667 homeless people on the streets
in Volusia and Flagler counties are veterans, so local agencies and U.S.
Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, talked Friday about the need for
emergency shelter and transitional housing.
"I'm dismayed to hear some of the statistics," Mica said at a forum at
Emory L. Bennett Memorial Veterans Nursing Home. "It's pretty
disturbing."
One housing solution may be the Hugh West property in DeLand being sold
by Act Corp., the area's main mental health provider, officials said.
The building, which currently houses 20 people who will be moved to
other Act facilities, can hold 76 beds.
Serenity House and Volusia County are assessing the property, because
the county has $6 million budgeted for a treatment facility for homeless
people with substance abuse and mental health problems.
Volusia County Councilwoman Joie Alexander told Mica she would look into
whether the property could be used for homeless veterans. Serenity House
on April 1 also will open a 16-bed transitional housing facility off
U.S. 92 for homeless veterans.
The group also discussed area agencies applying for grants from Veterans
Affairs. Vianne Marchese, the Veterans Affairs coordinator for health
care for homeless veterans, said $11 million was available nationally
for transitional housing this past year, but no one locally applied.
Lindsay Roberts, executive director of the Volusia/Flagler County
Coalition for the Homeless, said the coalition recently paid for a
62-year-old veteran in a wheelchair to stay in a motel for 13 months
before he got into a veteran's facility. The man, who had been living
under a bridge, had a substance abuse problem and was reluctant to
leave, she said.
Officials at the Daytona Beach Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic said
about 200 to 300 of the 18,000 veterans they currently provide services
to in Volusia, Flagler and other surrounding counties are homeless.
About 10 to 16 of the Salvation Army's 36 emergency beds in Daytona
Beach are occupied by veterans.
deborah.circelli@news-jrnl.com
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Larry Scott --
