The social workers at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System are devoted and will go the extra mile to make sure what needs to be done gets done, said Paula Wood, health care for the homeless veteran coordinator.
“We know it’s hard when you’re on your own and aren’t familiar with the system,” Wood said.
The VA, one of several entities working with men who will be displaced if Martha’s Kitchen men’s shelter closes, has been on site to help veterans find alternative arrangements.
The VA has a number of programs for the homeless, including the domiciliary, which offers substance abuse treatment and employment and rehabilitation programs.
The homeless are offered contract residential treatment programs for substance abuse and psychiatry stability; transitional housing; supportive housing vouchers; and shelter referrals.
The permanent supportive housing program is for homeless veterans with low income and in need of case management to maintain stability. The case management lasts for five years, unless the case manager and the veteran mutually decide it’s no longer necessary.
Wood said housing vouchers are being used in Temple, Belton, Killeen, Copperas Cove, Austin and Waco. She’s expecting to receive more.
One veteran who had been living at Martha’s Kitchen has a housing voucher and is moving into an apartment.
“He’s just thrilled,” Wood said. “It took the shelter closing to make the funds available to help him with first month’s rent, deposit and utilities.”
A couple of veterans are being referred to a transitional housing program and several want to go to the ARCH, the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless.
“We have a case manager with the VA homeless program in Austin who is assisting them to get relocated,” Wood said. “We have the outpatient clinic in Austin and a pretty intensive homeless program that provides ongoing case management to get them linked to outpatient treatment - mental health and medical care - if that’s what they want.”
Several of the veterans want to move out of state, she said, and the HELP Center is providing bus tickets.
“If they don’t have the funding, we will be assisting them with that,” Wood said. “The local agencies are doing a tremendous job in helping the shelter residents - the Housing Authority, the HELP Center, the city have really stepped up . . . they have a good system set up.”
The veterans at Martha’s Kitchen have been given options, so there’s no reason for one to be on the streets, she said.
Veterans have not been immune to the bad economy.
Wood said in the last six months she has seen an increase in homeless single-parent families who have been unable to find employment.
“We’re doing everything we can to take care of them . . . if they are willing to take advantage of the opportunities,” she said.
On first contact, some veterans are leery of changes, but once they hear options and a rapport is established, the vet is usually more willing to give the programs a try, Wood said. It can take several visits before they are ready.
Joy Duran, chief of social work for the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, said Wood’s team has had great success in working with homeless veterans.
“They’re able to get the veterans to work with us and get them into residential treatment, then transitional housing and eventually into permanent housing,” Duran said.
What now
Wood said the VA has worked with Salvation Army shelters in Waco and Austin and would support one in Temple.
The Salvation Army is conducting a feasibility study to determine if there would be adequate funding to open a youth-at-risk program and a shelter program.
“We know we cannot provide all the services our community needs on our own,” Capt. Martha Burchett, the corps officer at the Temple Salvation Army, said. “We will be seeking cooperation and potential partnerships with agencies and churches.”
Burchett said the feasibility study has been a four-year project and is not related to Martha’s Kitchen closing its doors.
The study will determine whether Temple residents want a shelter and can support it. It also will look into Temple’s need for a safe shelter.
Burchett said DataFund, a consulting firm, was hired to do a feasibility study. The firm has a history of study and fundraising work with the Salvation Army across much of the country.
The results of the study will be presented to the Salvation Army board in early July. If it shows a need, desire and ability to sustain a shelter in Temple, the board will determine what needs to be done next, Burchett said.
Staff writer Noelle Yaqoub contributed to this report
