Freeholder Lillian Burry Soldier On, a nonprofit focused on helping homeless veterans, will use a $1 million federal grant to provide services to underserved veterans in Monmouth County who are homeless or at risk.
According to Jack Downing, CEO of Soldier On, the funds are part of a $2.9 million grant that was provided through the Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF) grant program.
“We found that there was a tremendous amount of former military people living in these communities and many of them underserved and many of them not even registered with the VA for services,” Downing said in an interview on Aug. 22.
“Essentially what these grants allow us to do is go and find vets who are underserved, who are at risk of going homeless.”
Downing, Steven Como, executive vice president, and John Crane, director of case management, toured New Jersey from Aug. 20 through 22, meeting with local officials, connecting with local agencies and nonprofits and building partnerships throughout the county and central New Jersey.
According to Crane, implementing Soldier On programs in Monmouth County will be conducted in two phases.
The first phase, which will begin Oct. 1, involves the installation of case managers who will visit households, conduct interviews and gather information about the services veterans need.
“What we are seeing out there for this type of population is dual diagnosis, so you are talking substance abuse disorders, you are talking about mental health disorders,” Crane said.
“The case managers are equipped to handle any mental health or substance abuse [issues], so on the front-end is crisis intervention. The long term is going to be referring to community agencies and just having knowledge of what those disorders are and what types of agencies are going to best fit for the per- son’s care.” Case managers are available at all times, Downing said.
“The moment you contact us we can have somebody there in two hours meeting with you face-to-face where you live,” he said.
The second phase of the program will be to build transitional, low-income housing for veterans who are homeless at Fort Monmouth.
Discussions are still ongoing with the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) about a request for proposals (RFP).
The nonprofit is also working with AcuteCare Health System, a Lakewoodbased health services company, that will occupy the former Patterson Army Health Clinic building on the fort grounds in Oceanport.
“We will probably sublease space from them for our offices,” Downing said.
“AcuteCare will partner in helping us to respond to some of the needs of veterans as we are doing our work down here in these counties. So that is where we look to have our start and then we will go from there.”
Currently, Soldier On operates in two locations: a 165-bed shelter in two buildings leased from the VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System in Leeds, Mass., and the Berkshire Veterans Residence in Pittsfield, Mass., a transitional living facility.
These facilities are managed by formerly homeless veterans, an approach that ensures that those served are empowered and take a large role in creating and maintaining their own living environment, according to the Soldier On website, www.wesoldieron.org.
A women’s program is also part of Soldier On. Jackie K’s House on the Leeds campus is a transitional housing program designed for homeless women veterans that provides a safe, structured environment that allows time to regain stability.
Participants are offered an opportunity to develop new coping skills, education and employment, and access to affordable housing and limited-equity home-ownership options.
Approximately 10 facilities are expected to open in Massachusetts, Florida, New Hampshire, Albany, New York as well as the New Jersey facility, which was a result of Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry, Downing said.
“I got a phone call from Burry who demanded that we come down here. We walked into a meeting at the FMERA office and told them what we did and that is how we got started,” he said.
Burry serves as Monmouth County’s representative on FMERA and the chairwoman of FMERA’s Veterans’ Advisory Subcommittee.
“We are working to provide services and programs that our veterans need in the wake of the closure of Fort Monmouth,” Burry said in a press release on July 31.
“Soldier On has 15 years of solid experience developing transitional and permanent housing and successfully creating innovative homeownership opportunities for veterans.”