An Open Door For Homeless Vets

America spends billions of dollars on war, but not much for the 275,000 men and women who served their country and are homeless. U.S. Vets is working to bring homeless vets in from the cold

Wednesday - June 07, 2006
By Chad Pata
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Will Ford, Darryl Vincent and Kevin Barnett
Will Ford, Darryl Vincent and Kevin
Barnett

As we remembered those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country on Memorial Day, let us not forget those we have lost who still walk among us.

The Veterans Administration estimates there are 275,000 homeless military veterans strewn across the United States. Eighty percent of those are suffering from some type of substance abuse problem, and until 1993 the VA had no direct way of dealing with the issue.

“The VA never had housing for the homeless veterans,” says Darryl Vincent, a former Marine and site director for the U.S. VETS-Hawaii program. “And as the chronically homeless have begun to rise, they estimate that one of every three homeless males you meet are veterans.”


The U.S. VETS program is a non-profit organization that was originally envisioned as a way to help veterans get back on their feet, but has morphed into a housing program for homeless vets.

“This was designed as a back-to-work program,” says Vincent. “What we found is there were a lot of steps in between before they can even think about going back to work.


“We literally take the veterans off the street, put them in a bed, get them food, shelter, clothing and give them the services they need.”

The Hawaii branch was opened in August 2002, fittingly on the abandoned military base at Barbers Point. Using the old barracks framed by chest-high weeds, they have established two programs to address the problems.

The first is the Veterans In Progress program (VIP) that assists veterans who are not prepared for the work force whether through lack of training, substance abuse or mental health issues.


For those with substance-abuse problems, they are first treated at the VA, then are brought over to U.S. VETS to help re-establish them in the community. Here they receive counseling according to their needs, as well as vocational training like interviewing skills and computer classes. The services are free to the veterans, but they all have to give back with their time.

“Everybody coming in does 40 hours of community service,” says Vincent, who notes the program has been at capacity with 98 vets for more than a year. “You walk through the door, do the initial intake, then you are going to give back to the community, do odd

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