Great week in the making, for two of our families! Veteran Family # 50 and 51 will move from our emergency housing to permanent housing, which means if you are cleaning out a garage and have household good (furniture, kitchen, BEDS for kids... towels and sheets....) we are going to need them soon! One family will be community members in Hemet and one in San Jacinto. Happy to move these families, and help the children BELONG again, and feel safely in a home, not worrying about where next they will sleep. Programs utilized to move both back to homes were VASH, a HUD program set aside to do rapid re-housing for veterans, and the Supportive Services for Veterans families grants. Now we as a community get to help with making the house, which is just a building, a home! Our senior veteran will go to Loma Linda with us today to get registered, and finish the paperwork needed to transfer him to Cal-Vets Retirement Communities. I love this option, when it is the right option. A share of cost program, even at full hospitalization, the bill never takes the entire income of the veteran, and they will accept veterans with NO INCOME> Once the paperwork is done.... That is always the delay, in all programs, and the unfunded area where we need to stand in the gap. Once approved, Rudy will NEVER be homeless again, NEVER be hungry, NEVER not have appropriate medical care... and just as important will have a social network of other veterans where he can BELONG. Hope to have him in his new home by October.... 6-8 weeks average time once paperwork is submitted. Our 3 brothers, all vets that we have kept housed since May, are still in our partner hotel, and the housing move that was planned fell through, so we are working on new options for them. No case is ever easy, and this one was more complicated than some others. They all had pets... and so the pets needed to be kenneled during all of this. Sadly, several pets have died now,unable to thrive in that atmosphere. If it can shut down a pet to be in a shelter (so to speak), what does it do to a human?? I can see the anxiety and depression setting in on them, and an worried that if we cannot catch a break for them soon, one or more will be hospitalized. If you are a praying FRIEND, they could use your love directed at them. An 80 something veteran will go with us today to see his doctor, and he is asking us to help him encourage that doctor to declare that his dental work is medically necessary. The VA does not cover dental work, except to pull a tooth, unless you are fully retired or 100% service connected disabled. Another gap, and hard donation to find. If we can get it listed as medical need, we MAY be able to get it paid through Medicare, but not an easy thing. Tomorrow, I will meet with another veteran that needs help to avoid homelessness. We have received and given away 115 backpacks this year... more than last year, but not quite our goal of 150. And we are planning that wedding we mentioned to take place in the next 2-3 weeks.... In addition, our emergency housing, in partnership with San Jacinto Inn, has provided 128 nights of shelter so far this month, for vets with kids, to vets with pets.... And the food that goes with that... And the transportation to needed services that it takes to move through to the goal of stability. Everything we are able to do is because of partnerships with the community, and with the systems we have learned to use... and we are grateful for each of you.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 15:32:13 +0000
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