Partnerships battle homelessness among veterans

“Lazy” is not a word in Serafin Perez’s vocabulary.

He’s had a job since his teens. After serving in the Navy and Army for 16 years, the Iraq War veteran secured civilian employment in private security. But Perez became homeless this year, after he lost his job and his rental home in Mount Holly.

William Robinson of Camden, a much older veteran than Perez, spent the past six years in various homeless shelters and other temporary housing after a job loss and a domestic dispute.

He ended up at Veterans Haven, a transitional facility in Winslow.

Today, both ex-soldiers are in permanent homes due to the efforts of grassroots agencies implementing a federal Housing First mandate that has reduced the number of homeless veterans nationwide.

The two veterans secured housing vouchers from collaborative resource and grant programs of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Interagency Council on Homelessness and local partnering agencies.

The agencies use the Housing First approach and federal resources such as the HUD-VASH (the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) voucher program to get veterans off the street and into stable housing as quickly as possible.

Since 2008, the voucher program has served 74,019 veterans, according to HUD figures. Department Secretary Julian Castro recently announced homelessness among military veterans has dropped 33 percent nationwide since 2010.

Housing First is a conceptual approach that stresses the need for stable housing and support services to retain that housing; this allows veterans to more easily take advantage of other available services and lower their overall health care costs.

Soldiers On, a nonprofit that helps find permanent housing for veterans but was not introduced in South Jersey until 2012, is the agency that aided Perez.

“It is an angel organization that is top-notch and really cares about veterans,” said the 41-year-old Perez, a medically discharged military policeman and dog handler who suffered duty-related shoulder injuries.

“They don’t just give lip service. ‘We have money to help you pay back rent, catch you up and put you back on your feet,’ they told me.”

The veteran and his family — wife Anna Marie and their three children — have just moved into another rental home, a three-bedroom house on Mill Street in Perez’s native Mount Holly. A U.S. flag flies outside.

Perez said losing his civilian job income contributed to an eviction in July from his former rental home after he fell behind in his rent. He and his family found themselves living in a motel most of the summer.

Perez needed only short-term rental help through Soldiers On — a one-month security deposit on the rental house — because he secured another job in July as a driver for UPS. His wife continues to work at a motel in Burlington County.

Perez found “emergency financial assistance for military veterans” was available through an Internet search using those words a few months ago, when he discovered the Soldiers On website.

“From what I have seen, there are a lot of programs available, but not everyone knows about them or is accessing them,” he said. “There are homeless vets who have no Internet or cars to get them where they need to go.”

Since April, outreach coordinator Amanda Maier at the Veterans Affairs clinic in Camden has assisted Robinson in finding his new, one-bedroom apartment in Oaklyn.

The former Marine moved there from Veterans Haven in June.

The 62-year-old Robinson, who receives a non-service connected VA pension and has weight-related health issues, said he became homeless six years ago, when he lost his nurse’s aide accreditation and his job. All of that led to losing his home.

“I am a very happy camper,” Robinson said last week during a visit to the VA clinic. “I am close to things I like to do and I will be working soon in a program called CWT (Compensated Work Therapy) through the VA.”

He described as invaluable support services from both the VA in Camden and Veterans Haven, a VA-supported residential facility operated by the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

“I think people along the way saw who I was and they believed the things I was telling them,” Robinson said , “that I wanted to be on my own and self-sufficient. I think the VA is very much committed to helping veterans. I don’t know what I would have done without them.”

Robinson receives a HUD-VASH rental subsidy. The voucher pays 70 percent of his rent; the veteran is responsible for the remainder and utilities.

His rental payment is funneled through the Camden Housing Authority, which handles vouchers for Camden County.

Robinson agreed with Perez that many veterans are unaware of benefits available to them. He met an 85-year-old veteran at the clinic just last week who had no idea he could get medicine from the VA.

“Some veterans have a pride thing and think they can take care of themselves, but they have earned these benefits,” Robinson said.

Jose Bracero, the Soldiers On outreach coordinator who assisted Perez and oversees eight New Jersey counties, said there are more resources and more providers to help veterans.

“Our goal is permanent and stable housing, and we’ve helped hundreds of veterans with Supportive Services for Veterans and Families subsidy grants,” Bracero said.

Bracero said his group develops relationships with landlords and groups, such as Christian Caring Center in Browns Mills, and is part of the “continuum of care” meetings each county must have to address general homelessness.

Along with Bracero, Christian Caring Center Executive Director Madelyn Mears-Sheldon takes regular treks into woods and neighborhoods, looking for homeless veterans.

They found one man last week living in a shed and another in a makeshift trailer on someone’s lawn.

“Veterans in a survival mode live within the moment and are not planning,” Mears-Sheldon said. “In a stable environment with housing, they are able to plan better for their life and establish goals beyond survival.”

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness recently released a national estimate of veteran homelessness from data collected during an annual survey in January.

It showed 49,933 homeless veterans in America, a decline of 33 percent — or 24,837 veterans — since 2010. That includes a nearly 40 percent drop in the number sleeping on the street.

“We are advocating for more Housing First programs in New Jersey,” said Elizabeth Buck, program director of the Camden Coalition of Health Care Providers. That agency aims to reduce overall health care costs for veterans as well as other medically and socially complex clients.

Buck added Housing First programs have reduced health care spending on medically and socially complex clients — including some veterans — by more than 70 percent.

In randomized control trials, Buck said, more than 86 percent of individuals in Housing First programs stay stably housed, compared with 30 percent not in those programs.

Fern Billet, spokeswoman for the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, urges veterans to go to a VA facility and learn for which benefits they are eligible.

“We want to make sure they are getting the benefits they have earned and are entitled to.”

On the Web

Soldier On — www.wesoldieron.org