Studer Community Institute

Homeless vets get 'Home for the Holidays' and, hopefully, longer

December 10, 2014
/ Louis Cooper
/ community-dashboard

A dozen or more homeless veterans and their families in Northwest Florida will get a gift this Christmas that could change their lives forever. The "Home for the Holidays" program, embarking on its third year, will give 12 to 15 homeless veterans and their families a warm bed to sleep and food to eat for a month, all the time working toward helping them find permanent housing. The program, which runs Dec. 15 to Jan. 16, is coordinated by the Monument to Women Veterans, the Waterfront Rescue Mission and POE In Action. “We take local homeless veterans off the street from both Escambia and Santa Rosa counties,” said Michelle Caldwell, founder and chief executive officer of the Monument to Women Veterans. “We get a hotel to donate five rooms to us (and raise money to pay for other rooms), and we do intensive case management to connect those veterans and their families to their benefits.” The Magnuson Inn Pensacola on Pensacola Boulevard, formerly a Howard Johnson, provides the rooms. [sidebar] Want to help? If you would like to help with Home for the Holidays, contact Michelle Caldwell at [email protected] or (850) 572-5474. [/sidebar] Potential participants now are being referred from various local organizations and agencies that deal with veterans and the homeless, Caldwell said. In the first two years of the program, about 25 veterans and their families transitioned to permanent housing. That’s about a 90 percent success rate. The program helps single people as well as couples and families with children. Last year, Caldwell said four of the participants were women, and many of those the program helped suffered from mental illness. “It’s an empowerment program,” she said. “Our integrated approach brings the organizations to the table that are already providing the services.” The program, however, requires the homeless clients to actively participate in their own recovery process. “We have a schedule for them for the whole month. We actually keep them very busy. It’s an intense evaluation. We don't allow any drinking in the program or any drugs.” Caldwell said. “We’re going to teach them to fish. I will not fish for them, but some of these people need to believe they can fish again.” About 20 percent of the adult homeless population in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties are veterans, according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Caldwell said this is particularly heartbreaking because veterans need not be homeless. “Most of the homeless veterans have benefits (including rent assistance, home financing and healthcare, among others) waiting for them,” said Caldwell, who was enlisted in the Navy from 1985-89. “We just have to connect them to the benefits.” That can be a challenge once a veteran becomes homeless, Caldwell said. “If you don’t have an address, and you don't have a phone, you don’t have a computer — and they would like you to drive to the VA clinic in Pensacola — it’s hard to access your benefits,” she said. John Findlay, program manager for the Waterfront Mission's Day Resource Center, said about 25 percent of the homeless population the mission serves are veterans. "Waterfront thinks this is an important project because it involves veterans, to whom we are grateful for their service, and because it produces results with a very high percentage of families moving out of homelessness to stable housing," Findlay said. "We provide meals and a place to meet for their various training modules each day." Caldwell estimates that the program will cost about $3,000 this year, much of which goes to transportation. The Gulf Breeze Rotary Club has raised $800 and committed to provide toys for the Christmas party the program throws for participants. “Of course, the more money we raise, the more people we can get off the streets,” Caldwell said.

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Homeless vets get 'Home for the Holidays' and, hopefully, longer

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