New Haven Independent

The Veterans Administration estimates there are 3,000 homeless vets in the state, with a growing number among those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan; nationally, it’s three out of a hundred. Click here for a New York Times editorial on the subject.

The Homefront Project, an effort launched by Columbus House emergency shelter, is converting the former Lead Safe House on Davenport Avenue into transitional housing for 12 to 14 of those vets. It’s due to open in January 2010.

“We’ve found that veterans have a unique set of needs, and we want to keep them together in a separate location, so, together with the VA, we can work on those needs,” said John Brooks (pictured), development director at Columbus House.

Creating a separate facility for vets will free up much needed space in other shelters, Brooks noted.

Vets will be able to live up to two years in the new facility. They will have access to comprehensive services there.

During the day they’ll go to the Errera community center for veterans, located just over the city line in West Haven, where they’ll receive psychiatric counseling as well as counseling in life skills and for drug and alcohol abuse, if needed.

Since the need is greater than the available beds, vets will be evaluated on a case by case basis for selection to participate in the program. Only men will be eligible.

“There are far more men than women, so that’s where we have to start,” Brooks said. “But there’s an increasing number of women, and it’s an issue as well.” Click here for a story about homeless women vets.

The veterans now living at Columbus House are not segregated from the rest of the residents. They participate in all three programs there, which provide varying levels of support and independence. Brooks said he’s not aware of any problems resulting from the current situation.

But Tyrone Palmer, a Gulf War veteran who lives at Columbus House and works at the VA as a custodian, said he thinks having a separate facility for combat vets is a good thing. “As veterans, we deal with different issues” than those who never served, he said. “Once you go to war, you come back never the same. Even though a therapist can help, we need combat vets to help combat vets.” He said, although the Gulf War was short (about a month of combat) and the toll among Americans was very low, he was always on the front lines. “The ground was shaking, the sky was flashing and I saw bodies all around.” After he left the Army in 1992, he suffered from anger, anxiety and depression. “My emotions have been blown, my relationships are all over the place. I came back from war, I felt homicidal, suicidal and criminal-minded. I lost interest in everything, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me.”

Palmer became homeless within a year, “and I’ve been up and down ever since.” He’s being treated for PTSD, in a more focused way now than in previous years. He said it’s likely that those returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq probably have it worse than he did, due to multiple deployments and the length of time served in a war zone. He said of those war-time experiences, “It’s something we’re always dealing with…always.”

The renovation of the historic home (pictured) is being financed largely through a $311,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Columbus House has to raise about a third of the total cost, which comes to $117,000. Brooks said they still have to raise $80,000 by the end of the year; he added that the terrible economy is making that job harder.

Of the four men found working on the house Monday afternoon — installing windows and painting — none was a veteran. All were happy to be working on a project to support homeless vets. Rich Gagnon, owner of Prime Windows LLC, was measuring aluminum trim to attach to the siding below the historic replacement windows.

“It’s a good feeling,” he said, “because we are doing something good for the people who are going to live here — people who served our country. If they have illnesses or problems, they should be taken care of.”

Later, as he was packing up at the end of the work day, he asked a reporter, “Do you want to know how I really feel?” He said he bid on a job at the Veterans Home in Rocky Hill and was appalled at what he saw. “Here are guys who volunteered to defend our country, and they can’t even sit in a nice rocking chair that’s not going to fall apart. Now, you have veterans coming home and they’re losing their job, losing their house and here we are giving luxuries to illegal immigrants, who don’t even deserve it. They [veterans] should be taken care of before anybody, because without them, I wouldn’t have the right to come over here and do this work.”

To donate to the Homefront Project on-line, go to the Columbus House website; by phone, call 203.401.4400 ext. 106; or by mail, send a check made out to Columbus House — Homefront to P.O. Box 7093, New Haven, CT 06519.