When America has gone to war, many in our region have volunteered to serve and protect our nation’s interests. Douglas County has one of Oregon’s highest percentages of veterans, and Josephine, Klamath and Lake County are not far behind. Service has sometimes come at great cost, with a number of veterans returning with physical injuries or mental health issues like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), conditions that can lead to loss of employment and critical support systems. Lacking work and networks of family or friends, some veterans end up homeless or in perilous housing situations.
Recent estimates show that about 1,500 of Oregon’s veterans are homeless. This figure does not include other household members. Many more face the imminent risk of homelessness. The VA established the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program (SSVF) a decade ago to work toward eliminating veteran homelessness. SSVF provides case management and supportive services to prevent the imminent loss of a veteran’s home or identify a new, more suitable housing situation for veterans and his or her family. If a family is homeless, the program helps to rapidly re-house veterans and their families.
Early on, UCAN launched the SSVF Program for veteran families living in Josephine and Douglas County. UCAN obtains VA funds for this service through an agreement with ACCESS, a Jackson County non-profit. Through this program, UCAN case managers help veterans:
- Assess their needs,
- Develop a plan to obtain more stable housing,
- Obtain such benefits as VA and Social Security Disability that help cover the cost of housing,
- Obtain other needed services through referrals to other agencies,
- Obtain temporary cash assistance to meet urgent needs.
Having successfully operated SSVF programming in Douglas and Josephine County, UCAN was recently asked to take over the program in Klamath and Lake County. Though these counties are not within our primary service area, we wanted to ensure that veterans in these two counties did not lose the supports offered through SSVF. Working with the Community Action Partnership of Oregon, the state association for community action agencies like UCAN, we took over operations in Klamath and Lake County in June.
The transfer has been a heavy lift for our existing SSVF staff. They have had to shuttle back and forth to Klamath Falls, a two-hour drive from our local offices, to transfer files, meet new clients, and begin establishing relationships with local service providers and landlords. We are happy to report that not only have they seamlessly taken over service to 53 families comprising 87 family members, they have continued to add families to the program. At the same time, we continue to serve 83 veteran families in Josephine and Douglas County, benefitting 135 family members. We are so happy to meet the needs of so many veteran families.
