How Ohio is decreasing veteran homelessness

By Linda Stocum

In Ohio, 10,095 are homeless on any given night. About 862 of those homeless are veterans. That is down from about 1,200 from 2013.

Here is a comparison by a graph.

There are many organizations in Portage County that are tackling the problem. 

The Freedom House, a long-term veteran shelter created in 2005, has expanded its eight-bed program to over 120 beds across multiple counties.

Colleen Reaman, a retired worker from the Freedom House, explained it’s growth from one house to multiple facilities. 

“It started in a small house in 2005 on Willow Street in Kent, and they didn’t even know. They thought, ‘I think we need something for veterans.’ They started it, and they had eight beds there, and they found out real quickly, once they filled up, they decided to build [the Freedom House.]” Reaman said. “So we went from those original eight in 2005 to over 120 now in this area. Where before, we had none.”

The Freedom House is not like most homeless shelters. They promote a more extended stay so the veterans can slowly merge themselves back into a healthy lifestyle. 

“We are not considered a shelter. We are transitional housing. There is a difference,” Reaman said, “So, with transitional housing, a good stay with us we are going to work on health income and affordable housing. What we consider a healthy stay that is someone not moving out too fast, someone not staying too long, so about six to nine months.”

She further explained how the Freedom House supports the veterans who come there.

“When fellas get an income, we don’t say, ‘Well you’ve got your income, now by next week you gotta be out of here,’” Reaman said. “We‘ve already had them here for a while. We want them to get used to having an income, cause some of them are not used to that, save some money, learn to budget and pay off their debts… They are always welcomed to contact us, and we also have an aftercare program.”

This chart below is to visualize how many veterans are in Ohio.

Freedom House is recommended by many veteran services in Portage County, such as the Kent State Center for Adult and Veteran Services otherwise known as CAVS.

Scott Crawford, the program coordinator and VA certifying official, described the Freedom Houses impact on the veteran community.

“I think it is a great organization and I think it makes a big difference. It’s an opportunity to work on sobriety,” Crawford said. “Which some veterans struggle with.”

He explained how veterans leave the military and begin civilian life.

“When people are transitioning out of the military, I don’t know the specifics they go through, but it’s not like they just end their service and walk out with a suitcase,” Crawford said. “If somebody for example, if they were overseas on base and they joined at 18, they might have never had an apartment before.”

CAVS helps not only nontraditional adult students but also veterans who start college for the first time after being active military members.

“As Kent State defines as a student who is 21 years or older who has not attended college before. So you could be an adult student at 22, and you are a freshman, and you could be sitting next to a student who is 24, and they are a senior, but they are not considered an adult student,” Crawford said. 

They often refer to other veteran organizations for questions that CAVS may not be the expert on.

“We do offer services here in our office, we mainly refer people to good services in the area, whether it be the V.A… or Veteran Services Commission of Portage County,” Crawford said. “They have probably have heard that question a hundred times while I might have only heard them once.”

Many of these programs are ran through Family and Community Services, a nonprofit agency based in Ravenna. 

Matthew Slater, the executive director of veteran services for FCS, talked about how the organization has grown in the past few years. 

“It started off as small in Portage County, and we are now in 23 counties and in the state of Michigan,” Slater said. “We have everything from veteran programming to child adoption to food sites to mental health programming. I mean you name it, we probably do it somewhere as long as it is in the field of social service.”

He explained why homeless shelters are so important. 

“I think it’s very important that people understand, especially working with homeless vets or anyone that is homeless, that it is not only the morally correct thing, but it’s also the fiscally responsible thing,” Slater said. “When people are in housing, they are not in our ER’s, not in jails, not on the street and they are able to get the help and support that people want to provide them. So they can get that job, and they can volunteer so they can get back in the community. They can improve their lives so they can improve other peoples’ lives.”

While the amount of homeless veterans on the street has decreased, Reaman wanted to remind people this isn’t a problem fixed overnight. 

“They are never really going to end homelessness,” Reaman said. “We will put them on the list, but it is up to them when they will be called. But certainly, if they are willing to wait they will eventually get in, they will.”

Want to learn more about how homeless veterans and how Portage County is tackling the issue? Check out this article https://t.co/lov9VANAEP

— Linda Stocum (@linda_stocum) November 28, 2018

Side Bar:

The United States Department of Veteran Affairs has a service in Cleveland to help veterans.

Tracie Squire, the Homeless Outreach Coordinator, for the V.A. branch in Cleveland explained the program.

“The Community Resource and Referral Center (CRRC) is a program based in the community intended to provide Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness with a centralized, easily accessible site, for accessing VA services,” Squire said. “The locations are in Cleveland at 7000 Euclid Avenue, and Akron at 111 East Voris Street.”

She explained why this program is important.

“When it comes to homelessness there is ‘no wrong door.’  The Ending Veteran Homelessness initiative was intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as quickly as possible,” Squire said. “Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services.”

To contact them use the V.A. website. There one can send them an email to ask how to volunteer or use the recommend the service to other.

“Currently we have a 98% utilization rate across all counties in the Cleveland catchment area,” Squire said.