housing for homeless
veterans
We welcome the support of the local Manchester VFW, the DAV and the Manchester Area Council of Churches for their current and future promise of solidarity with the VVAF Dinda House in Manchester, CT. The DAV (Disabled American Veterans) made a generous monetary contribution to the Dinda House. The VFW hosts a monthly breakfast buffet to which our veterans are invited. The Manchester Area Council of Churches has "adopted" Dinda House residents, promising to provide them with Thanksgiving and Christmas meals!
Indeed, we have much for which to be grateful as we come to the end of another program year. This year we have witnessed many personal successes among our veterans, as well as growth in our programs. Our most notable challenges occurred in the adjustments we made to our transitional housing program in Manchester, CT, Dinda House, which services the veterans engaged in treatment at the Newington, CT, VA Health Center. So that we could meet the needs of both veterans and their clinicians in the Newington/Manchester area in a more focused manner, we hired a new Case Manager, Miguel Olmo, whose sole responsibility is the Dinda House residents. He is a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor and is completing his studies in social work. Like the West Haven Case Managers, this new professional has the responsibility of assisting veterans to make a healthy transition from homelessness to independent living. This encompasses a range of coaching services from counseling to cleaning!
We are pleased to report that of the nine beds, in the three apartments at Dinda House, seven are presently occupied by recovering veterans. Two of three beds, in one apartment, now accommodate two female veterans with a third female veteran on the way! The Dinda House Case Manager recently had the pleasure of discharging one woman into independent living. She was stationed in Iraq and upon her discharge from service required some supportive time to make a healthy adjustment. Thank you for helping us to help her!
In West Haven, CT, all four of our houses are fully occupied. Some veterans are in transitional housing; some are in permanent housing. We continue to be encouraged by the success that our permanent residents at Boylston Street are experiencing; the VA has hired one veteran and two others are working in the community. Seven of fifteen veterans in transitional housing, with our assistance, have been chosen by lottery to be placed on a waiting list to receive Section 8 (HUD) housing vouchers. Although the list is long, this is a really good thing!
"...Thank you for giving me my life back", exclaimed one of our resident veterans to a VVAF Case Manager in West Haven, CT. The happy occasion was his graduation from Culinary Arts School. Incredibly, this same vet expressed similar sentiments upon his acceptance into our housing program just one year ago when he gratefully said, "A year ago I was living in the woods and drinking vodka!" Understandably, his exuberance swelled our hearts to think that we, and you, through your generosity, contributed to his successful hard work at ending his struggle with homelessness and addiction; that you and we had provided him not with a handout but an handup. Thank you!
