COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Columbia Veterans Affairs Health Care System (VAHCS) and South Carolina Housing have come together to provide more options for homeless veterans in the Midlands.
"If we can get one veteran off the street then that's what it's all about. Whether or not we get one or 50 or 5,000 off of the streets, that's what our mission is; it's to end homelessness," Terri Davis said.
Davis coordinates the Columbia VAHCS Healthcare for Homeless Veterans program (HCHV).
The program's most recent project created 50 new Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers for homeless veterans in Lexington County.
"We work with veterans who live in the streets or are in shelters or have evictions, just unstable housing. we help them to get in with the housing authority, get the voucher, provide the case management and the wrap around services that they need to stay stably housed," Amanda Bonner said Amanda Bonner, the HUD VASH supervisor.
Throughout this process veterans may find themselves living in a shelter, one of those shelters is Transitions Homeless Center.
"Out of those two programs in the last year, transitions has housed over 41 veterans, and that's great to get them permanently housed," said Transitions CEO and President Craig Currey. That's what we try to do here; we want to get people housed and off the streets."
Currey said that about 10% of their residential population consists of veterans.
"We go to work immediately," Currey said. "[We ask] do you have a VASH voucher or not, and if they don't, then we're working with the VA liaison person to really figure out how does this person get the VASH voucher. Ideally, this can be done in a month or so."
Freddy Hargett is new to Transitions and hopes to receive a HUD VASH voucher.
"I was living homeless before, out in the woods before I came here. I lived in a tent for five years," he said. "Stable housing is what I'm looking for basically. A good job and stable housing. I'm a mechanic by trade so that's what I want to get back into."
This program went into effect for Lexington County on Dec 1. Since then, the Columbia VA has issued 31 out of 50 vouchers.
For more information on housing vouchers, call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-424-3838.