Stand Down for Veterans
In war zones combat units come off the battlefield to a place of relative safety to rest and recover. At home, Stand Down refers to community-based programs to help homeless veterans cope with life on the street.
Veteran’s Village of San Diego (VVSD) organized the first community-based Stand Down in 1988. I started attending Stand Down seven years ago, when I joined the VVSD Board of Directors. The first several years, I attended the Saturday morning VIP event where local politicians appeared, made some (hopefully brief) comments and shook some hands. On Sunday morning, along with other board members, I’d help serve breakfast to 700 or so homeless vets.
I don’t listen to the politicians speak anymore, and I don’t serve breakfast. I watch. This year I took a 23-year-old newly commissioned Navy Ensign along with me, as another set of eyes. I’ll call him James, more from him later. I noted that things are changing fast. No longer are there new faces from the Vietnam era — the youngest person who served then is now in his or her mid-50’s. What I see now are many more 20- and 30-year-old men and women. Smart, well-trained, motivated young adults looking for work — and they can’t find it. Some live out of the back of their car, if they still have one. This year 1,003 vets came through our chow lines, and we served 13,600 meals. We had plenty of donated food and volunteers to serve it.
There were about four volunteers to provide services for every homeless vet. Clothing was offered to all who attended, starting with underwear and socks, shoes and a warm coat for winter and everything in between, and, yes, it does get cold at night during winter in San Diego. Over half had eye exams, a third got prescription lenses and a quarter got reading glasses. The VA refilled prescriptions; the Navy filled teeth or pulled them if necessary. Hair got cut, beards were trimmed, there were perms for the 56 women vets — they are attending in increasing numbers.
Many vets got massages, and alternative medical arts were available. Various twelve-step groups held meetings for anyone needing to attend. The line was long at the veteran’s court, complete with judges, bailiffs and counsel to assist in dealing with the problems homeless vets encounter when they slip over the line and are cited. This is a universal part of life on the street. Placements were made, 25 vets enrolled in the residential rehabilitation program at VVSD, 8 went to our residential program in Escondido, 30 went to Father Joe’s and 5 to other programs — in summary 63 came off the streets.
Why has there been a 50% increase in the numbers of vets attending Stand Down since I started attending? It isn’t just because Stand Down got national exposure when it was featured on 60 Minutes last Fall and CBS ran it again the week before this year’s Stand Down. It’s because there are many young vets leaving active duty after serving in our now decade-long wars. The skills they learned in the military don’t always match up with those needed in our currently depressed economy.
After seeing all this James asked, “Why don’t you do this more than once a year?”
It’s because, it takes resources, money and people to do this. Besides, we have to get ready for winter, when from December to April we operate a Winter Shelter providing a warm bed, a hot dinner and breakfast for 150 homeless veterans every night. If you add up all the programs VVSD operates in San Diego County, during the coming winter months there will be 475 vets under shelter and being fed every night. Next year the number will be over 500.
That keeps us really busy, consumes our available resources — and is why we do Stand Down only once a year.
There were about four volunteers to provide services for every homeless vet. Clothing was offered to all who attended, starting with underwear and socks, shoes and a warm coat for winter and everything in between, and, yes, it does get cold at night during winter in San Diego. Over half had eye exams, a third got prescription lenses and a quarter got reading glasses. The VA refilled prescriptions; the Navy filled teeth or pulled them if necessary. Hair got cut, beards were trimmed, there were perms for the 56 women vets — they are attending in increasing numbers.
Many vets got massages, and alternative medical arts were available. Various twelve-step groups held meetings for anyone needing to attend. The line was long at the veteran’s court, complete with judges, bailiffs and counsel to assist in dealing with the problems homeless vets encounter when they slip over the line and are cited. This is a universal part of life on the street. Placements were made, 25 vets enrolled in the residential rehabilitation program at VVSD, 8 went to our residential program in Escondido, 30 went to Father Joe’s and 5 to other programs — in summary 63 came off the streets.
Why has there been a 50% increase in the numbers of vets attending Stand Down since I started attending? It isn’t just because Stand Down got national exposure when it was featured on 60 Minutes last Fall and CBS ran it again the week before this year’s Stand Down. It’s because there are many young vets leaving active duty after serving in our now decade-long wars. The skills they learned in the military don’t always match up with those needed in our currently depressed economy.
After seeing all this James asked, “Why don’t you do this more than once a year?”
It’s because, it takes resources, money and people to do this. Besides, we have to get ready for winter, when from December to April we operate a Winter Shelter providing a warm bed, a hot dinner and breakfast for 150 homeless veterans every night. If you add up all the programs VVSD operates in San Diego County, during the coming winter months there will be 475 vets under shelter and being fed every night. Next year the number will be over 500.
That keeps us really busy, consumes our available resources — and is why we do Stand Down only once a year.
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