As veterans exited the makeshift barber shop in the basement of the Washington D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center (DCVAMC), they held their heads high, their faces illuminated with wide smiles.
The annual Winterhaven Homeless Veterans Stand Down, which took place at the DCVAMC on Saturday, Jan. 23, offered novel services to homeless veterans this year.
The event, which was sponsored by the DCVAMC with the support of many veterans’ service and com-munity organizations, matched veterans with services that can help them attain independent lives.
Some new services offered this year include Google phone cards, immediate housing assistance and more services for women veterans. Other services include employment, rehabilitation and social services, as well as eye screening, a makeshift barbershop, nail salon and a give-away room. Veterans also received a free lunch.
“Google Voice Cards give someone a phone number and then they set up a voice box,” said Dale Sweetnam from Google. “This gives them the opportunity…to take this phone number and put it in their reference or give it to friends and family to stay in touch. So the idea there is that things are tough, they may be going through transitional periods, but we’re giving them an opportunity for everyone to get a hold of them if they need to.”
Google initially distributed these phone cards during Project Care in San Francisco two years ago. Finding huge success, Google distributed the cards again in smaller scale at the Winterhaven event. Any homeless veteran who attended the event was eligible for a phone card. By noon, more than 200 veterans had received a card at the all-day event.
Another new service at this year’s stand down was housing services.
“This is crucial because we can get people into immediate housing to-day,” said an event staff member who prefers to remain anonymous. The housing services were tremendously helpful for attendees who were ready to live on their own but did not have access to available housing, according to the staff member. This service correlates directly with the event’s goal to offer services to help veterans be-come self-reliant.
At past events, veteran Jon Cerry had been disappointed that this ser-vice was not offered. “The most crucial aspect that this event must assist with is housing, with a capital H-O-U-S-I-N-G,” Cerry said.
The introduction of more services for women veterans was also new to the stand down this year. According to Robin Peck, a physician working at the event, not only were more services available, but more women showed up to utilize those services. “Either outreach was better or economic circumstances are worse, leaving more women veterans homeless,” said Peck.
Two physicians were available to examine women attendees, make sure their health care is up-to-date, perform Pap-smears and mammograms and to set up future appointments. Some children attended the event with a parent, but VA benefits cover only the veteran, not the dependents, so children were ineligible for any care, according to Peck.
While receiving a manicure, attendee Vincent Wigfall praised the event. “It provides a lot of goods and services that otherwise wouldn’t be thought of to provide to veterans,” said Wigfall. “They don’t have the means or transportation to get to places where they can get the help they need such as clothing, housing, vocational rehab, counseling, different types of goods and services. There aren’t a lot of one-stop centers in the city that are big enough to accommodate all of DC’s veteran homeless population, and that is a big population.”
The halls of the DCVAMC were lined with smiling veterans and out-going staff members, working together to accomplish the incredibly important task of assisting veterans towards independence.
