Shelter's Veterans Fear a Future Out on the Streets
Tuesday, February 12, 2008; Page B03
Sharon Claudio, a homeless veteran who served in the Army from 1978 to 1982, came in off the streets more than a year ago, finding shelter at Ignatia House, a rundown building on the grounds of the U.S. Armed Forces Retirement Home near North Capitol Street.
But conditions at the shelter, which is run by the charity U.S. Vets, quickly became hard to tolerate. Claudio is one of only two women in the facility. She must share a bathroom with a hallway full of men, and she lives in a room with spotty or no heat. The elevator is out for weeks on end. In her basement hallway, only one bank of lights is working, leaving most of the passageway dark. Rat traps reveal the infestation in the building's lower level. The laundry room is locked up, closed after allegations that asbestos flakes were falling from the ceiling.
In a few weeks, when U.S. Vets' lease ends, Ignatia House is scheduled to be vacated. As of now, its 50 residents have nowhere to go. Claudio and other residents don't know whether to be angry that they are being put out or glad they are escaping from a building some consider barely better than living on the street.
Managers of the shelter last week sought publicity for their plight and help from D.C. Council members in finding housing for Ignatia House's residents, many of whom have substance-abuse problems. But while U.S. Vets argues that its predicament is caused in large part by the retirement home's refusal to help provide for these homeless veterans, the story is actually a good deal more complicated.
U.S. Vets, which has received more than $79 million in federal grants the past decade to house more than 2,500 veterans at 11 facilities, has come under fire from federal auditors for "major financial and operational problems." The auditors issued a report questioning whether more than $500,000 in federal money was spent properly.
"There can be no better use of federal funds than for helping our veterans in need," said Gerald Walpin, inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, which provides AmeriCorps workers for U.S. Vets facilities. "But that good purpose is no excuse for misusing such funds and thus depriving veterans of money allocated to benefit them."
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U.S. Vets concedes that "mistakes were made" but argues that most of the audit's findings were inaccurate or overblown. U.S. Vets regional director Stephanie Buckley says Ignatia House's residents face a return to the streets because the retirement home is more interested in handing over 77 acres of its 270-acre campus to developers than in caring for homeless veterans. A controversial plan to boost the retirement home's resources by letting developers build hundreds of residential units and a hotel on the campus -- while tearing down decrepit buildings, including Ignatia House -- is slowly making its way through regulatory agencies.
In 2004 the report was hopeful (sorry I'm not paying more to read the rest)
Lost veterans find home; Ignatia House provides a base for recovering a life.(METROPOLITAN)(COMMUNITY FORUM)
Washington Times, The, November, 2004
Byline: Denise Barnes, THE WASHINGTON TIMES Staff writer Denise Barnes interviewed Nanci Jewell, D.C. metro director of U.S. VETS. Question: What is your group's mission? Answer: Our sole mission is the reintegration of homeless veterans back into mainstream society. I think, organizationally, our philosophy is really that each veteran is unique, their situations are unique and the amount of time it is going to take them to reintegrate is unique.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5244/is_200411/ai_n19558966
