New homes for struggling vets Affordable rents, free services at apartments.

The Community Center at Montabella Pointe Apartments, a new affordable housing complex that will provide affordable rents to military veterans, is pictured under construction July 1, 2011. ANDREW BUCKLEY / abuckley@express-news.net less The Community Center at Montabella Pointe Apartments, a new affordable housing complex that will provide affordable rents to military veterans, is pictured under construction July 1, 2011. ANDREW BUCKLEY / ... more Photo: ANDREW BUCKLEY, Andrew Buckley/Express-News Photo: ANDREW BUCKLEY, Andrew Buckley/Express-News Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close New homes for struggling vets 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

After David James served 14 years in an elite special operations unit in the Marine Corps, life “out here,” as he calls it, has not gone the way he hoped it might.

Injured in a hazing incident that he chose not to report, James, 49, left military service six years shy of qualifying for a pension, leaving him with no income, no college degree and a collapsed left lung.

For most of the past 18 years, jobs pouring concrete and working as a physical trainer afforded him stable apartments. Then, last year, a motorcycle crash nearly severed his right leg and ended his job as a trainer. Since October, he has lived out of three military backpacks and slept on a spare couch in the home of a charitable family he did not previously know. But he plans to soon trade the sofa for an apartment of his own.

James is among a growing number of former service members who hope to regain a foothold on stability at a new apartment complex aimed at providing affordable rents and free services for veterans. Set to open in August, the Montabella Pointe Apartments on Foster Road will be a first of its kind in San Antonio — a permanent, affordable housing complex dedicated to low-income veterans and their families.

For veterans like James, who makes $12 an hour driving a forklift and packing boxes at a warehouse, the apartments are expected to fill a sore need in San Antonio.

“It's an opportunity to get to a safe place, a stable place, and have a fighting chance again,” James said.

The nonprofit group building the project, Housing and Community Services Inc., will give veterans preference for the 144 units that began preleasing last month, though other low-income families also can apply. The project targets families who earn 60 percent or less of the city's median income.

Monthly rents for one-bedroom apartments range from $236 to $558, depending on household income. Two-bedroom apartments run from $278 to $664; three-bedroom units rent for $295 to $741.

The group also plans to dedicate $502,622 in grant money from the Texas Veterans Commission to further lower rents and provide assistance with monthly utilities bills.

A staff member will be posted full time at the apartments to connect veterans to social service agencies that offer help with finding jobs and transportation, medical services, computer training, financial literacy and other classes.

Mireya Guardado, veterans property supervisor for HCS, said the extra help navigating benefits and finding other services is key for former service members, who are accustomed to institutional living and often struggle to find agencies that offer help.

“A single veteran with no family may not know that there are any benefits out there for him because they're used to the military doing everything for them,” Guardado said. “It's the little things they need help with.”

Filling a gap

Although some local shelters focus on providing short-term and transitional housing for veterans, Montabella Pointe will plug a gap in the need for long-term affordable housing, advocates said.

“Everyone talks about taking care of our veterans. I don't think we do it,” said Felicia Glenn, development director for HCS.

The combination of multiple military bases here and a state-of-the-art medical rehabilitation facility at Brooke Army Medical Center makes San Antonio a hub for veterans who are struggling with low, fixed incomes and long-term medical needs.

“We see many of the wounded warriors who were burned or have amputations and are brought here to San Antonio, and many of these families end up staying here,” said Jennifer Cernoch, president of Operation Homefront of Texas, which runs about 20 transitional apartments and works with recently discharged GIs and wounded troops.

Veterans can stay up to about a year in those apartments, called Operation Homefront Village, and all rent and utilities are paid.

Housing officials said it's difficult to quantify the need for low-income housing among veterans, but at the city's largest homeless shelter, Haven For Hope, former military troops consistently make up 13 percent of the facility's population, Haven CEO George Block said.

“There is nothing that produces homelessness like military service,” he said.

Blanca Rosa Braswell, veterans' case manager at Haven, sees the difficulties up close.

When veterans are ready to move out of the shelter and into long-term housing of their own, she typically refers them to the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, which provides housing vouchers reserved specifically for former service members.

Braswell often relies on the VASH program to place veterans, but some don't qualify because of felony convictions, and that's been a fairly common problem. For them, finding other affordable housing options is difficult, Braswell said.

With no other fallback if veterans don't qualify for the vouchers, she said she welcomes the addition of Montabella Pointe and has begun to send referrals to it.

“This kind of affordable housing would really help alleviate the homelessness problem for veterans in San Antonio,” she said.

A transitional shelter on Medina Street downtown, American GI Forum, offers 80 dormitory beds for homeless single veterans.

Ignacio Leija, vice president of service operations, said the shelter is nearly always full and that he's seen an increase in families requesting assistance in the past year.

“The number of wounded veterans is greater than ever before simply because of technology and they're living with their wounds,” he said. “They're coming back to San Antonio to heal, and that requires long-term care, and their spouses and families are coming to join them.”

Among those living at the shelter is Regina Clay, 50. In the past year, she has lost her apartment, her job and her vehicle. Chronic depression and a series of bad turns and admittedly bad choices led to her arrival at the shelter eight months ago.

She feels frustrated and overwhelmed with the task of finding resources that will help her get back up. She also hopes to move in to Montabella Pointe, in part because of the promise of assistance finding social services.

“It's like looking for a needle in a haystack when you need something,” she said. “Everything you learn is word of mouth. You don't know what you're missing.”

The right choice

David James, the former Marine, identifies with her frustration. Although he left the Marines in 1993, he still feels like an outsider. In the highly structured and disciplined world of the Marines, he thrived. Trained in hostage rescue, an expert in close-quarters combat and skilled at pinpointing long-distance parachute landings at night, James is at a loss to deal with things such as office politics.

“What's mostly hard is that people aren't necessarily working on a code of honor and respect out here,” he said. “People are going 80 mph. It's chaotic. In the military, everything makes sense. There's a plan every single day.”

He likes the idea of living with other veterans, and after shopping around the city for places he can afford, he's convinced that the new complex is the right choice.

“I need to have a place where I'm going to have longevity,” he said.

So far, Housing and Community Services has received 48 applications for spots at Montabella Pointe. The group believes that demand will be high, and it hopes to build more projects designed for veterans.

“This is going to be very successful,” said Glenn, the group's development director. “We originally thought, ‘Wow we have 144 apartments.' That's a lot. I think a couple of months from now, we're going to say ‘Wow we only have 144 apartments.'”

Veterans who are interested in applying for a lease can call Housing and Community Services at 210-255-1893 or 210-821-4300 or email Mireya Guardado at mireyag@hcscorp.org.