Shepherd's House, a Fort Wayne faith-based organization that provides transitional housing for homeless military veterans, might launch a community fund drive, curtail its services or close its doors because of the pending loss of federal funds.

Shepherd's House co-founder Barb Cox said Thursday that the Department of Veterans Affairs apparently has denied its application for a grant worth about $496,000 a year. A similar grant has accounted for the bulk of the organization's $622,000 yearly budget, with the rest coming from private sources.

“We're just completely thrown for a loop, honestly,” Cox said in a telephone interview.

“We've given everything for this ministry for the last 20 years, and we've seen miracle after miracle. ... I can't even let my mind ponder God not moving and making this possible again,” she said.

Shepherd's House has 40 beds for VA-qualified homeless veterans at its Tennessee Avenue building near Spy Run. It has been receiving grant money since 2009 through VA's Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program, called GPD for short. The grant amounts to $46 a day for each veteran served.

VA announced in December that it would terminate GPD grants dating back to 1994 and require recipients to reapply for funding by April 4. VA said in its termination notice that it would turn the GPD into a competitive, performance-based yearly grant program. Existing grants expire Sept. 30, and funds will run out Dec. 31.

“We were told clearly that 97 percent of all the existing programs would be funded, and we knew we couldn't fall in that (remaining) 3 percent because we're not just a cot and a meal, we've got a huge clinical treatment program here,” Cox said about Shepherd's House.

She said judges from a half-dozen court systems “will only refer here, because this program is so good. I never expected not to be funded.”

Cox said she has never received written notice from VA that the Shepherd's House grant application had been rejected. She said she called a VA employee in Tampa, Florida, to ask about the application and was told, “Oh, it's not good.”

VA officials in Washington, D.C., had not responded to requests for comment by Thursday night.

Liberty Landing, a transitional housing complex for homeless veterans on South Calhoun Street, received word that its GPD application had been approved, according to its owner, faith-based Volunteers of America of Indiana. Mike Lloyd, vice president of operations for the Indianapolis-based Volunteers, said he did not know how much VA money the 40-bed facility would receive.

Asked about the future of Shepherd's House without federal funds, Cox said one prospect is “really, really scaling back” medical, psychological and other services for homeless veterans. Another option is asking for financial contributions from Fort Wayne organizations, foundations and residents.

“I'm praying that the community steps up and somehow makes this go on,” she said.

Asked whether closing is an option, Cox said: “Well, we're 30,000 square feet. You can't make an operation this big continue without funding. So I don't want to say those words out loud, but I mean, it's just obvious.”

Rep. Jim Banks, R-3rd, wrote a letter Wednesday to VA Secretary David Shulkin seeking details on the agency's decision to deny GPD funding to Shepherd's House. He wrote that “to date no official explanation for this decision has been provided.”

Banks, a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, noted in his letter that Cox and her husband, Shepherd's House co-founder Lonnie Cox, received Indiana's highest civilian honor, the Sagamore of the Wabash, from then-Gov. Mike Pence, now the nation's vice president, in 2016.

While applauding VA efforts to improve its services for homeless veterans, Banks added, “In the wake of these changes, organizations are running out of time to navigate a course for the future.” He wrote that Indianapolis-based Hoosier Veteran Assistance Foundation did not get an official explanation for a reduction in its GPD funding.

Banks is not the only member of Congress trying to get answers. The Journal Times of Racine County, Wisconsin, reported last week that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., have written to Shulkin to ask why their state's veterans affairs agency has lost a $500,000 federal VA grant for aiding homeless veterans.

VA said last year on its website that the GPD has supported more than 600 homeless veterans projects and 13,800 beds nationwide. The program served roughly 44,700 homeless veterans in fiscal 2016, with more than 16,500 of them finding permanent housing, according to the website.

The VA notice to terminate grants stated that the agency “expects to fund 24 existing service centers and 12,000 beds” under its new plan, in which grants would fit five housing models. Shepherd's House had applied under the clinical and hospital-to-housing models, while Liberty Landing applied under bridge housing for short stays and service-intensive transitioning.

The December VA notice stated that “the allocation of these grants needs to be updated to reflect the documented current need as well as to increase the flexibility to adapt to future needs.”

The nation's homeless veteran population declined by nearly 50 percent between 2010 and 2016, when it was about 39,400, according to federal estimates.

bfrancisco@jg.net