51 homeless veterans in St. Louis were given free apartments. How have they done?

ST. LOUIS (Tribune News Service) — Last summer, homeless veterans gathered with dignitaries at Soldiers Memorial where 51 of them were chosen for free housing for up to one year.

Then, with vans pulling up to take them to their apartments, there was a brief glitch. Organizers played the funeral song Taps over a loudspeaker instead of Reveille, the morning bugle call for which the highly publicized pilot program was named.

No matter. The homeless people were mesmerized, not to mention a bit skeptical, by a government program that was supposed to get them off the streets and into their own homes in one day.

One year later, the program — managed by a local nonprofit but funded with federal housing dollars running through the city’s human services department — offered a glimpse at the challenges and successes of a popular homeless eradication model called “rapid rehousing.”

The premise is get homeless people into homes and address their needs from there.

Reveille included a particularly risky population of people considered chronically homeless. There was hope that the vets would be weaned from assistance as they became self-sufficient during the program.

“It made me feel really optimistic,” said Kathleen Heinz Beach, executive director of Gateway 180, the nonprofit organization that provided case management for the program. “If this group can stay housed, everybody can if we match them up to correct housing.”

Out of the 51 who started, this is where they ended up:

Fourteen are living independently in their own apartments, many of them with jobs.

Twenty-three transferred to a housing voucher program called HUD/VASH that’s offered through Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development.

Five moved out of town.

Three qualified for Section 8 or other housing assistance.

Four died.

Two wound up in nursing homes.

“They came with hurts, habits and hang-ups,” said Gywanna Montague, case manager for the $530,000 program, which includes the cost of donated items.

The Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine clinic in East St. Louis gave free work to the veterans, anything from pulled teeth to full-plate dentures. Others offered furniture. Gateway provided life skills classes that helped teach basic financial planning and other topics.

Gateway 180 shuttled many of the vets around to interviews. Some landed jobs at the VA, the city of St. Louis, McMurphy’s Cafe at St. Patrick Center, a recycling facility and Bissinger’s.

Disability payments were secured for others.

“Some of them get a nice pretty penny,” said Montague.

She said the biggest challenge was gaining their trust.

Beach, the executive director of Gateway 180, which usually works with homeless families, said successful rapid-rehousing projects need to involve landlords who are aware of what they are taking on and have a willingness to work with tenants.

Early in the program, there was miscommunication between the city and Gateway 180 about who was going to pay bills, which delayed payment.

Also, people used to living outside bring a host of challenges and risks once indoors. Some apartments needed to be treated for bed bugs. In September, two of the veterans were to be kicked out of the program, including the only one who had actual combat experience in the military.

The man, an alcoholic, fell asleep while cooking macaroni and cheese. Fire clean-up crews said there were about 80 empty beer cans in the torched apartment.

Kevin Stradford, 56, who lives in the same building in the 3100 block of Cherokee Street and has been outspoken about shortfalls of the program, said then: “I might as well be sitting in the park, other than I am not going to get wet if it rains.”

A few days ago, reflecting on the past year, he said the benefits of the program were shelter and a disability check, though he disputes the amount garnished for child support.

“Everything in here is mine,” he said of his furniture and wall hangings. “I just got those pieces the other day.”

One floor above him, Rick Hussey, 59, was still pleased not to be living out of his pickup. He had a U.S. flag rolled up against the wall of a spic-and-span apartment, and several guitars.

The former barber and Marine from St. John qualified for disability assistance while in the Reveille program. He volunteers a lot of time at the VA and plans on staying in the apartment he was placed in last summer.

“I feel fortunate,” he said. “It got me out of my truck and a roof over my head. It’s up to me to try to make it the best of what it is.”

Esa Murray, 26, an Iraq War vet, was one of the youngest participants. He’d come to the VA psych ward at Jefferson Barracks by ambulance from southern Indiana. Upon release, he said he was homeless for about six weeks before getting involved with Reveille.

He’s been transferred to a different government program that helps him with rent. He also bridges the gaps with donations from churches, food banks and food stamps. He does odd jobs and donates plasma a few times a week. He and his fiancée plan to marry soon.

“Everything has been good and getting better,” he said. “I feel like I’ve come a long way in my head. I am medicated, but mentally I am doing better.”

“St. Louis has taken care of me,” he added.

While the pilot program ends July 31, Eddie Roth, who heads the city’s human services department, said the core principles of Operation Reveille are expected to continue by devoting $500,000 in federal grant money to rapid rehousing.

“The ambitious and urgent action of moving people off the street into housing is precisely what we should be doing — not just as a pilot project on behalf of veterans but routinely as a regional community on behalf of a significant percentage of men, women and families who fall into homelessness and are ready to be rehoused,” he said.

He said some people’s needs are more intensive and require longer-term support.

But he said rapid rehousing is a good investment.

“Having somebody in stable housing often proves to be much less expensive than having people live outside, churning through the system,” he said.

jbogan@post-dispatch.com

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