VA flunks local housing program

By JUDD WILSON

Hagadone News Network

COEUR d’ALENE — St. Vincent de Paul didn’t make the grade, so federal funding for two veterans transitional housing complexes is about to expire.

Federal funding for two transitional housing complexes for local veterans will end Sept. 30, said St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho executive director Jeff Conroy.

St. Vincent works with veterans in case management at the 11-unit Star Haven Transitional Housing property, 1516 E. Sherman Ave., and at the 11-unit Sandman Transitional Housing property, 1620 E. Sherman Ave. The housing is funded through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program. Conroy said the VA places veterans in the studio-style apartments.

According to its website, the local Roman Catholic charity bought Star Haven in 2002 with funds from “an AHP grant from Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle and a HOME loan through Idaho Housing and Finance Association.” In 2007 it bought Sandman using a grant from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

More than 85 percent of the veterans move out of the transitional housing units and into permanent housing while maintaining employment, Conroy said.

A FAILING GRADE

According to the VA, the funds will end soon because the local St. Vincent de Paul organization did not make the grade to continue to receive funds under the VA’s GPD program.

“The minimum threshold is 750 points out of a possible 1,000 and St. Vincent de Paul did not come close to the minimum,” said Jessica Baxter, spokesperson for the VA.

In December 2016, the VA began updating a two-decades old policy dealing with homeless veterans. All recipients of GPD funds had to reapply under new guidelines.

“Our previous Grant and Per Diem Program offered veterans temporary shelter. We want our veterans to have a permanent home. To do that, our homeless programs’ staff is dedicated to making sure the services and grants we provide to prevent veteran homelessness are appropriate and based on current needs and approaches,” said then-Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. David Shulkin in an Aug. 4, 2017, press release.

Organizations that did not meet the new minimum requirements were given a one-time funding extension through Sept. 30, 2018. According to the VA, St. Vincent de Paul was given plenty of opportunities. The charity registered for a webinar for non-selected applicants in September 2017, and was given the fiscal year 2018 Notice of Funding Availability in November 2017. Seven separate conference calls were available to non-selected applicants in November and December 2017, Baxter said. Finally, “Two letters were sent to St. Vincent de Paul on May 29 and May 31, 2018, notifying them they did not make the grade,” she said.

NOT EFFICIENT ENOUGH?

Conroy said he was surprised by the VA’s decision, claiming that the local charity’s program ranked in the top 10 percent nationwide for efficiency. He also said he heard of similar programs ending in Spokane last year, “with nothing to replace them.” He is working with the city, local nonprofits, and his organization’s volunteers to find a way to keep the properties open for local veterans. To keep the housing units open, they must be self-sustaining, he added. At this point, there is no firm plan, Conroy said.

Michael Shaw, founder of The Guardians Foundation in Post Falls, also operates transitional housing for local homeless veterans. He said the loss of the federal funds is unfortunate because it could negatively affect the veterans. However, the VA’s funds have a lot of strings attached, he said. The costs of conforming to VA eligibility guidelines, plus the costs to provide a dignified life for veterans in transition, make receiving those funds a net loss sometimes, he said.

“The funds they get for veterans are so low it’s difficult to even operate a program,” Shaw said.

Individual donors are a more important piece of the funding puzzle than federal funds, said Shaw. The generosity of people working through like-minded organizations across the region has yielded progress in the battle against veteran homelessness. If St. Vincent de Paul “can show what they do, and how they do it, the donors will come,” he said.

In the meantime, Conroy said St. Vincent de Paul is working with the VA to relocate the veterans in transitional housing to other VA programs so they still get the help they need.

“After this grant expires, VA will still be providing resources that will enable it to be responsive to the rapidly changing needs of homeless veterans and ensure that its current capacity to serve these 24 veterans will not be affected,” Baxter said.