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For Veterans, Shelter from the Streets

By Beacon Staff
Illuminated by one small window in his room, Richard Eklund describes the circumstances that led him to live at Samaritan House's homeless shelter. Eklund served in both the Army and the Navy. - Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon

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This is the third in a three part series on homelessness in Montana.

This weekend, almost 2,000 veterans will descend upon Libby for the 10th annual Northwest Montana Veterans Stand Down, nearly doubling the town’s population. It will be a place for vets to mingle and get a hot meal; to take a warm shower and receive medical care. For many, it will be a place to call home, even for just a short while.

Montana, per capita, has the second-most veterans of any state in the nation behind Alaska, and the highest rate of enlistment. There are more than 100,000 veterans in a state of 970,000. Montanans have been among the first in line to sign up for battle since World War I. It is the ultimate patriotic state.

Many soldiers come back home after serving. Many other veterans from around the country join them, seeking isolation in Montana’s vastness. And a lot of them come to Northwest Montana: Flathead County has the biggest population of veterans in the state, said Allen Erickson, founder of the Northwest Montana Veterans Food Pantry in Kalispell and the Libby “Stand Down.” A significant number are homeless.

“The state’s so large they can just come here and no one bothers them,” Erickson said. “They just got away, they ran. I’m not going to lie, I ran.”

As a former homeless veteran in the 1970s, Erickson understands the forces that drive many vets into lives of seclusion. But he believes they shouldn’t be driven to lives of misery. They deserve to eat hot meals and to know they’re not alone. They’ve earned that, he says.

Erickson has dedicated his life to that belief, through both his stand down and the pantry. Stand downs are typically one- to three-day events held to provide services for homeless or at-risk veterans. Erickson said seven out of the last nine years his gathering has been the biggest stand down in the nation. This year it’s held on Oct. 3-4.

“There should not be a homeless vet in this country,” Erickson said. “There should not be an at-risk veteran in this country. We should not have that. But we do.”

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates there are 131,000 homeless veterans in the country on any given night and up to twice as many throughout the course of a year. Countless others aren’t identified or are considered to be on the brink of homelessness because of poverty, lack of support and poor living conditions.

In March, President Barack Obama unveiled a budget increase of $25 billion for the VA over the next five years. Among the goals in his ambitious plan is to end veteran homelessness over that five-year span. That isn’t realistically attainable, said Jerry Kuhl, Montana’s homeless veterans programs coordinator. But Kuhl said that by setting such a lofty goal, it puts the race to eventually end veteran homelessness on the fast track.

The VA says 45 percent of homeless vets suffer from mental illness and 70 percent have substance abuse problems. Only 3 percent are women. Post-traumatic stress disorder continues to be a major concern. And while the majority is from the Vietnam War era, officials are reporting a growing number of homeless vets from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Putting a roof over the heads of veterans is a top priority at the community, state and federal levels, with increasing cooperation between the three. In Montana, there are four housing programs specifically aimed at homeless veterans: short-term locations in Kalispell and Missoula that have contracts with the VA, and two-year recovery facilities in Helena and Missoula.

State officials are also implementing a permanent housing voucher system through the Department of Housing and Urban Development and VA Supportive Housing. While these programs cover only a fraction of the population in need, more are on the way. There are also two state-operated veteran nursing homes in Columbia Falls and Glendive.

“There’s a pressing need to develop additional resources to get, if you will, veterans off the street,” Kuhl said.

Kuhl said a 20-bed transitional housing unit for homeless veterans is opening in Billings on Oct. 1. Also, the VA Montana Healthcare System is in the early stages of a plan to turn a two-acre parcel at Fort Harrison into transitional housing. Officials there would lease the land out for 75 years to a developer willing to take on the project. In Northwest Montana, Erickson has his eyes set on housing for homeless vets as well.

Veterans aren’t the easiest bunch to round up. Often instilled with an indomitable sense of self-sufficiency from years in the service, some don’t want to seek help and others don’t think they need it.

“It’s very, very hard for them to ask for charity,” Erickson said.

Another major problem is that many don’t know what’s available to them, said Len Leibinger, operational service officer for the Montana Veteran Affairs division. Leibinger’s agency serves as an intermediary between veterans and the federal VA, informing vets of what services they’re eligible for and helping them with appropriate paperwork.

The VA is approaching a backlog of 1 million claims nationally, Leibinger said, so it’s of utmost importance to have everything properly completed when filing claim papers. Incomplete claims aren’t likely to see the light of day. Depending on a variety of factors, veterans qualify for numerous kinds of benefits, from medical to disability to free hunting licenses.

“We get veterans in the office all the time who haven’t heard about these services,” Leibinger said.

For Billy R., who served in the Army in the late 1960s, decades of drifting and substance abuse after his military service took their toll; working as a welder and smoking did too. Today Billy can’t walk down the street without a nebulizer. He can’t work either.

“I won’t be drifting no more because I can’t,” he said.

The Samaritan House in Kalispell is now Billy’s home. He lives in a dormitory with three other veterans – vets tend to stick together. Or as Billy says, vets form a “brotherhood.” At the Samaritan House, they’re either placed in dorms together or in a separate pod of rooms refurbished specifically for veterans.

Billy still coughs and wheezes, but he’s happy, largely because he said “they have a lot of respect for the veterans here – I can’t tell you how much this place has done for me.” And he’s particularly excited about his recent enrollment in the VA’s dental program, which he qualified for by living in the shelter long enough and abiding by all the rules. He hasn’t been able to chew properly for longer than he cares to remember.

“My whole attitude in life has changed since I knew I was going to get new teeth,” he said. “I’ll be able to smile again. I haven’t done that in a long time.”

Over at the food pantry in Kalispell, Erickson lives for those smiles. His food pantry distributed food to 1,275 veterans and their families in 2008, representing 2,474 individuals in total. Vets pick up food boxes once a month and Erickson also invites them to re-stock perishables every week. The food comes from community donations. Veterans must show military identification and meet income guidelines to receive the boxes.

“The valley’s very generous,” Erickson said.

Veterans can also take a shower and do their laundry for free at the pantry. Next door is a clothing store that is free for veterans and $.25 per item for the general public. Erickson’s wife, Linda, said between 36 and 40 percent of the pantry’s customers are homeless.

When Erickson was homeless with three kids in the 1970s, struggling with alcohol abuse after his military service, he said he could have used a food pantry or counseling: “There was nothing like this when I needed it.” Forty years later, he and his wife are doing everything they can to make sure that doesn’t happen to other vets.

“Outside my family, I love my vets,” Erickson said. “My biggest satisfaction is seeing a vet come in and give me a handshake and a hug. You can’t get paid any better way than that.”

Read the rest of this series.

Part One: Finding Montana’s Invisible Youth

Part Two: The Rapid Spread of Rural Homelessness