Lacey Veterans Services Hub Manager Keith Looker reported the city’s services’ success in serving veterans in the county for the past quarter during an informational session yesterday, July 27.
“Back in 2017, we've seen that over 2000 of our veterans were living below the poverty level, over 7000 had service-related disability or tertiary disabilities, [and] a lot of them were not receiving their benefits with disabilities,” Looker said. “We started the Lacey Veterans Services Hub to resolve some of those issues.”
The Lacey Veterans Services Hub is a one-stop shop that provides assistance to all Veterans and their families in Thurston County.
The hub offers different services for local veterans: housing, nutrition, healthcare, education, employment, VA benefits, and financial, legal, and transportation assistance.
“As you know, homelessness has been a problem here in Thurston County for a long time. We started with a number of veterans that were homeless in his community. We wanted to bring in some of these organizations to help relieve that,” shared Looker.
The initiatives given to veterans were the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program, Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF), Rapid Rehousing, Transitional/Supportive Housing, Habitat for Humanity, Veterans Affairs (VA) Home Loan Certificates, South Sound Military Community Partnership (SSMCP), and Housing Services Education Sub Committee.
Through the HUD-VASH Program, this year, 76 veterans are being housed, and 12 are in the process of finding a place to live. From 2018 to 2022, 128 veterans were already housed, and from 2018 to the present, outreach to 1325 veterans was already conducted.
The hub’s initiatives for veterans’ nutrition are its association with the Thurston County Food Bank, Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) Community Service Office, and Food Insecurity Grants.
“We are a satellite location for the Thurston County Food Bank. We give food out five days a week. And we also help them identify some of the other resources like the Lacey Food Bank and the Olympia Food Bank– we assist them in getting in contact with them. We also partner with DSHS to assist low-income families in getting into services,” reported Looker.
Looker highlighted the providers for Food Insecurity Grants, which supported the nutrition of veteran families. The Bob Woodruff Foundation released $55,000, which served 489 families, and the Lions Club, which gave $5,000, which served 50 families.
“We would want to make sure that everybody would have some kind of health care. And this was actually like a two a two prong program. So we do physical health and they also work on the mental health,” Looker said.
The initiatives for veteran’s healthcare were VA Healthcare, Long Term Healthcare, Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA), Apple Health, ETS-Sponsorship Program/Veteran Sponsorship Initiative, Mental Health Counseling, SSMCP Behavioral and Social Services Working Group.
“One of the benefits serving the military is that were education benefits that you earned as part of that service. While the issue we found out is that a lot of the individuals, when they were transitioning out of military, they had those services just kind of getting stuck. So they don't realize that they actually have that opportunity,” said Looker.
The hub had these programs for the veterans’ education: Forever GI Bill, Vocational Rehabilitation and Education, Chapter 35 Dependent Education Benefits, Washington State Vocational Rehabilitation, and Private Universities.
“When you get out of the military you need to have a job. So we partner with WorkSource so the workforce maintains an office there to help individuals get into employment or get better jobs than they currently have. We also work with the Department of Labor and Employment Navigator Partnership Program. This is actually a national program for anybody in the military. When they're about a year out, they can identify where they're gonna go, and then they get referred to a local provider,” Looker said.
The programs for employment are partnerships with WorkSource, the Department of Labor Employment Navigator Partnership Program, Goodwill of the Olympics Rainier Region, and the USO Transition Team.
Worksource, one of the employment partners, highlighted that around 16 veterans in Thurston County landed jobs this year, reaching a total income of $818,355.
“This is probably actually our biggest program; we have more people come in looking for these resources than the majority others. So we assist them in getting the finer disability claims,” Looker said.
VA Disability Claims, Veteran Pensions, Survivor Benefits, and Aid and Attendance are among the many programs the hub conducts.
The hub reported a $2.5 million total income from benefits for 2022.
The hub offers financial assistance and management to veterans through the Thurston County Veteran Assistance Fund, Support the Enlisted Project (STEP), and Local Donations.
“We have several organizations that assist the county. We’re familiar with [the] Thurston County Veterans Assistance Fund. And we also have an organization called Support the Enlisted Project, which actually received grant funding to take and assist both active duty and currently separated veterans and paying their bills. We also get a lot of donations from individuals,” Looker reported.
In 2022, 21 veterans were financially assisted with the amount totaling $38,835. This year, 47 veterans received assistance totaling $75,750.
“We actually have a voucher attorney who comes twice a month and provides appointment services for veterans that need legal assistance. And we also have a notary on sight, which is a free notary service for individuals that need to use a notary,” Looker said.
VA awarded a portion of the $11.5M Legal Assistance Grant to the Northwest Justice Project to hire an additional attorney to assist veterans.
The hub highlighted these programs for legal assistance to veterans: Onsite Volunteer Lawyer, Onsite Notary, Northwest Justice Project, and Attorney General’s Veteran Legal Assistance Program.
The hub highlighted that Intercity Transit donated two vans, door-to-door service for medical appointments was made possible within Thurston County and to the American Lake VA Medical Center, and a unique low-barrier service providing travel between Pierce and Thurston Counties was made available.
“Because of the fact that we have two vans, we were able to provide door-to-door service for medical appointments within Thurston County, and medical appointments that they have up at the American Lake VA hospital. And we're the only service right now that's in existence that actually travels outside of Thurston County,” reported Looker.
For transportation assistance, 403 veterans were served last 2022, and 151 veterans in 2023.
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