VTC expands housing for homeless Central Coast Vets
A new sixteen unit facility for homeless vets and their families, just unveiled Friday afternoon. It’s part of the Veteran Transition Center’s work to provide housing to Veterans in Monterey County.
The VTC says there is a large population of homeless vets on the Central Coast.
The new facility was refurbished to give one family a home and several more people in another portion of it.
It’s a small part of the work being done by the VTC in Monterey County.
“In the past year according to official records we’ve housed 143 homeless individuals” said Kurt Schake, executive director of the Veterans Transition Center.
Schake says the new facility increases their housing by 27 percent. Housing he says is necessary for many Monterey County Veterans and their families.
“Over the past 20 years, we’ve treated almost 15,000 veterans at the Veterans Transition Center here in the Marina area” said Schake.
The event on Friday wasn’t just about the ribbon cutting, it’s also a housewarming for a veteran who didn’t know at the start of the day that the home they were unveiling was going to become his.
“I was telling them man, whoever gets this is going to be really happy [and] I was actually excited for the person who was going to be staying there” said Marine Corp veterans David Hill.
To Hill’s surprise, that person will be him and his family. David has been with the Veterans Transition Center for close to 5 months. After serving in the Marines he started a business. When the business went under he found himself without a home.
“It’s the last thing I expected to happen to me and my family, we didn’t plan for it we didn’t think ‘what if’ even” Hill said.
With a new home, he hopes to continue to get on his feet and help out other Central Coast veterans that have found themselves in the same position.
“As long as I stay involved with people like this, I’ll be right where I need to be doing, what I’m good at” said David.
The Veterans Transition Center isn’t the only facility on the Central Coast. The Major General William H. Gourley VA Outpatient Clinic has a scheduled opening date for August. The VTC says they plan on many of their veterans using the facility once it opens.
