County Council Awards Funds to Veterans

I don't know how we missed this, but the County redirected Veteran's Service Commission money to other veterans programs in Cuyahoga County.  Who knew that the Veteran's Commission money (as much as $1 million per year) was being returned to Cuyahoga County general revenue fund every year.  The new government decided that these funds should go to veterans as they were intended.  In June, the Council approved $733,000 to various government and charities that serve veterans locally. 

Homeless veterans will benefit from these programs including MHS now called Frontline Services will expand their housing assistance to veterans, the Office of Homeless Services will receive funds for the permanent supportive housing for veterans.   The VA will have additional funds to serve homeless veterans.   The Community Resource and Referral Center will receive additional funds to assist veterans with central intake.   The Legal Aid Society and 211/First Call for Help will get additional dollars.  This is great news for homeless veterans. 

We were only informed of this when Councilman Julian Rogers attended the Homeless Congress meeting, and reported on the distribution of these funds.  It would have been great if the Cleveland Homeless Legal Assistance program could hire an attorney to work exclusively with homeless vets.  For $75,000 we could hire one attorney for one year to serve 160  to 180 veterans in need of legal advice.   We have wanted to hire an attorney to serve veterans similar to the Project Salute program in Detroit. It would have been a nice program for homeless vets, but no one told us about the resources available.

Brian Davis

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