Homeless Veterans Find Safe Ground at ‘Stand Down’

A program created by a San Diego man to get homeless veterans off the streets may soon become a model for similar projects across the nation, and people from as far away as Boston and Hawaii are in town to learn how it is done.

The third annual Stand Down, a curious mix of lawmakers, veterans, lawyers, a judge and active military personnel, began Friday on the upper athletic field of San Diego High School on Park Boulevard.

For three days, homeless veterans are getting free food, clothing, shelter and services designed to get them back on their feet, said Robert Van Keuren, the program’s founder and executive director.

Visitors from 25 states are touring the grounds and talking to organizers to learn how to get similar programs started in their communities, he said. Washington officials from the Veteran’s Administration and the Department of Labor will also be on hand to observe the events, he said.

Hundreds of volunteers are distributing donated goods and doing administrative work for social and employment services. Active military personnel are on hand for security, and the list of entertainers includes Joey Bishop and Stephanie Powers.

Gerard Geuss, a teacher at the Attica Correctional Facility in New York state, said he is trying to get ideas on how to help veterans after they are released from the prison.

“I don’t know yet how we can apply this to a correctional setting, but that’s what I’m looking at,” he said. “A little help could go a long way, like having a contact on the street. . . . When they hit the streets, a lot of these guys are angry. It’s tough to find sympathy for an ex-felon.”

Geuss said it is obvious the program is working for San Diego-area veterans.

“Stand down” is a military term for the movement of combat troops from a battlefield to a safe area.

In the first stage of the program, workers combed city streets in the weeks before the event and registered more than 700 homeless people, later verified as veterans by computer networks, said Dan Danner, a spokesman for the program.

Friday morning, the veterans began filing into the registration area, where they were divided into groups and assigned a peer counselor. The peer counselors are all former homeless veterans who went through Stand Down, Danner said.

Twenty-five olive-green military tents are set up behind the school, and a large American flag hangs on a tall fence near one of the baseball diamonds.

Ted Lange and his wife, Kathleen, were getting registered for the program Friday morning, hoping to get some clothes and a lead on a permanent job.

“I’m taking advantage as long as I can,” he said. “I earned it.”

Lange, a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, pointed to a station wagon parked nearby that is home for him and his wife until he can find a permanent job.

“I’m not afraid to work,” he said.

Van Keuren, the creator of Stand Down, said he sees the event as an old-fashioned community effort by people trying to solve a problem without the help of government.

“Remember what people did in the old days when someone’s barn burned down?” he asked. “Well, these guys’ barns have burned down.”

A county worker who had been hooking up power for the event walked over to Van Keuren, told him he was finished and handed him a crumpled wad of money as a donation before he left.

In addition to satisfying the basic needs of the participants, Stand Down will provide legal help and try to educate lawmakers on the problems homeless veterans face.

Saturday morning in a handball court that has been converted into a makeshift courtroom, a San Diego municipal judge and volunteer lawyers will settle minor cases pending against some of the veterans.

Last year at the event, about 200 veterans got partial amnesty in exchange for community service or employment training, and similar results are expected this year, Van Keuren said.

Saturday afternoon on the handball court, the California Joint Senate and Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee will hear testimony from people who work with homeless veterans, and from veterans themselves.

Jon Nachison, a clinical psychologist who has also been with the program since its creation, spoke proudly about the homeless veterans that attended previous Stand Downs who now have jobs and are helping out with this year’s activities.

“What we try to do here, besides bring all the services we can, is provide a place that’s safe,” he said. Stand Down volunteer Paul Festen, a Vietnam veteran who said he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder, is living proof of how successful the program can be.

Festen said that, after serving in the Navy on river boat patrol, he had trouble adjusting to civilian life and wound up on the streets two years ago after a series of personal setbacks.

“Last year I was a homeless vet. I came here with nothing,” he said. “I was wandering around somewhere in Ocean Beach when I saw a poster for Stand Down.”

Festen now has his own apartment and a job as a maintenance machinist. He was busy Friday making announcements and helping out where he could.

“I’m happy now,” he said quietly during a break. “I’m trying like hell to keep it from happening again.”