Agency Extends Helping Hand to Needy Veterans

At first, Ojai Valley resident Russell Richardson had a tough time buying into an outreach campaign launched here Wednesday by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

An ex-Marine with 10 years of military service, Richardson said he had sought help before from the VA, only to come away empty-handed. But Wednesday morning, at a homeless assistance center a stone’s throw from his old home on the Ventura River bottom, Richardson agreed to give it another try.

“I know this is a big machine,” said Richardson, 36, of the process involved in signing up for veterans’ benefits. “It’s intimidating to me. But I’m willing to do it if this is really going to be a solid thing. I want to do it for myself, but I also don’t want the VA to have a bad rap.”

VA officials don’t want that either. They have kicked off an unprecedented campaign to deliver services to Ventura County veterans, especially those who are homeless and have had few opportunities to tap into VA programs.

The outreach campaign is on the cutting edge of a nationwide movement to decentralize veterans’ services, funneling them into communities where needs have long gone unmet.

In Ventura County, the campaign also lays the foundation for a push to establish a clinic that will provide medical care, counseling and other services to local veterans.

“Many of these veterans out here don’t want anything to do with the VA,” said Diana Rogers, a social worker with the VA Medical Center’s homeless program in West Los Angeles. “They get down there and get lost in this massive system. A lot of what we’re trying to do is develop a friendly link and help veterans get the services that they need.”

In Ventura County, Rogers and others say, the need is great.

Of the 73,500 military veterans in the county, an estimated 2,900 are homeless. And about 58,000 are under 65 years old, which means many are Vietnam and Persian Gulf war veterans.

Many are like 46-year-old John Taylor, a Vietnam veteran who has lived on the streets of Ventura for several years. Despite qualifying for medical care and other benefits with the VA, Taylor said he never had the time or the energy to drive into Los Angeles to take advantage of those programs.

“I’ve been busy on the streets just trying to stay alive,” he said after being screened by a long line of social workers and eligibility counselors Wednesday at a homeless-assistance project sponsored by the city of Ventura.

“I think this is excellent,” Taylor said. “For a lot of us, it’s the only way we’re going to be able to get any services.”

Bob Costello, executive director of the assistance center, said he knows plenty of people such as Taylor, veterans who want to take advantage of VA services but who are put off by the thought of maneuvering through that system.

“It’s like really moving [the VA hospital] up to Ventura,” said Costello, who will host VA officials when they come to Ventura.

It was that reality that pushed VA officials in Los Angeles to extend services to veterans in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. VA officials plan to scour those areas, enrolling veterans in various programs and guiding them through the system.

Officials also plan to work with nonprofit groups that help the poor and homeless to find shelter and beef up services for veterans.

In coming months, officials say they hope to establish a clinic in Oxnard or Ventura to provide medical care, counseling and other services to veterans, especially those who are homeless or disabled and who have little access to health care.

“We want to establish a consistent presence in this area,” said Debra Levoy, coordinator of the VA Medical Center’s homeless program. “We’ve been wanting to do that up here for quite some time.”

For ex-Marine Russell Richardson, the help can’t come soon enough. When a rattlesnake sank its fangs into his index finger last month, causing it to balloon several times its normal size, Richardson turned to a private doctor for help. After a short stay in an Ojai hospital, he was left with a $20,000 hospital bill.

He showed up Wednesday hoping the VA could pick up some of that tab. While officials got started on the problem, they also started to arrange for Richardson to have his medical care transferred to a VA facility.

“I don’t travel very well. L.A., that’s like a foreign country to me,” he said.

“But I figure I’ll give it a try. Ten years in the service has got to be worth something.”