At Ease, Troops : ‘Stand Down’ Broadens Focus to Homeless Veterans

For homeless veteran Guy Walker, Stand Down 1996 was about renewal.

He was able to take a hot shower and pick out a fresh set of clothes Friday, the first day of the three-day relief effort for military veterans at Ventura College. He picked up a new pair of shoes and received a clean bill of health during a free medical exam.

Most noticeably, the 41-year-old Ventura man was able to shed a scraggly beard that had been dangling at least eight inches below his jaw for the better part of a year.

“This is a place we can come and rest a while,” said Walker, as beauty school students put the finishing touches on his near-naked face. “We can get off the streets and get some of the help we need. For a lot of people, it does a lot of good.”

For the fourth year in a row, the Ventura College football field has been transformed into a tent city for the Stand Down. More than 140 veterans participated on Friday, taking advantage of free medical care, legal help and a range of other government and social services offered during the program.

As in past years, hundreds of professionals and volunteers have donated their time to help homeless veterans get back on their feet. And this year, for the first time, there is a push to continue helping vets long after the program folds its tents on Sunday.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Thousand Oaks kicked off an “Adopt-a-Vet” program, where social-service agencies throughout the county will be asked to look after needy veterans on a long-term basis. In addition, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has accelerated a campaign to deliver more services to Ventura County veterans, especially those who are homeless or have had few opportunities to tap into VA programs.

“I’ve really been amazed, there’s an overwhelming need,” said Diana Rogers, a social worker with the VA in West Los Angeles who has been assigned to funnel services to veterans in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

“This is a different population than the inner-city homeless,” Rogers added. “They’re bush vets. We need to go out and find them.”

On Friday, she didn’t need to look far. In the college gymnasium, homeless vets picked through stacks of new and donated clothing and tried on shoes laid out in neat rows stretching from the free-throw line to a point directly below the basketball hoop.

A team of cosmetology students from the Lu Ross Academy of Hair Design in Ventura delivered free buzz cuts. They were joined by 45-year-old Vietnam veteran Anne Label of Westlake, an artist who volunteered her time.

“They asked me what I could do and I said I can cut hair,” said Label, who will carry the POW-MIA flag during a ceremony this evening. “It’s a good thing. Everyone is going to get a lot of karma out of this.”

While Stand Downs have been held around the country since the late 1980s, the program made its Ventura County debut in 1993.

“Stand down” is a military term for when a unit is shifted out of combat to safety and security. Of the approximately 73,500 military veterans in the county, officials estimate that as many as 3,000 are homeless. And although the success of Stand Down is difficult to measure, organizers say all they know for sure is that each year veterans get services they otherwise wouldn’t receive.

“Every year, more veterans become aware of this effort and come here and get all the help they want,” said Claire Hope, founder of the Ventura County event. “For some, it’s a long-term process. But we never give up on our vets.”

John Tennent 46, is included in that group. Living on the streets of Ventura, Tennent has attended three of the four Stand Downs at the college.

On Friday, in a makeshift courtroom in a classroom, he was able to take care of a city citation he received months ago for putting a cigarette out on a sidewalk. A Municipal Court judge assigned him 20 hours of community service, to be completed during the event.

“Fair is fair,” he said afterward. “This really helps us a lot. All of the services we need are in one place. It’s a real good show.”