Society’s Gift to Itself

Anthony King plans to spend Christmas with his mother and family in Oakland for the first time since 1982. The 41-year-old Air Force veteran is no longer homeless and living on the streets of Los Angeles. He no longer uses crack cocaine. A graduate of the New Directions Regional Opportunity Center, a private, nonprofit residential drug treatment program for homeless veterans, he is now on the group’s staff.

Military veterans represent nearly one-third of homeless men who seek shelter, according to a 1997 study conducted by the International Union of Gospel Missions, a network of rescue missions. Thousands need long-term treatment for chronic substance abuse, but residential treatment is not readily available for homeless men who have no medical insurance or money.

New Directions operates 156 beds in a building on the grounds of the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration complex. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, additional federal sources, state and local dollars and grants from foundations and individual donations. The funding pays for drug treatment, housing, food, clothing, job training, money management lessons, job placement and, for those who need it, long-term support in transitional housing.

The wait for a bed generally is measured in weeks; the delays at residential programs that serve nonveteran homeless drug abusers typically stretch into years.

In the highly structured New Directions program, men start in detox. They sleep eight to a room in beds made with military precision. As they progress, they gain greater responsibility and privacy, moving finally into rooms with two beds. The youngest veteran in the program is 23. The oldest, who participated in the Okinawa invasion of World War II, is 76. Most are middle-aged men who have been homeless and on drugs for years. Many have criminal records, another deterrent to rebuilding a productive, independent life.

They are required to attend classes and job training. When they are ready, they work in small businesses run by New Directions that provide catering, light construction and repairs and custodial services. They are encouraged to save their pay so they can leave with enough money to rent an apartment and perhaps buy a car.

One of every three who enter New Directions finishes the program, which generally takes six months to two years. That graduation rate is considered high in an arena where failure is much more common than success.

New Directions plans next year to take on an even tougher challenge when it opens a separate long-term residential treatment facility for homeless veterans who both abuse drugs and suffer mental illness. The new program, also operated in a building at the West Los Angeles complex, will provide 45 beds for a population considered by experts to be among the hardest to help.

The new facility is scheduled to open in May. It will provide drug treatment, medical care and legal assistance as New Directions tries to build on its earlier success.

Anthony King, a 1999 graduate of the original program, works full-time as an assistant coordinator at New Directions. He counts his sobriety in years, 2 1/2 without using crack cocaine. He returns to skid row once a month to reach out to addicted veterans. He knows many of them from his years on the streets and in prison, where he served time for burglary. New Directions is not a get-out-of-jail-free card, he says; it works only if the participant is willing to follow the rules. King now has a job and shares an apartment. And this Christmas, he is going home.

Stories like his, and successful programs like New Directions, are a society’s best gift to itself.

To Take Action: To hire New Directions for catering or handiwork or to make donations, call (310) 914-4045 or go to www. newdirectionsinc.org.