Homeless Vets Get Opportunity to ‘Stand Down’

Dozens of homeless veterans arrived at Ventura College on Friday to participate in the 2001 Stand Down, the county’s ninth annual relief effort.

Onetime infantrymen, jet fighters and other servicemen and women are taking part in the three-day event, which provides them with a wide range of social services.

They can also read and talk with friends who share a common history at the event. “Stand down” is a military phrase for relaxation.

“It’s good to get back and talk to the guys,” said David Camarillo, 55, of Ventura, who normally sleeps in his truck. “They understand.”

The veterans can also speak with professionals about almost any nagging issue.

They can see a podiatrist, an optometrist or a psychologist. They can get legal assistance or a haircut. They can talk with a counselor who specializes in post-traumatic stress syndrome. And they can get advice on Social Security benefits or religious questions.

The veterans sleep on narrow cots in about a dozen khaki tents pitched on the college football field. Army and Air Force volunteers serve meals in the shade of camouflage netting. Veterans are given plastic bags containing new pants, shirts, shoes, toothbrushes and soap.

The Ventura County Stand Down, one of several such events statewide, will serve 200 veterans this weekend, said officials. Participants arrive by foot and by bus from San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and parts of Los Angeles counties.

“They can access a myriad of services so they can break out of the cycle of homelessness,” said Claire Hope, founder of the Ventura event.

About one-third of the adult homeless population has served in the military, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. On any given day, as many as 250,000 veterans are living on the streets or in shelters, and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the year.

The number of homeless Vietnam-era veterans is now greater than the number of those who died in service during that war, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Small numbers of Desert Storm veterans are also among the homeless.

“Some of them are so bothered by the memories--the intrusive thoughts, the nightmares--that it’s difficult to function,” said Robert Reed, a Santa Barbara therapist offering “readjustment counseling” from a tent.

Camarillo said his nightmares and drinking began when he came home from Marine Corps service in Vietnam. He was easily distracted from his studies and haunted by the fact that few of the men in his unit had survived. He couldn’t hold down a job.

Several volunteers, themselves veterans, said they know that some of their colleagues have had a difficult time readjusting to civilian life.

“I went to the war and came back and led a successful life,” said Ray de la Torre, a former Air Force sergeant who was distributing pants and shirts. “But these guys that are standing on these lines--for some reason they didn’t get the opportunity I did.”

Rocky Mesa, 44, who participated in previous Stand Downs, is now in a drug-treatment program and was working as a volunteer. He made the rounds with cigarettes, offering fellow veterans a light and some advice.

“It kind of hurts to see them back here year after year, because I’ve been there,” Mesa said.