Making a Stand for Homeless Vets

Unlike many military veterans, Arthur Turner at 67 can still fit in the fatigues he wore during active duty.

A muscular 155 pounds stretched over a 5-foot-9 frame, the onetime sergeant looks like he means business, with polished combat boots and black T-shirt proclaiming “100% Marine.”

Turner on Friday was attending the 11th annual Stand Down, a weekend bivouac designed to aid homeless veterans and their families with free meals, clothing, medical and legal attention and employment assistance.

The outreach effort, in which participants sleep on cots in tents, runs through Sunday on the football field at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village. It is expected to attract 250 veterans.

“I come for the camaraderie, to talk old war stories and reminisce with the guys,” said Turner, who lives in an aging hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

The Korean War vet is active in a veterans’ group near his home and helps counsel younger veterans.

“I tell them like you tell the kids: ‘Stay away from the wrong crowd and try to upgrade your education. There’s nothing on the street but trouble.’ ”

Similar advice was offered by 65-year-old Gene Lane, who took a bus from Santa Barbara provided by Stand Down. A drinking problem prompted his wife of 33 years to put him out two months ago, he said. The former Army private suggests other homeless veterans “get off the street as soon as you can.”

More than a dozen government and social service agencies have come to Westlake Village to help veterans make that transition, including the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the Commission on Human Concerns. The Social Security Administration is discussing benefit eligibility, the Ventura County public health department is giving immunizations and tuberculosis tests, and the Department of Motor Vehicles is arranging state ID cards and helping to clear up driver’s license problems.

“The men and women here should take full advantage of the dental, optical and legal services,” said Army vet Jim Howard, 51, an unemployed construction worker who lives in his pickup truck. “Don’t just come here to horse around. Take care of these things so you won’t have a need to come back next year.”

Among the more popular services at Stand Down is the legal help provided by Ventura County Superior Court. A judge and several legal volunteers help veterans clear up minor offenses related to homelessness, such as citations for unauthorized lodging, unlawful camping on public beaches or drinking in public.

“It’s sort of my favorite day of the year at work,” said Assistant Public Defender Mary Fielder, who usually works on domestic violence cases. This is her ninth Stand Down. “You’re getting a chance to help those people who need you most. What we can do for our veterans is so critical.”

Because this year’s event is being held in Los Angeles County rather than Ventura County, the legal proceedings consist only of mock trials. Fielder and others will return to court next week and formalize any legal actions agreed upon this weekend.

Barbara Newton, who worked on an Air Force medevac helicopter in Vietnam for two years, had four cases cleared up at Stand Down 2000. Now she wants to remove six remaining blemishes from her legal record.

Newton, who said she has been sober for three years, hopes soon to move into a mobile home in the San Fernando Valley.

Stand Down, borrowing a military phrase for a time when troops get to rest and recover during combat, was displaced from Ventura College this year for the first time because of construction at the school’s athletic fields. Organizers had little luck arranging a substitute venue in western Ventura County, where they believe most of the homeless veterans are located.

The event was rescued when it was welcomed by Oaks Christian School, which shares parking and cafeteria facilities with Calvary Community Church north of the Ventura Freeway near Lindero Canyon Road.