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Council approves allowing non-vets, other changes at Veterans Village

San Diego Union-Tribune - 7/31/2019

Jul. 31--Non-veterans will be allowed to enroll in a residential program at San Diego Veterans Village under a change the City Council unanimously approved Tuesday.

The council also agreed to lower the eligibility requirement of people served by the nonprofit in an effort to fill more beds at the facility.

The San Diego Housing Commission, which oversees the service contract for the organization, had approved the changes earlier this year. Housing Commission President and CEO Rick Gentry said Veterans Village was out of compliance with its contract to provide 364 beds to low-income homeless veterans because the programs sometimes were only half or a quarter full, and this was a step to correct the issue.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs also has agreed to allow Veterans Village to accept non-veterans.

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It's unclear how many non-veterans will be enrolled. Kim Mitchell, president and CEO of Veterans Village, said veterans will continue to be the priority at the nonprofit, which has several residential programs including a 224-bed rehabilitation center.

"Never forget and always remember that homeless veterans will always get the priority of our programs on campus," she said. "But if we have the capacity, we want to help a greater San Diego homeless population."

U.S. Navy Capt. Sam Westock, the only speaker opposed to the plan during the meeting, said she objected to the change because it was solving a problem on the backs of veterans.

She also said mixing non-veterans in the programs could create security problems, and she called the plan a bait and switch to the community because the city had said the site would be specifically for veterans and not the general homeless population.

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Stephen Russell, executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation, supported the change and said as a member of Housing California's Homelessness Committee he had seen other nonprofits struggle with occupancy rates statewide.

"Many facilities are bound by narrow constraints by the funders that don't allow them to operate at full capacity, so sometimes units sit empty," he said. "It makes no sense to have unused capacity when we have people living on the streets."

In another change aimed at filling empty beds, the eligibility for people enrolling in the program has been eased. Under the change, a single person who earns 80 percent of the area median income, or $59,950 annually, will be accepted. Previously, Veterans Village accepted people who earned no more than 60 percent of the area median income.

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