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Homeless folks occasionally wonder whether somebody actually sees them, if somebody cares.
That’s now not an issue at Stand Down, the annual three-day encampment for homeless army veterans that opened Friday morning close to Balboa Park.
Now in its 31st yr, the development attracts extra volunteers (three,00zero) than homeless folks (800), and being concerned is round each and every nook.
The vets are presented meals, showers, clothes and cots to sleep on. They can get their hair minimize, their tooth wiped clean and their backs adjusted. Lawyers assist them with their criminal issues. Case managers assist them with their govt advantages and housing choices. Pet sitters watch their canine.
“If it ain’t here,” one homeless guy advised any other as they walked in, “you don’t need it.”
This yr’s Stand Down comes amid a shocking leap within the selection of homeless veterans in San Diego County, up 24 p.c from a yr in the past, to one,312. Nationwide, the quantity higher 1.five p.c, to about 40,00zero.
While the total pattern is excellent — homelessness amongst veterans is down 40 p.c in San Diego since 2010 — the hot spike is a reminder of ways tenuous the beneficial properties may also be, particularly in a space of increasingly more pricey housing.
“As much as we’d love to say these services are no longer needed, that isn’t realistic,” mentioned Lisa Record, building director for Veterans Village of San Diego, which organizes Stand Down.
When they began it in 1988, co-founders Dr. Jon Nachison and Robert Van Keuren noticed the collection as a one-time match. They was hoping that elevating consciousness concerning the swelling selection of Vietnam veterans in the street — “a national disgrace,” Nachison referred to as it — can be sufficient to finish the issue.
It wasn’t, in order that they held it once more the following yr, and each and every one since. Stand Down — an army time period for battle-weary troops despatched clear of the entrance traces to leisure and get well — has now been copied in about 200 different towns.
Vets began lining up Thursday afternoon outdoor the baseball box at San Diego High School, the place the encampment is ready up. Once inside of Friday morning, they had been assigned to tents organized in a U-shape and bearing names that hearken again to their army days: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and so forth.
The concept is to remind them of once they had been a part of a neighborhood, a part of one thing larger than themselves. When they had been younger and powerful they usually believed anything else was once conceivable.
“The camaraderie,” mentioned Michael Groton.
A San Diego local, now 60, Groton spent 3 years in the Marines within the mid-1970s and for many of the ultimate 30 years has regarded as himself homeless. Stand Down has been a respite for him.
“How many homeless people get a free massage?” he requested.
He overlooked ultimate yr’s match as a result of he was once in a drug-treatment program, he mentioned. Now blank and residing in City Heights, he returned this yr to be a tent chief, providing steerage to different homeless folks having a look for some way ahead.
“I came back because I wanted to give something back, and because I’m not homeless,” he mentioned. “I’ve wanted for the longest time to be able to say that.”
A couple of steps away, in a special tent, Tammy Seymore Gray, 65, was once admiring the boots she’d picked up within the free-clothing house. She’d additionally decided on a jacket, a number of shirts, a couple of pants, socks and lingerie.
“Now I can’t wait to take a shower,” she mentioned.
She was once at Stand Down along with her husband, a Vietnam veteran. She’d had a up to date smash from homelessness, staying in a downtown single-room occupancy resort, however she mentioned the mattress insects had pushed her out. When the weekend is over, she expects to again at the streets along with her husband.
“What I’m hoping to get out of being here is a place to stay,” she mentioned. “I desperately need to get my husband off the streets because of his age (70) and his health.”
A distinct roughly desperation, a special roughly hope, awaited Rosemary Johnston and Scott Nelson on the tent marked “Chaplain.” Johnston, retired government director of the Interfaith Shelter Network, and Nelson, a Veterans Affairs chaplain, can be getting to the camp’s religious wishes.
Some vets are affected by “moral injury,” Nelson mentioned. They noticed and did issues all the way through their battle excursions that “they can’t reconcile with their religious beliefs. We’re here to help them walk that journey to re-engage with their faith.”
They’d additionally scheduled quite a lot of non secular products and services — Roman Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Muslim — right through the weekend.
The breadth of the charity being presented from time to time baffled Michael Virgil, 67, an Army vet who lives in an RV. While he was once status outdoor his tent Friday morning, underneath cloudy skies and a mild drizzle, a tender volunteer got here up and presented him a sun flashlight and a hand held fan.
“Actually,” he quipped, “I was wondering where the fireplace is.”
Then he grew to become severe. All the unfastened stuff and the products and services are superb, he mentioned, however what issues maximum is the underlying message, one he’s noticed take cling a large number of occasions all the way through the 11 years he’s been coming to Stand Down, first as a player after which as a volunteer.
“What all this says to a homeless person is that someone does care if you live or die,” he mentioned. “And that you should, too.”
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