Focus on issues, collaboration key to helping vets
by Gary Warth
Among the most-encouraging results in addressing homelessness over the past decade has been the success made with veterans both locally and nationally.
Results of the Point-in-Time Count administered by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness show the number of veterans living without shelter dropped from 544 to 408, down 25% from the previous year. Veterans in shelters saw a drop from 321 to 235, down 27%.
National data from the 2024 point-in-time count was released in November and showed a 7.5% decrease in veteran homelessness since 2023 and an 11.7% decrease since 2020. Looking back further shows a 55.6% reduction in veterans experiencing homelessness since 2010.
“When you think about what has happened nationally and what has happened in San Diego, there is a common thread,” said Veterans Village of San Diego President and CEO Akilah Templeton. “And that common thread is intentional focus and collaboration.”
In San Diego County, partners who assist Veterans Affairs on homelessness issues include VVSD, the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, Continuum of Care, Adjoin, PATH and local public housing authorities.
Templeton said such collaboration is needed to address issues that can be unique to veterans facing homelessness, which may include post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, service-connected disabilities, deep-seated distrust and struggles with transitioning into civilian life.
“I think collaboration within the Continuum of Care for San Diego has created a system that’s more aligned,” she said. “Veterans Villages for example works within the Continuum of Care to ensure that we’re conducting outreach, providing shelter and permanent housing programs that are responsive and coordinated.”
VVSD opened a 40-bed shelter on its main campus in December and plans to add 50 more later this year, Templeton said.
More than 1,000 local veterans were housed over 15 months under San Diego County’s Leave No Veterans Homeless initiative, which transitioned last October.
The most-recent data available shows the number of veterans housed with Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers in San Diego increased from 1,750 in May 2023 to 2,019 in May 2024.
Templeton said the percentage of local veterans using VASH vouchers also has increased in recent years, growing from 86% in 2019 to 93% in 2022.
Adam Fidai, who served in the Navy from 2000 to 2001, moved into a downtown San Diego apartment with a VASH voucher in April.
“It’s a nice one-bedroom,” Fidai, 42, said about his apartment a few blocks from Petco Park.
Fidai’s brief journey through homelessness illustrates both the frustrations of someone trying to find a shelter bed and the possibilities that exist for housing through the right pathways.
That journey began two years ago when he came to San Diego from Alaska for a vacation with his fiance. Life was good at the time, and Fidai had two years of sobriety behind him and a home-remodeling job.
While on vacation, however, the couple had a serious blow-up, and she returned to Alaska. Fidai said he saw no reason to join her and decided to stay in San Diego, but his money soon ran out and he had no safety net in the unfamiliar city.
“From that point on, I was living in tents,” he said about becoming homeless for the first time. “I got a job, but I started drinking again. Everything just kind of went downhill.”
Unemployed and homeless, Fidai called the city’s 211 help line and got text messages about shelters, which he said were always full. One day by chance he happened to walk past the harm-reduction shelter on Sports Arena Boulevard, a joint city and county program run by the Alpha Project.
There were no beds available, but Fidai said he was able to get food, so he began making regular stops at the shelter. A staff member who came to know him eventually gave him a direct number to call, and Fidai said he connected with someone from the Family Health Centers of San Diego’s harm reduction team.
By then, Fidai had been homeless for two months and it would be another month before a bed became open at the harm reduction shelter.
After three months in the shelter, he moved into the Community Harm Reduction Safe Haven operated by Episcopal Community Services, where he lived for a year.
“They made me feel more like a human,” he said. “It was a safe place. The staff was always there to talk to you.”
They also helped him secure a VASH voucher, which led to his new home.
“I’ve decided I don’t want to move anywhere else,” he said. “I love San Diego.”
Fidai is on a waiting list to join the Kitchens for Good apprenticeship program, with dreams of one day being a chef.
“Hopefully with everything going through, I’ll be working in a kitchen full-time,” he said. “I love cooking and I’m going to culinary school eventually to be an actual chef, the big top-dog in a kitchen.”
To help raise awareness about the issue of veteran homelessness, RTFH has begun breaking out data about veterans in its monthly report on how many people enter homelessness and how many people find housing.
The most-recent report shows 68 veterans became homeless for the first time in April and 117 veterans found housing that month.
Gary Warth is the director of government relations, policy and communications for RTFH.
