Stand Up at Stand Down

Life on the streets is never easy. Even for heroes.

Just ask any of the more than 300 homeless veterans who attended the three-day Stand Down this fall at the National Guard Armory in north Philadelphia. "I got tired of it," Army veteran Bruce Clark told The Philadelphia Inquirer about his six months of homelessness. "People look at you like you're in a zoo."

"Stand Down" is a military term that refers to the custom of allowing units suffering from battle fatigue an opportunity to take a break away from the front. Now in its 19th year, Philadelphia's Stand Down is organized by volunteers, many of them active-duty and or Reservists or retired military, in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs and is one of the largest Stand Down events in the nation.

The Inquirer reported that there are an estimated 2,500 homeless veterans in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and, adds the Veterans Administration, almost 200,000 nationwide. Services provided - some by volunteers from as far away as Washington, D.C. - at this year's Stand Down included medical exams, dental care, mental health counseling, job referrals, legal counseling and even haircuts. "They feel at home here," said Philadelphia's Veterans Administration hospital.

Staff from HUD Philadelphia were among the providers in attendance, advising veterans on how to apply for public or assisted housing, on rental properties with current vacancies, on where to go to get free housing counseling assistance and on other resources they could tap through the Department's HUDVet telephone hotline.

"All told, we spoke to at least a third of the veterans who attended this year's Stand Down," said HUD Philadelphia's David McCarraher, "and hopefully gave them the kind of practical information about how to get back home and how to get off the streets, sooner, ideally, than later."

"After all these veterans have done for us and our country," added HUD Regional Director John Bravacos, "reaching out and helping them sort through ways they can put their lives back in order is the very least we can do for them."

Created in consultation with national veterans service organizations, HUDVet - the Veterans Resource Center - is designed to provide veterans and their family members with information on HUD's community-based programs and services through its toll-free hotline at (800) 998-9999 or its Web site at http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/about/hudvet/

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Content Archived: February 28, 2011