© 2024 KRCU Public Radio
90.9 Cape Girardeau | 88.9-HD Ste. Genevieve | 88.7 Poplar Bluff
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New Program Helps Homeless Veterans

CCSOMO
/
CCSOMO

Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri is launching a new program to serve veterans and their families who are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless.

The organization is a faith-based social services agency that provides assistance to individuals and families in need regardless of faith, race or background.

A grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs funds the Supportive Services for Veterans Families program. The project aims at helping the VA to end homelessness among veterans.

“We’re a grantee in the southern part of Missouri. We cover 36 counties, from Cape Girardeau all the way to Joplin,” said Matthew Gallion, COA and grants coordinator of the organization.

He said the program helps veterans through intensive case management, connecting them with local resources and community partners to help them find sustainable housing.

“We’ll be doing a lot of that through connections with the VA, helping individuals who apply for VA benefits that they are not currently receiving,” said Gallion. “Or connecting them with local agencies that can help them get on their feet.”

Based on the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans’ numbers, there are 49,933 homeless veterans on any given night nationwide. Research has shown that in many counties served by Catholic Charities the number of homeless veterans has more than doubled between 2007 and 2013.

“It is a very real issue in the areas that we are serving,” Gallion said.

To be eligible for the program, veterans need to have served at least one day of active duty, have a discharge status from the military other than dishonorable, and have to be low-income at or below 50% of the average median income of the county in which they reside. They have to be literally homeless, meaning that they literally do not have a home of their own, or are at imminent risk of losing housing.

Marine Perot was a KRCU reporter for KRCU in 2014.