(Credit: Courtesy VCHC 2022)
(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
The Veterans and Community Housing Coalition in Ballston Spa not only runs one of only seven affordable housing complexes for female military veterans in the nation — and the only one in New York State — this summer it will break ground with another first: affordable housing for veteran mothers, a building they are calling Foreverly House.
It will sit next door to their existing Guardian House, a home and programming center for women veterans who do not have children.
“Kids can’t stay at Guardian House, and women in general don’t take advantage of available services,” said Michelle Viola-Straight, VCHC’s director of community relations. “Women are off the grid, and often staying in unhealthy situations.”
It is planned as transitional housing, but officials say the women will stay as long as needed.
Frank McClement the director of Veterans’ Services in Saratoga County called housing for women with their children “a positive step in the right direction."
"A lot of women that find themselves in difficult situations, in regard to their housing, many of them do have kids, and there aren't many facilities that can house them on an emergency basis,” McClement said.
Housing for women and children in crisis, especially veterans, can be hard to find. Christopher House in Troy, like the Guardian House, offers housing and support for women veterans, and they have rooms for women and children, along with shared living spaces, officials there tell FoothillsBusinessDaily.com.
Officials interviewed said Foreverly House will be the first of its kind in the area.
A report from the VA seven years ago found that “homelessness among female Veterans, had tripled to 36,443 from 2010 to 2015…that figure is projected to rise about 9 percent more by 2025, to nearly 40,000.”
The report continues: “Among Veterans with unstable housing, 45 percent of women and 18 percent of men had children in custody.” The VA has “supported housing” programs that provide case managers and housing for a veterans with children, adding that homeless women with children “presents major challenges” given the paucity of locations that provide help for both.
Foreverly House hopes to be different.
Two four-bedroom homes will be built, and women staying nearby at the Guardian House will help young mothers with children at Foreverly House.
“We have served 700 women over the last 11 years [in Guardian House], and supported thousands of veterans from 22 to 92,” Viola-Straight said. “The magic is in those peer-to-peer connections. That is what helps veterans the most.”
Based in Ballston Spa and incorporated in 1983, VCHC serves veterans in Saratoga, Warren, Washington, Fulton, Montgomery, Schoharie and Schenectady counties.
“I want to make sure someone else’s son or daughter never needs our services,” said Viola-Straight, the mother of two sons who have served multiple deployments overseas. “It’s very hard to transition back to normal life…If we don’t support them coming home, we are going to lose more than 22 veterans a day to suicide.”
In Ballston Spa, VCHC also operates the Vet House, a transitional housing program for 14 homeless male veterans, and the Guardian House, a transitional housing program for homeless female veterans. VCHC also operates permanent apartments throughout Saratoga County.
“The community has been so supportive, especially of female veterans,” she said. Eighty-nine percent of those female veterans have experienced military sexual trauma, which is one of the major reasons women veterans are homeless, along with adverse childhood experiences and intimate partner violence.
Getting them help can be hard.
“Veterans are very proud and very private,” Viola-Straight said. “Gaining their trust is huge. It’s what we do.”
She said Ray O’Conor, the Honorary Chair of the VCHC’s annual Veteran’s Ball, has been the “guiding force behind the Foreverly House.”
“There is no place where a veteran mom coming out of the service can be housed together with her children” and get services like job training or help for PTSD or sexual trauma, O’Conor said adding, if the mother goes for the help “the children either have to go to a family member, or into foster care.”
The mothers sometimes get a voucher for housing that is paid to a local apartment, but that can make getting help even more difficult as the mother then must find care for her children while she goes to the programs.
O’Conor recalled a conversation between him and VCHC’s Executive Director Cheryl Hage-Perez and others in a group. It ended with this idea: "If there isn't a place for veteran moms, then we ought to build one."
It started three years ago, and O’Conor said that they are waiting on final approvals as the town revises zoning ordinances, but he does not see any troubles. VCHC has raised 90% of the $500,000 needed to build the duplexes. Architect John Muse, the LA Group and Trinity Construction are donating their services, Viola-Straight said.
A number of individuals and organizations are making in-kind donations of services or products for the house. A few organizations have been particularly generous, O’Conor said: Business for Good, Saratoga Foundation, Stewart's Shops, IUE-CWA Housing Corp.
Editor's Note: We received an email response to a late question of the Christopher House and have made changes in the story to reflect their answers. The story now is updated. We also made a clarification to our story.