{"id":67357,"date":"2016-08-09T08:28:43","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T12:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=67357"},"modified":"2016-08-09T11:55:40","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T15:55:40","slug":"veterans-village-not-really-village-for-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=67357","title":{"rendered":"“Veterans’ Village” not really village for veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Near Chicago, is an $11 million project ostensibly to house homeless veterans with a 35-unit single bedroom set of apartments, according to the Cook County Chronicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In June, Veterans Village celebrated its grand-opening celebration. The $11 million Melrose Veterans Project covers three city blocks in the 100 blocks of 13th, 14th and 15th avenues near Westlake Hospital, which donated the land.<\/p>\n

A festive Flag Day party and open house was held, involving veterans, politicians and food. The Melrose Park Police Color Guard presented a flag ceremony, Mayor Ron Serpico cut a ribbon, the national anthem was sung and veterans from all wars were present.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nation\u2019s returning heroes deserve a place to come home to that meets their unique needs and that of their families,\u201d said Neli Vazquez-Rowland, president of administering not-for-profit, A Safe Haven Foundation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, after the parades and speechifying, less than a third of the apartments in “Veterans’ Village” went to veterans – veterans that applied for the apartments, were left hanging waiting for word on their new homes.<\/p>\n

Different layers of public funding come with strings attached. Two-thirds of the units in Veteran Village have already been promised to other categories of residents to comply with government set-asides.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have strict criteria we have to meet with different layers of funding,\u201d said Vazquez-Rowland in an interview. \u201cWe do have a vet preference, but we don\u2019t have a guarantee for veterans.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, why call it “Veterans’ Village”? Because it makes people feel better about themselves for supporting veterans without having to actually do anything for veterans.<\/p>\n

CCHA Spokeswoman Monique Bond said Housing Choice tenants who\u2019ve already moved in have veteran status.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree (possibly four now) veterans have been approved and we are seeking to approve five more,\u201d Bond wrote in an email. \u201cThe remaining slots will be assigned to veterans once they meet the criteria.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the development is full, between 12 to 15 units \u2014 or 33-40 percent \u2014 of the Veterans Village will be rented by actual veterans, Vazquez-Rowland said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yippee!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Near Chicago, is an $11 million project ostensibly to house homeless veterans with a 35-unit single … “Veterans’ Village” not really village for veterans<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-veterans-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}