Editor's note: This is the second in a series looking at poverty in Blair County and what help is available to those in need.
Vietnam-era veteran James Peffer is still settling into his apartment inside the Green Avenue Tower.
About two weeks ago, the 56-year-old Bucks County native moved from the Hollidaysburg Veterans Home, where he stayed for 11 months, to a one-room efficiency with a small kitchen and bath.
Getting furniture was tough, he said. He has a wooden dresser-top vanity that once belonged to his grandfather, along with some odds and ends - two mismatched chairs, a lamp, a fan, a TV, a stereo and a microwave. He can only get one channel with rabbit ears perched in one of two large windows overlooking downtown.
A lady living on the same floor said he could have a loveseat she had, he said. After seeing her place, he is going to put his name in for a one-bedroom apartment in the tower.
He needs a dresser and a bed; for now, he's sleeping on a cot.
"This is great," he said. "This is like I hit pay dirt."
It wasn't too long ago Peffer didn't have a home to call his own, and he thought life wasn't worth living.
Before he moved to the Hollidaysburg Veterans Home, he stayed at Orangeville Manor, a personal care home in Columbia County, for six months. Before that, he stayed at the Wilkes-Barre Veterans Affairs Medical Center where he got help for his despair and received alcohol rehabilitation.
When he turned to Veterans Affairs for help, he had nowhere to live, no money and he was thinking about ending his life, he said.
On a single night in January 2011, an estimated 67,495 veterans were homeless in the United States, according to a supplement on homeless veterans in a national report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 2010, the single-night count was 76,329, a 12 percent drop.
Of those homeless veterans, 1,392 were from Pennsylvania, 52 in central Pennsylvania specifically, the report states.
A third of all homeless adults are veterans, according to information from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans website.
Homeless veterans are usually single men from urban areas who suffer from either mental illness or have an alcohol or substance abuse problem, or a combination, it said.
President Barack Obama's administration has set a goal to end homelessness among veterans by 2015.
In December, Obama signed a bill giving programs for homeless veterans $939 million for 2012 and 2013, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness website.
Locally, that money trickles down "very slowly," and it could still get cut, said Floyd Dutton, a Vietnam Veterans of America Pennsylvania service officer and the state's homeless veterans chairman.
Some of the money is distributed to the Housing and Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, he said.
Veterans Affairs works closely with local housing authorities, Ginny Vayda, the supervisor of social work at the Van Zandt VA Medical Center, said.
Every Veterans Affairs facility offers a homeless program to help those living on the streets as well as those at risk, she said.
The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans and the Home Depot Foundation, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, held the Veteran Access to Housing Summit last year in San Antonio "to explore and identify opportunities and challenges for increasing the availability of housing for low-income veteran families and formerly homeless veterans graduating from assistance programs, according to a report the coalition created from the summit."
The report states putting a roof over a veteran's head alone will not solve the problem.
"Participants enthusiastically embraced [increasing the immediate availability of housing for homeless and at-risk veterans] as the prime objective, but they repeatedly asserted that providing housing without assistive services is a recipe for client failure and, ultimately, wasted resources," the report stated.
State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20th District, chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, has scheduled a hearing on homeless veterans next month in Harrisburg.
The hearing will examine the support networks available to longtime veterans and those just returning from war, including how the networks have failed, Baker said in an e-mail.
Speakers will include a former homeless veteran, shelter executives and veterans' service officials.
"The national tragedy of veterans living on the streets and in shelters, in the shadow of major facilities such as Altoona's medical center, demands action," she said. "It is a national disgrace that heroes who have protected our homeland now have no home of their own. As Americans, we should work to ensure that the terms 'homeless' and 'veteran' are never used together."
Resources are limited with demand far outweighing the supply, and programs struggle for money just like others do, Vayda said.
It is a "tight economy for every agency in the area," she said.
In addition, benefits available to veterans are not a one-size-fits-all fix.
Director of Veterans Affairs for Blair County Charles J. Cates said some of what is available to veterans are "very well-kept secrets," and it is a matter of navigating the system and making people aware of what exists to help them.
Many have come to the system hurting and gotten help, he said. At the same time he has a desk full of applications looking for help such as assisted living.
"People are hurting, there's no doubt about [it]," he said. "Vets are no exception. They're part of the mix."
Spiraling to the bottom
Peffer joined the Navy in 1973 at age 17, following graduation from Central Bucks East High School. He grew up in Buckingham, Pa., the second oldest of six kids.
He served three years' active duty until 1976. Two of those years were served in Guam, where he said he started partying hard, followed by three years on non-active duty.
The aircraft technician never saw combat and was honorably discharged.
Once out of the service, he took odd jobs to make money. He was a self-employed painter at one time, then he got into a labor union, doing natural gas maintenance and service. He was making good money and partying hard, he said.
In 2004, work started to slow down, and a lot of guys, some with families, were out of work, said Peffer, who never married or had children.
He started living off his savings, and eventually the "well went dry," he said.
He couldn't find a place to live. He had credit card bills and no job, despite looking for work. He was able to keep a car he inherited from his brother, monitoring what little money he had for expenses such as gas. He started going to a food bank to eat and was sleeping in the homes of friends.
Now, he is getting enough from a non-service pension he qualified for to make ends meet, if he follows a budget, he said. He is getting less money now because he left the vet's home, though. He declined to share how much money he is receiving.
"They did me right," he said of the Hollidaysburg Veterans Home where he got food and medicine.
He said he believes many veterans are on the street because of drugs and alcohol. He had a "big beer problem," which he said contributed to him hitting bottom. He said being out of work, which in turn made him want to drink, also contributed, turning it all into a big spiral.
But he said it's under control now to the point where he'll have a drink once in awhile.
A string snaps - losing a job, losing a home - and recovery is not within reach, Vayda said.
People are only a paycheck away from hardship, she said. A lack of jobs is a huge issue.
Dutton said veterans are like many other Americans who face mounting bills, losing their homes and struggles to feed their families, he said.
Available resources
Peffer's advice for other veterans who might find themselves struggling includes following the advice of Veterans Affairs.
Dutton said a lot of veterans won't ask for help.
"They're too proud," he said. "But once they get help, they're not on it for too long. They want to make a better life."
A veteran he worked with who had a stroke didn't use it as an excuse, but instead found a part-time job. Others volunteer, he said.
"They want to give back to the community," he said. "They are not looking for a hand out, but a hand up."
While CareerLink and the G.I. Bill can help veterans find employment and get an education, Dutton said more needs to be done.
"We need to educate them more," he said. "More employers need to offer on-the-job training."
Dutton thinks helping a veteran who seeks help first garners better results than going out and trying to help a veteran who might not have come to terms with his or her situation.
"They come to us and there's a reason why," Dutton said. "You can go out and look for homeless veterans, but the ones you can help come to you. When they come to you, they are ready to make a difference, make that change and get back on their feet."
Dutton runs a program called New Beginnings that does just that.
The program, which helped Peffer, has been offered for two years locally and has helped 90 veterans. It has a 100 percent success rate, Dutton said.
The program helps veterans who want to leave the Hollidaysburg Veterans Home, he said. It considers whether the veteran is ready and outlines what it will cost to leave. Through it, veterans can get help finding housing and get in touch with Veterans Affairs to stay on medications.
The veterans are questioned thoroughly.
"We don't want them to go out before they're ready," Dutton said.
During the process, some veterans are found to have signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, and they didn't even realize it, Dutton said. In the case of more recent veterans, the back and forth between active-duty deployments takes a mental toll on reservists. A family member can spot it "even before a soldier will admit it," he said.
The disorder is more common than people realize, and financial help is available for those veterans who suffer from it, he said.
When veterans move out of the home, the program continues to check in on them. In some cases, Blair County Community Action Agency representatives check in weekly with them for at least six months.
An outreach program for homeless veterans, Stand Down, is offered as a collaborative effort among Veterans Affairs and other government and community agencies that serve the homeless, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website.
A Stand Down is held over a day or a couple days' time, offering homeless veterans necessities such as food and clothing as well as health screenings, benefits counseling and referrals for housing and employment, the website said.
Van Zandt holds a Stand Down annually, Vayda said. The last one was held in September. The 2012 date is not yet set, but it is usually held near the end of the summer.
The Van Zandt center also has social work and homeless needy funds, Vayda said, that can help with cab rides, a meal or even a first month's rent.
In Coalport, Tomorrows Hope offers room and board and basic necessities for veterans trying to get back on their feet, according to its website. It also offers supportive programs such as counseling for drug and alcohol addictions, employment training and family restoration help.
In the last couple years, Cates said the Veterans Emergency Assistance Program for honorably discharged veterans and their beneficiaries has helped about seven or eight individuals through several months of monetary support.
Things are looking up
What's next for Peffer is up in the air, he said.
Physically, he cannot do what he used to do for a living. At his age he isn't sure what re-training he could receive for an occupation, he said. Years ago he had taken some night classes that included welding.
He is happy and free of suicidal thoughts, he said. It took time, but he got the help he needed.
He left the Hollidaysburg Veterans Home for Green Avenue Tower, thinking of others who might need help from the home.
"There's a guy way off worse than I am that needs my bed," he said.
Mirror Staff writer Amanda Gabeletto is at 949-7030.
