Minnesota housing more homeless veterans, officials say

Doran Hocker had a rough time readjusting to civilian life when he left the Air Force more than 40 years ago after being stationed in Korea. Hocker says he had trouble with everything from family relationships to finding a job when he returned home to Detroit in 1974.

"Living in shelters, friends and family, wherever I could lay my head," Hocker said.

After moving to Minnesota to be closer to his brother, Hocker landed at the Dorothy Day shelter in downtown St. Paul, where he got help kicking his drug and alcohol habit. And he got in touch with Common Bond Communities — a housing nonprofit that provided him with an apartment — his first permanent home in nearly 30 years.

Hocker, 65, works for the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans helping others find homes.

"I still think it's part of my duty from what I've developed in my life to do. I went through all that just for this purpose. If I can save one veteran. I would love to work myself out of a job. That's my goal."

Hocker is one of many veterans' advocates spending two days this week at Fort Snelling's Boy Scout Base Camp helping to connect homeless veterans with a variety of support services.

MAC-V calls it a "stand down." It's modeled on a concept from the Vietnam War, where those returning from combat could go to a secure area, clean up, relax, and have a hot meal.

Eric Grumdahl, Minnesota's special advisor on ending veteran homelessness, says the main goal is to find permanent addresses for people living on the street. The first step is setting up a housing plan.

"We know how we're going to make rent affordable," Grumdahl said. "We figure out if that veteran has any service needs on an ongoing basis. If they do, we're going to figure out how we're going to provide them."

The state's push to house veterans began in earnest in January 2015, when the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs set up a statewide registry of everyone who needed a place to live.

Since then, Grumdahl said 608 veterans have found permanent addresses. On Tuesday, another 20 people signed up for the registry.

One of the biggest challenges is finding apartments to rent in an extremely tight market. In November, the state launched a program to entice landlords to lease to veterans. In exchange for a $1,000 incentive, the state guarantees rent and provides a case manager.

While funding for the signing bonuses was only temporary, it did draw interest.

Jennifer Spadine owns Guardian Property Management in New Brighton. She rented apartments to four people on the registry and is happy to do it.

"We have not had any trouble. And we're not anticipating having any trouble," Spadine said. "We have a lease, and the caseworker from the Veterans Administration goes over that lease with the veteran and they have a program in place so that we're working as a partnership."

While the state is making major strides toward ending veteran homelessness, the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs says more than 200 people have yet to be housed.

But the pace of the effort is quickening. Today the state says it's finding homes for 35 veterans a month on average. That's up from 10 a month when the registry began.