A ceremony Thursday morning signified that 50 local veterans will have an alternative to sleeping in their cars or living on the street.
Freedom’s Path, a housing community for homeless and disabled veterans, already is under construction on the Vancouver Campus of the VA Portland Health Care System. But the ceremonial groundbreaking, on a quieter part of the campus, was a chance for project partners to reflect on its impact.
When it opens in June, “think about how this 50-bed unit will make as difference: How many people would have laid their heads down on concrete,” said Joanne Krumberger, director of the VA Portland Health Care System.
The project is under construction on 1.31 acres of underused VA property — a former parking lot — adjacent to the campus entry at 1601 E. Fourth Plain Blvd.
Known officially as Freedom’s Path at Vancouver, it will provide safe, affordable, permanent housing units to homeless and disabled veterans.
Honorably discharged or released veterans who are
homeless or at risk of homelessness, as well as those with documented disabilities, who are able to live independently, will get priority.
Each unit will feature a private bath and full kitchen. Rent will range from $364 to $781.
Forty units will be subsidized with vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, said Adam Gratzer, project manager with Communities for Veterans, the Florida-based developer.
“We will work closely with the Council for the Homeless in Vancouver to try and house as many Vancouver homeless veterans as possible, but we will accept any veteran who is homeless and in need of housing,” Gratzer said.
The building will follow a “Housing First” philosophy, which aims to stabilize people’s lives through housing before asking them to start taking other steps, such as getting clean and sober, project administrators said.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, eligible veterans are likely to have “medical, mental health and/or substance use disorders.”
The model of veterans living among other veterans can help residents make the transition to civilian life, Gratzer added: “Often, to succeed, they need to see other veterans around them succeed.”
The location of Freedom’s Path will give its residents quick access to other veterans’ services on the VA site.
The project was a bit more ambitious early in the planning stages, with the partners envisioning a four-story, 63-unit building a couple of years ago.
“Due to the rising cost of construction and lack of funding, we had to scale it back to 50 units,” Gratzer said.
The price tag for Freedom’s Path at Vancouver is about $13 million. That breaks down to about $260,000 a unit — just below Clark County’s most recent median home-sale price of $275,000.
The occupants of those two different types of housing don’t reflect apples-and-apples populations, however.
“We wish it doesn’t cost that much per unit, but it does,” said Judith Caira, who represented one of the project partners at the event.
“This is communal living in a supportive environment, serving people with disabilities and substance abuse issues,” said Caira, with Affordable Housing Solutions Inc. “You don’t get that with single-family houses scattered around.”
The VASH vouchers and HUD funding do bring revenue into Freedom’s Path, Caira said, “and the subsidy stays with the unit,” regardless of which particular veteran lives there.
