PARSIPPANY, NJ -- Calling it a much-needed safe haven for veterans living on the streets and in overcrowded shelters, Community Hope today launched the Veterans Early Transition Services (VETS) Program in Newark, New Jersey. Community Hope is operating the 12-bed housing program at the Newark YMCA’s Broad Street facility with the nonprofit’s staff providing 24-hour support to homeless veterans.

Community Hope projects that the new VETS Program will help about 170 veterans in the next five years. With military veterans being twice as likely to experience homelessness, staff expect to serve veterans who saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as well as older veterans who have been chronically homeless.

The charity is in the midst of a $100,000 fundraising campaign to support initial development of the program. Community Hope will sustain VETS with a grant secured from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

VETS will focus on a crisis stabilization approach with an immediate focus on providing safe, rapidly-accessible housing to veterans without safe shelter. Community Hope will meet the veterans’ most basic needs for housing, food and clothing while helping them access medical and behavioral healthcare and recovery.

“Our goal is to help veterans in crisis to get them stabilized and within several months, help them transition to longer-term transitional or permanent housing, where they can rebuild their self-sufficiency, improve their health and successfully overcome chronic homelessness.” explains Carmine Deo, Community Hope’s Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Clinical Services.

Deo said that veterans can transition to the organization’s Hope for Veterans® Program where homeless veterans can reside for up to two years while they prepare themselves to regain their independence with the help of Community Hope’s case management and support staff; an on-site computer lab and employment services; legal aid; transportation and linkage to medical and behavioral healthcare services provided by the VA.

In the past ten years, Community Hope has been at the forefront of working in collaboration with the NJ Veterans Affairs Healthcare System to address the issue of homelessness among veterans. Community Hope raised $460,000 to renovate a vacant building on the Lyons VA campus and opened the Hope for Veterans® Transitional Housing Program in 2004. Hope for Veterans® opened as the largest program in New Jersey and the Tri-State metropolitan area to serve homeless veterans. With 95 beds, Hope for Veterans® has helped nearly 500 veterans overcome homelessness in the past six years.

Community Hope and its private developer partner, Peabody Properties, has received preliminary approval from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to build 63 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless and disabled veterans on a vacant tract of land at the Lyons VA campus. Construction of Valley Brook Village could commence before year-end.

Community Hope has been helping individuals recover from mental illness and substance abuse in specialized residential programs since 1985. Today, the nonprofit organization provides housing and support services to more than 300 individuals a day.

To make a referral to VETS, call Community Hope’s Veterans Intake Coordinator at (908) 647-5717 extension 325.

Founded in 1985, Community Hope was created by mental health professionals and family members of young adults with mental illness in 1985 with the opening of a single residence serving five individuals. Today, the organization’s residential programs serve 300 individuals in recovery from mental illness and co-occurring substance abuse daily. In 2004, Community Hope opened the largest program in New Jersey and the Tri-State area for homeless veterans. The Hope for Veterans Transitional Housing Program serves 95 homeless veterans a day and has helped nearly 500 veterans rebuild their lives in the past six years.

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