The 13th Annual Compton Stand Down, taking place at 600 N. Alameda St. Sept. 17—19, is a collaborative event that is coordinated between government agencies, community-based services and local VA medical centers, such as VA Long Beach.
“It’s a continuous mission to fill the needs of the homeless,” said Charlie Lonon, the minority outreach coordinator with VA Long Beach who helps organize the event, which prioritizes a non-judgmental approach. “We won’t make fun of them because of their attire and their smell. We try to get them cleaned up and in programs. That’s what this Stand Down is all about.”
She said it takes months of preparation to collect all the donations— which include second-hand clothes and shoes but not used underwear— from individual volunteers and organizations, such as the Veterans Volunteers of America.
Vendors on-site will provide a multitude of services, which include: employment, housing and legal assistance; workshops; medical and vision exams; mental-health counseling; chiropractic and acupuncture sessions; massage therapy; clothing and hygiene kits; showers and haircuts; hot meals; and Social Security benefits.
Some vendors at the Stand Down will include qualified professionals, such as psychiatrists, who will be offering programs to assist with mental-health problems.
Event organizers search for volunteers to be on-hand and transport veterans to services available in the area.
“You would be surprised how [veterans] would come in and how grateful they were that we put this Stand Down on,” Lonon said. “It’s amazing, and it’s so heartfelt, too… We have so many people who are [in] wheelchairs, and [volunteers] have to take their food to them. They have to take them to the VA to do flu shots. Many people have not been to see the doctor in years, and they will be able to get their flu shots, and [the volunteers] transport them to different areas. It’s amazing just to see them.”
Val Lerch, chair of the Long Beach Veterans Day Committee and a member of the advisory board for the US Vets organization, recently joined the group of volunteers to assist in the Stand Down in hopes of “easing the plight” of homeless veterans in LA County.
“Hopefully, if we get lucky, if during this Stand Down… we just get one veteran who starts counseling and comes off of the street, I think the Stand Down would be a success,” Lerch said. “Hopefully, we’d find more and guide them in the right direction, but that’s the main thing— those who are going to go back on the street, let’s get them some clothing, some food and some cleansing stuff and all that. Hopefully, we can grab 50, 20, 10, whatever, and actually bring them off the street with counseling. That’s the ideal concept there.”
Lerch said there are two types of veterans who need help.
The first group of people are those who lost their job and family because they returned home and were not the “same person.”
“He’s homeless because he doesn’t have a job or a family,” Lerch said. “Those are the ones who we can find and cure.”
The second group are the “chronic homeless,” who have addictions to drugs and alcohol and mental-health issues.
“Those are the ones we need to find and create programs for and solve their stemming problems before we really start talking about their homeless problem,” Lerch said. “They’re homeless because they have these chronic problems. And, unless we provide programs for those guys and women, then they are always going to be homeless no matter what we do.”
He added that the chronic homeless population then become a danger to themselves and those around them if the proper care is not provided.
Regardless, Lerch believes there is a “simple” solution to the homeless issue.
“If we truly want to solve the homeless problem, and since the government owns so many of these homes, these veterans who served for us should get a home, in my opinion,” he said. “That’s the ultimate dream. Will that ever happen? Probably not. But, it makes logical and easy sense to me.”
Lonon feels that more services need to be available to take care of homeless veterans. She noted that despite helping out the homeless population and providing shelter and resources, those people just wind up going back to the streets anyway.
She added that something has to be done.
“They go over and fight for us, and they come back, and we don’t have a job for them, their marriage is all messed up, we look at them funny because they have a problem or something— it should not be that way,” Lonon said. “We should have a place for them to come back to. They fought for us, so I think we should do something for them. And I know everybody knows a veteran. We need to focus on this, and people need to be more sensitive on the needs for homeless veterans— or just the homeless, period.”
