Spring Break
My Summer With Another Inconvenient Truth
Joe Ewers (OE), Contributing Writer
Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: News
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Thirty-three percent of all homeless males in America are military veterans.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that more than 275,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and that more than 500,000 experience homelessness over the course of a year. I spent my summer with these homeless veterans, serving as a teacher, planner and custodian of over $15,000 in donations from the HBS community.
In the heart of the Boston financial district and in the shadow of City Hall plaza-just a few miles from the HBS campus-stands the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans (NESHV), the nation's first and largest veteran-specific homeless shelter.
For me, the words "homeless shelter" unfortunately evoke images of a run-down building in a rough part of town, most likely under-staffed, over-crowded, and inadequately maintained-a dead end on the road of life. I imagine a stereotypical soup kitchen, the epitome of a societal hand out. I was surprised to find that, although the shelter serves more than 220,000 individual meals annually, they are anything but a soup kitchen. They are a highly professional organization that resembles a military barracks more than a homeless shelter. Not only is this a massive operation on all counts-from real estate to annual budget-it is also very effectively managed by a talented and qualified staff, who both demand and inspire a sense of pride and potential in their clients.
Established in 1990, the NESHV has helped more than 15,000 veterans achieve the organizational mission "To rehabilitate and reintegrate homeless, unemployed, and under-employed veterans by providing them with the tools they need to move toward self-sufficiency." Structurally, NESHV occupies a ten-floor office building on Court Street, has a 306-occupant capacity and maintains almost 100 employees. Funding comes from a combination of a various grants and charitable giving, and the annual budget is $6.2 million. The organization offers services in emergency shelter, transitional housing, single-room occupancy apartments, daily meals, a clothing store, medical care, optical care, dental care and case management. NESHV also offers robust counseling services to address mental health, substance abuse, AA meetings, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and relationship management.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that more than 275,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and that more than 500,000 experience homelessness over the course of a year. I spent my summer with these homeless veterans, serving as a teacher, planner and custodian of over $15,000 in donations from the HBS community.
In the heart of the Boston financial district and in the shadow of City Hall plaza-just a few miles from the HBS campus-stands the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans (NESHV), the nation's first and largest veteran-specific homeless shelter.
For me, the words "homeless shelter" unfortunately evoke images of a run-down building in a rough part of town, most likely under-staffed, over-crowded, and inadequately maintained-a dead end on the road of life. I imagine a stereotypical soup kitchen, the epitome of a societal hand out. I was surprised to find that, although the shelter serves more than 220,000 individual meals annually, they are anything but a soup kitchen. They are a highly professional organization that resembles a military barracks more than a homeless shelter. Not only is this a massive operation on all counts-from real estate to annual budget-it is also very effectively managed by a talented and qualified staff, who both demand and inspire a sense of pride and potential in their clients.
Established in 1990, the NESHV has helped more than 15,000 veterans achieve the organizational mission "To rehabilitate and reintegrate homeless, unemployed, and under-employed veterans by providing them with the tools they need to move toward self-sufficiency." Structurally, NESHV occupies a ten-floor office building on Court Street, has a 306-occupant capacity and maintains almost 100 employees. Funding comes from a combination of a various grants and charitable giving, and the annual budget is $6.2 million. The organization offers services in emergency shelter, transitional housing, single-room occupancy apartments, daily meals, a clothing store, medical care, optical care, dental care and case management. NESHV also offers robust counseling services to address mental health, substance abuse, AA meetings, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and relationship management.
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