By LYNETTE SOWELL-STEVENS
Cove Leader-Press
The U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently announced that more than $65 million in grants were awarded to 33 community organizations in Texas that will help homeless veterans, and those at risk of becoming homeless.
Among those organizations is Cove House Emergency Homeless Shelter.
The funds for Cove House will come from the VA’s Grant and Per Diem (GPD) program that assists agencies offering transitional housing, support transition-in-place housing, or provide special housing to women veterans or the chronically mentally ill, frail, or elderly.
Cove House is providing those services in the first instance, transitional housing.
Cove House can receive a daily per diem for up to 15 beds. With the GPD program, the homeless shelter can receive $85.37 per day, for each veteran housed in the shelter.
“It will basically pay us a daily rate for housing adult veterans until we can find them a permanent housing solution. It’s typically designed to support a 90-day window. It can be extended per circumstance, but we have to do an official request to extend. Some of them might be here for two or three weeks and get an apartment and be gone,” said Brian Hawkins, Cove House Executive Director.
This particular grant covers just adult veterans, not dependents.
The shelter had its initial inspection by the VA last week, and the grant begins Oct. 1.
Cove House reports to the state’s Homeless Management information System and will also report to the VA in order to receive the per diem disbursement.
Hawkins said that typically the shelter has no more than five veterans housed at the facilities at a time, or roughly about 7 to 10 percent of the total residents. This type of grant is a first for the shelter, which fundraises year round.
“It’ll impact us positively because every night that we have a veteran housed, that they give us the per diem rate for is money we don’t have to fundraise.”
Hawkins said fundraising has become increasingly difficult.
“By that, I mean the economy has just made it hard. For us, it represents operational funding that won’t have to be raised. It’ll be paid by the grant,” said Hawkins.
In addition to food and utility costs on the increase, Hawkins said another increased cost is insurance.
“Our insurance is what went up the most, percentage wise, two years ago, it went up almost 90 percent because we’re housing more people,” said Hawkins. “When we built the six-plex, we doubled our occupancy. The shelter’s capacity realistically is about 44.”
Hawkins said the shelter is gearing up for the annual banquet, set for Saturday, Nov. 7, at 6 p.m. at the Copperas Cove Civic Center, where there will be a dinner that highlights what Cove House has done in the past year. There will be both live and silent auctions, and raffles, as well as a handgun in the dollar raffle again this year.
Those interested in tickets can call the office at (254) 547-4673 or purchase tickets on the shelter’s website via a link at https://www.covehouse.org/event-list.
Other Central Texas agencies receiving a GPD grant include the Cen-Tex Alcoholic Rehabilitation Center Inc. (Temple), the Heart of Texas Region MHMH (Waco), and Anewentry Inc. (Austin), and Community Partnership for the Homeless (Austin).
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