TOGUS – Ted Slocum looks you in the eye when he shakes your hand. He stands tall and straight. He speaks with authority, yet his affability quickly puts strangers at ease.

Ted Slocum is a veteran without a home.

“I’m looking for steady employment to get my own home and get back together with my wife,” Slocum said Saturday.

Slocum was one of more than 70 men from around the state who gathered at the Togus Veterans Affairs Medical Center for the 13th annual Maine Homeless Veterans Stand-Down.

The Stand-Down is based on a military term meaning a stop in action. The term was used to signal a time when soldiers could stop fighting and relax.

The first Homeless Stand-Down was organized in 1988 by a group of Vietnam veterans in San Diego, according to Togus officials. Stand-Downs now take place across the country.

Homeless veterans were picked up at shelters across the state to spend the day at Togus getting checkups and learning about help that is available to them.

The veterans were provided with health, dental and vision screenings and provided information on Veterans Affairs, Social Security, Food Stamp and housing benefits.

The men also were given meals, haircuts, showers and massages, and a duffle bag stuffed with new winter clothing, socks, underwear and a small bag with personal hygiene items.

Slocum said he wanted to gather information on all the topics, but he was most excited about vocational assistance and employment counseling.

“I’ve learned there are all sorts of benefits available to me, including transportation, which I was not aware of,” said Slocum, who is staying at a Skowhegan shelter. “I have a lot of information I have to go over as far as housing and job applications.”

A total of 72 veterans took part in the Stand-Down. That is a near record number, but it represents a small fraction of Maine’s homeless veteran population, said James Bachelder, a member of the Maine Veterans of Foreign Wars Homeless Veterans Committee. There are 876 homeless veterans in Maine, according to shelters around the state.

“It’s not enough,” Bachelder said of the Stand-Down. “It’s a day we’re here to help, but it’s just one out of 365 days.”

Homeless veterans, and the organizations that serve them, are desperate for increased opportunities for health care, additional funds and more counselors.

“They need case management to stay on their feet when we get them on their feet,” Bachelder said.

One family attended the Stand-Down together, but the underlying problems that lead to homelessness often force families apart. And the problem is likely to worsen as more soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“When you have people coming back from combat, it takes three to five years for their lives to unravel,” Bachelder said. “That’s why we need to address what problems they have so they can remain a family.”

Don Cummings of Skowhegan just completed that journey after two years on the street.

“I wanted to come and get some basic stuff,” Cummings said. “I just got my own place this week.”

While held at Togus, the Stand-Down was not a VA event, Togus spokesman James Doherty said. At least 20 state, federal, veteran and private organizations — and 150 volunteers and staff — took part in the event.

Services offered at the Stand-Down are available throughout the year, Doherty said. “This one time a year, it’s what I call one-stop shopping,” he said.

While many of the men who took part in Saturday’s event may well remain on the street, Stand-Downs have produced success stories, said Dr. Pat Smith, who works at the Togus eye clinic.

“Every year we’ll see a couple guys later in the year that say, ‘I got a job. I got a house,’” Smith said. “There are some real success stories.”

 

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