Task force aims to get homeless Saratoga vets off street

Homeless and with no prospect for work, Jack Masesie milled about aimlessly on Broadway in downtown Saratoga Springs since there seemed to be nowhere to turn.

He served in the U.S. Navy during the late 1970s, then maintained a steady home and employment for most his life. But that all changed when he lost his job in 2008.

For months, Masesie lived on the streets. Then one day, a friend suggested he seek help from the Saratoga County Rural Preservation Company, a nonprofit organization that provides housing and an array of other services to veterans.

Masesie was brought into the fold. And though his transition back to normal life hasn’t been seamless, he credits the organization with helping him get back on track.

“If they weren’t available to me, I’d probably still be out there,” he said Wednesday. “They’re very essential.”

The organization’s Veterans Housing, Employment and Lifeskills Program already hosts informal sessions at City Hall once a week to give former servicemen and women a place where they can seek help. Now, the organization is joining a multiagency initiative to help stamp out homelessness altogether among the city’s veteran population.

Mayor Joanne Yepsen has joined leaders in all of the Capital Region’s cities in a pledge to end homelessness among veterans by the close of 2015. In Saratoga Springs, she said that means finding housing for about 21 individuals verified as veterans now living on the streets.

“The research is showing that once they’re in a house and have a permanent home, many more aspects of their life start to fall into place,” she said.

On Wednesday, Yepsen announced an eight-member housing task force she’s assembled in an effort to find the city’s homeless veterans permanent housing within the community. Once their first mission is completed, the task force will then be asked to turn its attention toward evaluating the city’s dwindling affordable housing stock and making recommendations that will help other low-income people find homes.

The task force includes an array of leaders from public, private and not-for-profit agencies. Among them are the head of Wellspring in Saratoga County, the executive director of the Saratoga Springs Housing Authority and the president of Norstar Development.

“The reason why I picked these folks for the task force is they literally have rooms to offer,” Yepsen said.

Also joining the task force is Linda Weiss, director of the Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany. She said veterans need three crucial things to reintegrate into society: a job or workforce training, good health care or support, and a safe place to live.

“It is the day-to-day security — the warmth of a community — that helps so much,” she said.

Part of the solution to homelessness among city veterans also involves connecting them with community programs and services aimed at keeping them off the streets. That’s where the Rural Preservation Company can step in, said Cheryl Hage-Perez, the organization’s executive director and a member of Yepsen’s task force.

“There are a lot more vets who need our services,” she said.

Hage-Perez would like to maintain and even expand the breadth of services like VetHELP in Saratoga Springs. Of course, that comes at a cost.

The organization is hosting a benefit concert at the City Music Hall on Saturday in an effort to raise up to $10,000 to fund its services in Saratoga Springs. The concert, dubbed “Saluting our Heroes,” will feature The Spirit of Johnny Cash, a tribute band to the legendary singer, with proceeds to benefit the VetHELP program.

“Everybody has a debt to the veterans, and I think it’s time we start paying some of it,” said lead singer Harold Ford.

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