VA should take over soldiers’ homes
President Trump, who has shown great compassion for veterans, should have the Veterans Administration take control of the troubled Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.
And while he is at it, he could include the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home in the takeover as well.
These are two state created and controlled institutions — separate from VA hospitals — that have housed aging Massachusetts veterans for years.
The Chelsea Soldiers’ Home was created by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1882 to care for wounded Massachusetts veterans of the Civil War who could not care for themselves.
For years it was the only state-funded institution of its kind.
In 1952, after years of wrangling, the state set up the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home to take in wounded and needy World War II veterans while the federal government was in the process of setting up other facilities. At the time, the Chelsea home was the only state facility designated for the task.
In what now seems quaint, Gov. Paul A. Dever, upon the dedication of the Holyoke institution 68 years ago, said “the scissors of false economy will never be used to cut the appropriations needed for the maintenance of this outstanding institution erected for the veterans of Massachusetts.”
Since then the homes have taken in aging veterans from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. While the two homes may get some federal funds, they are state-run and state-funded institutions. The current state budget for Chelsea in $30 million and for Holyoke it is $25 million.
But as the coronavirus pandemic has shown, both long-term care facilities have had seriously and deadly problems dealing with the ravaging effects the COVID-19 virus has had on elderly veterans.
Management problems at the Holyoke facility were so severe as to border on the irresponsible or maybe even worse, which is why both U.S. Attorney Andrew Lellie ling and Attorney General Maura Healy have launched separate investigations into the institution.
The coronavirus apparently spread because of deteriorating conditions at the facility which consisted a lack of resources, lack of oversight, questionable management, supply shortages, crowded conditions, staffing shortages and overworked employees.
Already 74 of some 226 residents at the long-term care facility have died from the virus, which represents 30% of the population, while another 83 have tested positive, as have 78 employees. Twenty-seven deaths from COVID-19 have been reported at the Chelsea home.
The Holyoke situation, which has shaken Gov. Char
Baker and his administration, came to light when a whistleblower tipped off Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse in March that seven veterans had died from COVID-19 without being reported. Baker said his administration knew nothing about the deteriorating conditions at the home.
Baker suspended Superintendent Bennett Walsh, a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel — with his pay of $123,752 a year intact — called on help from the National Guard and started an internal investigation.
Walsh, who was appointed by Baker to the job in 2016 has made campaign contributions of $950 to Baker and $1,000 to Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito in the past.
He also has strong political connections in Springfield where his mother is a city councilor, his father is the city’s veteran agent and his uncle William Bennett is a former Hampden County district attorney.
Critics have charged that Walsh, a combat veteran with no medical background, was a patronage appointment.
Walsh said he regularly reported conditions at the Holyoke facility to state Secretary of Veteran Affairs Francisco Urena as well as Mary Lou Sudders, Baker’s secretary of Health and Human Services.
Whatever the outcome of the various investigations, political patronage is alive and well in the Baker/Polito administration, especially when potential employees are told that their first loyalty was not to the institution but to Baker.
Baker and Polito have treated the Holyoke facility as though it were just another state bureaucracy open to political patronage, like the Registry of Motor Vehicles or the Industrial Accidents Board.
Now it has come back to bite them.
To treat veterans who have given so much for the country in such a shabby — not to say — deadly manner, is a disgrace.
So perhaps it is time for Trump to get the Veterans Administration to take over the two veterans’ homes, as well as those in other states, and run them in a humane and civilized manner.
He can’t do any worse than Charlie Baker.