S.J. County Housing Authority breaks ground on veterans housing
“If this isn’t a feel-good moment, I don’t know what is,” Peter Ragsdale, executive director of the Housing Authority of the County of San Joaquin, said Monday as officials and community members gathered in French Camp to break ground on the site of a future housing development for homeless veterans.
Victory Gardens will be a 48-unit permanent supportive housing development, built on 4.7 acres of countyowned land at 295 West Mathews Road, next to the San Joaquin General Hospital Dialysis Center.
The project aims to address homelessness specifically among veterans, who are disproportionately represented among the population of homeless people. While veterans make up 7% of the general population in the U.S., they make up 13% of the population of homeless people nationally, Ragsdale said. Across the U.S., there are about 40,000 veterans without stable housing, he said.
On top of the challenge of finding affordable housing and a job with a living wage, veterans also deal disproportionately with PTSD and substance use, Ragsdale said.
“We can’t do enough” about homelessness among veterans, Miguel Villapudua, San Joaquin County supervisor for District 1, said.
“It’s a call and a crisis of humanity,” Tom Patti, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said.
In addition to housing units, Victory Gardens will include a community garden, common area and a computer room with highspeed internet. The COVID19 pandemic has demonstrated how critical highspeed internet will be in allowing residents to access health care, benefits and other needs, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, said.
For the majority of Victory Gardens units, potential residents need to qualify for vouchers administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Requirements include being eligible for VA benefits and not having received a dishonorable discharge, Ragsdale said.