Quick Take
Some local veterans have objections to the way the county oversees the Veterans Services Office, and a group of them plans to speak at Tuesday's meeting of the board of supervisors to ask that the VSO be an independent department. They also plan to meet Monday with County executive Nicole Coburn.
Hutch Collier is one of a number of local veterans who say the Santa Cruz County Veterans Services Office (VSO) – currently under the authority of the county Human Services Department (HSD) – is being understaffed and mismanaged.
“This is not about a person, it’s about a system impacting what our veterans deserve,” said Collier, president of the United Veterans Council of Santa Cruz County and a veteran of the Vietnam War.
David Ramos, another vet and managing director of the Santa Cruz County Veterans Memorial Building, put it this way: “There’s been a diminishing of outreach and the availability of resources.”
Ramos and Collier will be among what they hope will be a large group of veterans to speak at the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday. They plan to ask that the VSO be made an independent agency.
The VSO connects veterans with federal programs. Its staff helps veterans with everything from medical benefits and access to mental health professionals to applying for disability compensation and pensions. The office also helps vets utilize benefits such as the GI Bill to get into college, and runs specialty programs such as the Work Study Program, which connects vets and their dependents to county, state, veteran or educational part-time jobs while enrolled in school.
“I’m a product of the Work Study Program,” Ramos said. “I was an unemployed student, so having that financial assistance helped keep food in my mouth and the mouth of my child.”
He says it’s a necessary program to help the transition of veterans from active duty – sometimes in war zones – to civilian life while also providing them the skills for civilian work.
Ramos contends, however, that this program has been cut and is one of the reasons why he and fellow veterans are concerned about how the VSO is currently being run.
Human Services Director Randy Morris says he has no knowledge that the program is being cut and encourages the veterans to come speak with him.
Advocates recently launched an email campaign asking the public to write to their county representatives about raising the issue at Tuesday’s meeting as an official agenda item. The group asked the letter writers to copy them on their emails, and, Ramos said, “We’ve received a good, solid handful of emails to the board of supervisors saying, ‘This is what we want. We advocate for the VSO to be its own standalone.’”
One of Collier’s major concerns focuses on veterans’ lack of knowledge about what the VSO can offer them. Every Wednesday, he and his wife help run the Vets Hall’s hot meal and pantry program, which serves roughly 100 to 150 vets every week.
“Almost without fail every week we encounter a vet, walking through these doors, who has no idea the VSO is right next door,” Collier said. “That is amazing to me.”
Veterans are also raising concerns over what they say is understaffing at the VSO. Along with the director who manages the office, there are three other case workers. According to the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet), there are roughly 7,000 veterans in Santa Cruz County.
“I’ve heard that roughly half of the veterans in Santa Cruz County are enrolled within the [VSO] program,” said Ramos. “For the sake of numbers, let’s say that’s 3,000 involved. That means each [caseworker] has a caseload of 1,000 veterans.”
County Supervisor Justin Cummings acknowledges the difficult position in which county veterans currently find themselves.
“We hear the concerns they’ve been expressing and want an effective way to make sure the services being delivered and provided are at the highest standard possible,” Cummings said. “We want to work with them to figure out the best way they are supported.”
He says that after Tuesday’s meeting, he will be working with County Executive Officer Nicole Coburn in hopes of bringing an official agenda item on the issue to the board sometime early next year.
However, Cummings also says he believes it’s an issue that needs to be further explored before any decisions are made.
“We need to dive into this deeper and get a full understanding of what’s going on,” he said. “What are the impacts? What’s the best way to approach it? We need to see what the process is going to look like to make services better for veterans.”
However, according to HSD’s Morris, none of the vets’ concerns have been raised to him directly. Morris told Lookout that to his knowledge, the Work Study Program is currently operating.
He said what “might be landing out of context” is a parallel program that allowed the county to use volunteers for union jobs traditionally held by county employees.
“That is something that’s ended in the last six months,” said Morris.
Not so, said Ramos, who said that regarding the Work Study Program, he understands there are “no more applications … it’s been discontinued.”
As for the number of caseload workers employed within the office, Morris said he understands the concerns but that the numbers are comparable to other counties.
But local vets believe problems facing the VSO are indicative of veterans, once again, falling through the cracks in the system. They said they hope the board of supervisors will hear their grievances.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.