For the last decade, the Sheridan-headquartered nonprofit Volunteers of America (VOA) Northern Rockies has run a program called Supportive Services for Veteran Families. It’s funded through an annual grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It holistically addresses homelessness by helping low-income vets access things like housing, food assistance, health care, transportation and support with utility bills.
But the current federal shutdown is making that mission a little more challenging. This year’s funding for the Supportive Service for Veteran Families program, nearly $11 million, is on pause right now. So VOA Northern Rockies is keeping it running on its own dime, with a roughly $1.1 million monthly price tag.
“ We are maintaining a program where we are not seeing any funding roll in,” said Aimee Foster, the nonprofit’s chief program officer. “We have decided as an organization, full speed ahead, we will continue to support our veterans. It will come off of our bottom line until the government opens back up and we are reimbursed. It's a lot of weight to carry.”
She added that while VOA Northern Rockies is currently in a position to keep the program afloat for now, that’s not always the case for people doing this kind of work.
“ The unfortunate thing in light of a government shutdown is not all grant recipients who are funding these types of programs are able to keep the doors open when the money isn't coming back in,” said Foster.
VOA Northern Rockies got its start in 1982 and is an affiliate of the larger faith-based organization Volunteers of America, which was founded in 1896. The regional organization provides a wide range of services across Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota, including behavioral health and treatment support, housing assistance and youth crisis programs.
The Supportive Services for Veteran Families is one part of that bigger umbrella, but the program is specifically zeroed in on preventing homelessness.
“ We do a lot of intensive case management in order to help these individuals get on their feet and stay there, long term. That’s really the goal,” said Foster.
The program served roughly a thousand people last fiscal year. From Foster’s perspective, people struggling with homelessness in this part of the country face some specific changes connected to living in rural western states.
“ We're very spread out. There's lots of land in between our different communities and so sometimes based on that alone, resources are harder to navigate,” she said. “The rising cost of housing in our communities also makes it even more difficult for us to place veterans in long-term housing options.”
Over the last decade, Foster said the program has had a lot of success in directly networking and negotiating with landlords and homeowners to figure out affordable housing solutions.
“Because of the way our communities are structured, because they're smaller, people rely on handshake deals or interpersonal relationships in order to come to agreements or partnerships. We are really good at that,” she said.
The organization recently applied for more funding to expand its services into more tribal communities, especially in Montana and South Dakota. But when it comes to getting funds reimbursed for the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program when the government re-opens, Foster said the timeline isn’t super clear.
“ I can only imagine it's slow, that that's the nature of the federal government,” she said. “I don't know for sure.”
