Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson officially accepted first lady Michelle Obama's Mayors Challenge to End Veterans Homelessness
TRENTON -- Clinton Geddis' descent into homelessness began when he returned home from war and was unable to cope with the day-to-day stress.
"When it's all over, when you lay down your weapons and you're not under orders anymore, what becomes of you?" said Geddis, 65, a Marine who served two tours in Vietnam from 1968 to 1971. "You still have to live, you still have to maintain ... so I had to learn how to do that. We're not taught how to do that."
He turned to drinking and crack cocaine, which eventually landed him on the streets.
"Being homeless, walking on the streets of Trenton, it's not a very nice place to be," he said. "I'm very prideful, but to tell someone that I needed help, I had to learn how to do that and today I'm getting the help that I deserve and need."
Geddis, who spent two years on the streets, has now been a home of his own for the past four years.
"I love going home at the end of the day and putting my key in," he said. "It just feels good. I'm part of society again."
Geddis' story is not uncommon.
There were 79 homeless veterans in Mercer County at the start of this year, but on Tuesday, city and county officials announced they were confident in their plan to reduce that number to "functional zero" by December.
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Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson and Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes officially accepted first lady Michelle Obama's Mayors Challenge to End Veterans Homelessness, joining hundreds of other elected officials who have committed to try and end the problem of homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015.
"Our commitment to veterans needs to be more than a one-day observance," Jackson said. "This is a moral imperative. Veterans have served us and it is only right that we provide them with permanent housing and the support services that they need for a brighter future that begins with a place to call home."
The city and county first began tackling the issue in January through a collaborative effort with the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, veteran groups and nonprofit homeless agencies.
The partners worked together to identify all homeless veterans -- many of whom came through the Rescue Mission of Trenton -- and create an electronic master list.
"Everyone's on the same page with every single person," said Jim Brownlee, the city's director of Health and Human Services.
Of the 79 veterans, 23 percent were chronically homeless, 48 percent had a disabling condition and at least half were older than 55. The oldest veteran was 88 years old and the youngest, just 29.
"There are real-life human beings behind every one of those numbers, human beings that are not so different than you and I," said Frank Cirillo, executive director of the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness. "When the parades stop, the flags go away and the marching stops and all the fanfare goes away, there are real-life people who need help and we're here to do that."
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Through a coordinated screening process and partnerships with Soldier On, Community Hope and other housing providers, the veterans are quickly linked to the housing and supportive services they need.
For example, Solider On, which has helped 210 county veterans and their families since 2013, has extended its outreach to the Rescue Mission and the Trenton train station.
Over the last 10 months, 64 homeless veterans have been placed into housing and officials vowed the remaining 15 will be housed by the end of the year.
Hughes said it's important that the partners work toward ending homelessness, not simply managing it.
"We have to make sure that we do it quickly and get them into a place that's respectable, honest and fair where we can wrap around services and we can make sure that everything that they need is provided to them," he said.
Cirillo said there will always be homeless veterans, but the city and county now have the resources and coordinated system to screen, prioritize and house them within 30 days.
"If they're homeless in the county, we'll eventually get to them because they'll end up somewhere to either be ID'd or to ask for services or anything else, so that's how we will see them," Brownlee said. "We follow these individuals from the first day they present themselves here."
Much of the success has been the result of the Coordinated Entry and Assessment Services Center, a one-stop center that opened in April on Perry Street.
Jackson announced that the city will be awarded the 2015 Innovation in Governance Award by the state League of Municipalities and Department of Community Affairs next week for its CEAS center.
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.