New Head Of Veterans Village Takes Over During Tremendous Change

Speaker 1: 00:00 The nonprofit veterans village has a new president and CEO following the departure of Kim Mitchell in November, the organization, which created stand down runs programs for homeless veterans or veterans in need of drug treatment. The new leader of the organization spoke with KPBS, military reporter, Steve Walsh, and here's that interview. Speaker 2: 00:21 So Akilah Templeton, you're the new president and CEO of veterans village. You're the first non-veteran to run veterans village venerable organization. It's been around founded by Vietnam events. What made you decide to spend your life working with veterans Speaker 1: 00:37 Over the course of my career, I've worked with several populations who have experienced homelessness who have experienced poverty and hunger, but the veteran piece, I think just really struck a chord with me because of the, uh, the irony there. Right. And, um, Speaker 2: 00:58 Journey that irony is what, Speaker 1: 01:00 For me, the irony is just in, you know, the reality that we actually have homeless veterans in America. Speaker 2: 01:10 Are you able to do everything, um, drug treatment, um, outreach to homeless? Are you able to keep every one of your programs up and running right now? Speaker 1: 01:19 Uh, I think that we are doing what we can, the best that we can. And so I think there are certain, you know, elements of all of those things that you've mentioned that have certainly, uh, survived. Uh, we are doing outreach, we are providing groups, but we're doing it differently. And so, uh, we may not have a situation where you can have, you know, 10, 20, 30 veterans, uh, uh, in a space, but we're, we're finding ways to do it. Speaker 2: 01:47 You were running a temporary shelter on point Loma that's since shut down. Are we going to see this veteran's village changing or are we going to see a new direction the next few years? Speaker 1: 02:00 Well, you know, certainly I think all organizations, uh, experienced some level of change and evolution. Right. And that's a good thing, right. It just means that, um, the needs are changing. The demands are changing and it's up to us to adapt. Does that take time? Yes. Well, we already headed down that road. Yes. Uh, but then the unexpected happened, right. COBIT happened. And so, um, it may take us a little longer. Speaker 2: 02:31 So there are a number of veterans that are housed right now over at the convention center because of COVID-19 what role are you playing in trying to get a more permanent situation for those veterans? Yeah. Speaker 1: 02:44 So, uh, so very soon I'll take my first visit down to the convention center, uh, to actually see, uh, what's happening firsthand. But I can tell you that even though this is only week three, that was actually my priority coming the door. And so, uh, we've been working diligently, uh, over the past couple weeks to, um, collaborate with, uh, other agencies with landlords. Uh, we're looking at some of our programs and we think that we have some, some pretty solid options for moving some of our veterans, uh, from the temporary shelter environment environment into permanent housing. Speaker 2: 03:25 And what's the biggest impediment there. Do you have enough landlords who are willing to take those fans? Speaker 1: 03:30 Well, you know, I think the challenges are the same everywhere, right? There is a low inventory of affordable housing. There are eligibility requirements, there's bureaucracy and paperwork and, uh, and all of that. And so, uh, each situation is different. We are certainly looking at each case, uh, each individual, each veteran Speaker 2: 03:54 You're not full here right now, is this a place where those veterans could be going, Speaker 1: 03:59 This is an option. And so actually we've, uh, done plenty of outreach at the shelter. We are working with veterans to determine if this is the best fit for them. And so for those veterans, uh, willing to come and enroll in some of our existing programs, we have certainly presented them with that opportunity. Thank you so much for talking to them. No problem. That is Akilah Templeton, the new head of veterans village speaking with KPBS, military reporter, Steve Walsh.