Group trying to establish shelter for homeless veterans in Summit County

A group has been formed to try to open a shelter for homeless veterans in Summit County.

Summit County Community Involvement for Veterans Committee will hold a meeting from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at VFW Post 1070 at 641 E. Tallmadge Ave. in Akron. The group is inviting all people interested in its cause.

''We need people in the community who are willing to get involved and dig in,'' said Kim Schmidt of Akron, who organized the group.

Matthew Slater, manager of Freedom House, a transitional shelter for homeless veterans in Portage County, said his organization would assist Summit County people to establish a shelter. He will be one of the speakers Sunday

''What we are trying to do is garner support from American Legions and VFWs to say that they know this is needed,'' Salter said.

Freedom House is one of the services of the nonprofit group Family & Community Services, Inc. of Ravenna.

Last summer, Freedom House opened a $600,000 shelter on Anita Drive in Kent that can house 14 veterans. The shelter was funded with a $400,000 Department of Veterans Affairs grant and $200,000 raised locally.

''This is a great opportunity to get a quality facility for serving our veterans,'' he said.

The effort in Summit County, he said, is in ''its infancy'' and is about starting ''a conversation about this and figure out the best way to get it done.''

Slater said his group does not want to step on anyone's toes ''but the fact is, if we don't get the dollars into Summit County'' they will go someplace else.

The Rev. Ben Walker, executive director of Haven of Rest Ministries — the Christian, private organization that runs a homeless shelter for men, women and children in Akron — said the Haven of Rest shelter serves many veterans.

Statistics for a one-day survey taken last year by the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, of which Haven and about 300 missions in America are members, showed that 16 percent of those at Haven of Rest were veterans and about 18 percent at all 300 shelters were veterans, Walker said.

''We feel like we are providing services to veterans,'' he said.

Haven of Rest, he said, works closely with the Summit County Veterans Service Commission and the VA to help clients.

George Baker, executive director of Summit County Veterans Service Commission, who also will talk at the Sunday meeting, said a homeless shelter for veterans in Summit County is long overdue.

Such a shelter, he said, ''is a worthy cause.''

Baker's agency recently began working on a new $2.2 million headquarters at 1060 E. Waterloo Road that is expected to be completed by summer.

The goal, he said, is to get the veteran community to understand ''the nature of Freedom House'' to see what is possible for Summit County.

For more information about Sunday's meeting, send an e-mail to sccifvc@yahoo.com.