Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that nearly $2.5 million in state bonding to cover the state’s share of a $9.2 million upgrade to the “domiciles,” or living areas, at the State Veterans’ Home in Rocky Hill is expected to gain approval when the state Bond Commission meets March 16. Governor Rell is also proposing $250,000 to rehabilitate five vacant, state-owned homes across the street from the Veterans’ Home for use by veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan who need a temporary place to stay.
The federal government has already given conditional approval to pay 65 percent of the costs of the upgrades to the domiciles, which currently house nearly 400 homeless and needy veterans. The improvements include making the brick, two-story buildings – completed in the 1940s – handicapped-accessible and installing centralized air conditioning in the veteran sleeping areas. The state’s share comes to $2,474,157.
Other work on the domiciles will include upgrading fire sprinkler systems, modernizing common bathroom areas, replacing leaky roofs and gutters and upgrading to energy-efficient HVAC systems. The project is at the top of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ national priority list of 49 projects eligible for funding through the federal stimulus.
“The veterans who come here need care and shelter – and I have made it my priority as Governor to ensure that our Veterans’ Home is a comfortable, secure and dignified place to live,” Governor Rell said. “Together with the federal VA, we have done much to improve this campus. In October 2008, we opened the $34 million, 125-bed Sgt. John L. Levitow Veterans Health Center to serve medically fragile veterans requiring long-term care and therapy services. Earlier in 2008 we completed a $4.6 million water distribution system to supply reliable domestic and fire protection water to all residential buildings on the campus.
“Yet, for as much as we have done there is still more to do,” the Governor said. “The VA is right to put the domiciles project at the top of their list and I am equally pleased that – even in these times of financial difficulty – the state is doing its share to support these much-needed improvements. Our state was the first in the nation to commit to providing a home to veterans who needed it – a commitment that dates to the Civil War. That commitment is continuing, down through the years.”
Under Governor Rell’s Administration, the state and the VA have jointly invested an unprecedented $42 million in federal and state funding in the Veterans’ Home – the most new funding for improvements at the facility in over six decades.
Also on the Bond Commission agenda is $250,000 to improve five residences across the street from the main campus and make them available to returning veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The homes are located on West Street, near the Col. Raymond F. Gates State Veterans Cemetery.
The homes – vacant for the last two years – will not require additional staffing by the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs, but will provide a place for veterans to stay while transitioning back to civilian life and accumulating a security deposit for an apartment or the downpayment for a home.
The Bond Commission funding will be used to make a wide range of improvements such as heating and air conditioning upgrades, painting, plumbing repairs, roof and gutter repairs, checking windows and doors for energy efficiency and identifying and removing any potential contamination such as asbestos or lead paint.
“Every time I have visited the Veterans’ Home recently – and I am there often – I have looked at these five houses and wondered, ‘Why can’t we put them to use?’” Governor Rell said. “Why are they sitting empty and deteriorating when, with a little work, they could be used by returning veterans?
“Once the repairs are done, the next step will be making the houses into homes,” the Governor said. “We will be asking interested organizations and non-profit groups to join us in ‘adopting’ and furnishing the houses so that they will be ready for men and women returning from service overseas. It’s just one more way we – as a state – can say ‘thank you’ to the members of our Armed Forces.”
