Veterans Get to 'Come Home' to New Housing at Lyons VA

The nation's first brand-new housing facility to provide permanent homes for previously homeless veterans is now open in Basking Ridge, at the Lyons Veterans Administration campus.

Wednesday afternoon's grand opening and ribbon-cutting for the 63 apartments in the new Valley Brook Village development is the "culmination of a dream," said Michael Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer for Parsippany-based Community Hope, one of the development partners and social service provider for the $15.5-million project.

The permanent housing is the next step for Community Hope's already-existing Project Hope transitional housing for veterans at the Lyons VA, which also provides health care support, counseling and job training for homeless veterans for up to two years, Armstrong said.

Many of Valley Brook Village's first residents are coming from that transitional program, he later said.

"These veterans will have a clean and warm home tonight," because of the many collaborative efforts of private developers from Massachusetts, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, MetLife, U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11), Lakeland Bank, cooperation from Bernards Township officials and others, Armstrong said.

The groundbreaking on the housing on 16 acres of the Lyons VA N.J. Health Care Campus was just a year ago, after Superstorm Sandy swept through the area, said Peter Gourdeau, project executive for Windover Construction Inc. of Massachusetts. He said dedicated tradespersons and subcontractors continued to work hard to keep the project going even though many had to deal with the impact of Sandy on their own lives.

The other Massachusetts-based construction company was Peabody Properties, Inc. Lawrence Oaks, vice-president for housing with the Local Initiatives Support Corp., National Equity Fund, Inc. said the collaboration "raised the bar" by providing a long-term place for veterans who had served their country.

The United States as a whole, under President Obama's initiative, is seeking to house all homeless veterans within the next few years, said Robert Petzel, Under Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

So far, there has been about an 18 percent reduction in the number of veterans who face homelessness for many reasons, but tens of thousands more remain outdoors at night, Petzel said.

Frelinghuysen, appearing in a video on the project, said there is never a "soft landing" for veterans coming home, who may face issues of post-traumatic stress syndrome and drug use, as well as health problems. 

"We give the vets who walk through that door a chance at a new beginning," Petzel said.

One of the new occupants of Valley Brook Village, 51-year-old Marine veteran Joe Malcolm, spoke in the video of his own difficulty adjusting after returning home from serving his country, and how he finally faced up to the fact that he needed help.

Malcolm, who was at the ceremony, said that he has obtained a job through the transitional services at the Lyons VA, and spoke of his pleasure of finally having a place to live and call his own.

"Everything I worked hard for is coming into place," Malcolm said. Of his new apartment, and the new building — which includes a computer room, an outdoor patio and grill and other amenities — "It's beautiful," he said.

Malcolm also spoke in the short video and in person about how he had grown up in the city, and what it was like to be in an area with wildlife and the beauty of nature.

Then the Marine veteran, who said he had grown up on Mulberry Street in Manhattan, made another confession, "I guess Jersey is my home now."