Nonprofit Looks to Provide Temporary Housing For Cherokee's Homeless Vets

Jim Lindenmayer believes America is failing its veterans at a crisis level, including those in Cherokee County.

But he has a plan for at least alleviating the problem in this part of Georgia.

As director of the Cherokee County Homeless Veterans program, which he founded in 2014, he is working to create a veterans’ campus that would provide temporary housing, food service, training and education, counseling and administrative services to the veterans the organization serves.

To address those needs, Lindenmayer’s program has purchased and is remodeling a 13,000 square-foot building at 111 Faye Drive, just off Bells Ferry Road near Canton. Required permits are pending, and Lindenmayer hopes construction work will begin by the end of the year.

“We need a shelter here for veterans,” Lindenmayer said. “We have to help men and women who have served our country honorably to become successful and productive in civilian life.”

Housing programs under the Department of Veterans Affairs and other federal entities have been “a total failure,” Lindenmayer said.

He cites the example of Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH), a Department of Housing and Urban Development program. HUD VASH vouchers are intended to make rent more affordable within 50 miles of the VA Medical Center in Decatur.

“Cherokee County is within this coverage,” Lindenmayer said. “We learned this year in conversations with the regional HUD director that there is no HUD VASH housing, never was, and there will never be any in Cherokee County. The only HUD VASH housing in Georgia is in Decatur, Rome and Carrollton.”

In Cherokee, the Canton Housing Authority receives HUD funding but it’s not a voucher agency, so it cannot provide HUD VASH vouchers.

Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) is a VA program that offers vouchers to make rents more affordable, but Lindenmayer says apartment complexes “do not want to take them even though they are backed by the federal government as it requires the complex to provide the units at less than market rate.”

According to Lindenmayer, the lack of affordable housing sometimes thwarts his group’s best efforts.

“We want veterans to stay in Cherokee County. They have many great traits that make them needed by local employers. With the failure of HUD VASH and SSVF, we pay to stabilize them, feed them, get them jobs only to have them move to another county to live,” he said. “So our program is paying thousands of dollars each year to see valuable resources leave our county due to lack of housing.”

Delays in processing veterans’ claims is another stumbling block, Lindenmayer says, adding the VA can take up to eight years to process some claims. So his group works with congressional representatives and senators to make sure veterans get proper claim review.

Consulting firm VA Claims Insider estimates that as of May 2024, the VA’s backlogged and pending claims totaled about 1.2 million.

“Our county and state government do little to nothing to help,” Lindenmayer said, adding that recently Georgia lawmakers created a study committee on veteran homelessness and mental health.

Although homelessness is its first priority, the Cherokee County Homeless Veterans Program works with a range of veteran issues. The list includes physical and mental disabilities, unemployment, domestic problems, job training and navigating the bureaucratic system.

“We continuously deal with more than 120 homeless veterans annually, plus another 300 in need of claims assistance or who are living paycheck to paycheck,” Lindenmayer said.

Working out of an office at American Legion Post 45 in Canton, Lindenmayer estimates he spends 30 to 40 hours a week trying to find solutions for veterans’ problems. All of his time is donated and so are the hours of the all-volunteer team he leads.

“Georgia ranks third in the U.S. in the number of unsheltered homeless veterans, and, among the 152 counties without major metropolitan areas, Cherokee County ranks second in the total number of homeless persons,” Lindenmayer says.

Plans for the veterans campus on Faye Drive include:

♦ Administrative offices;

♦ Dormitory housing for 20-40 male residents and a resident manager (Female veterans would be housed off-campus);

♦ Central dining facility with kitchen;

♦ Resource center for jobs and VA claims;

♦ Computer labs with smart technology;

♦ Food/clothing Pantry

♦ Greenhouse

♦ Outside terrace with exercise track;

♦ Community room, also available to outside groups.

The Faye Drive location is currently housing a thrift store where donated items are sold to support veterans’ programs. In addition to furniture and other materials, Lindenmayer accepts donated cars, which veterans often need in order to secure and hold jobs. Since 2014, about 60 vehicles have been repaired and given to individuals or families.

Over 2,000 veterans helped

Lindenmayer funds his program, including the facility project, through corporate and private fundraising and has federal grant proposals pending. He estimates his program has helped more than 2,000 veterans since its inception.

One of them is Syphonique Robinson, a veteran who was homeless with her children after a house fire. A social worker suggested she contact Lindenmayer.

Lindenmayer fed the family, and paid for a room for them at a Motel 6, Robinson said, helping them with food and paying the motel for four to five months. And when her car was towed, he helped get it back.

“He fought hard for my family and me. He spoke up for me when I felt my voice didn’t matter,” she said. “He has basically held my hand and walked me through a rough time.”

After seven and a half months at the Motel 6, the family moved into their new home.

“I have a new and better job because I could truly focus on bettering our situation from all the help and support from Jim’s program,” she said.

With her life stabilized, Robinson now does volunteer work for Lindemayer’s program and says she always will.

Brian Clauson, a combat veteran of the war in Iraq, is another beneficiary who is giving back through volunteering.

Wounded when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb, Clauson’s efforts to save others won him an Army Commendation Medal with a V for valor, as well as a Purple Heart. Back in civilian life on 100% disability, he found himself in a dissolving marriage while trying to support his seven children. The Homeless Veterans Program found him temporary housing, paid back rent on his Ball Ground home, helped upgrade his VA assistance and helped sponsor his children’s needs.

“I can’t say enough about Jim,” Clauson says. “He really believes in his motto of paying it forward. I wonder when he sleeps.”

Donna Bell joined the Air Force at age 19, became a non-commissioned officer and worked as an aircraft mechanic. Today she deals with post-traumatic stress disorder that she says is due to sexual assault during active duty. She received an honorable discharge but with no veteran benefits, she was “on the way to being homeless” when she contacted Lindenmayer. With his help, she eventually secured significant benefits.

Although she still suffers from flashbacks and panic attacks, Bell says she has learned to manage them, and she credits Lindenmayer for her ability to live a normal life. She loves to cook and frequently takes food to the needy, including veterans.

“When I went to him, Jim didn’t judge me. He is like a brother to me,” she says. “If he needs something, I’m Johnny on the spot.”

Lindenmayer says his program’s success rate with veterans is hard to define because of the wide variety of challenges, but he estimates it at 90%.

“Veterans are proud, and sometimes it’s hard to ask for help,” he says, “but when they do, we try to be there for them.”

Any honorable discharged veteran who is addiction-free may apply for help from the program through its website: https://www.cherokeehomelessvets.com.

Those interested in donating or volunteering can also visit the Cherokee Homeless Veterans Program website.