New Kansas post poised to become model in long-term care

The ceremonial signing and presentation of a temporary charter for a new American Legion post Thursday synergized veterans, a long-term care company, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the son of Holocaust survivors and the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

The crescendo was the official dedication of American Legion Post 444 in Wichita, Kan., in an event where all stakeholders applauded two needs on the road to fulfillment – affordable long-term care for older veterans and employment opportunities for younger ones.

“This new post is more than just a building,” U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., told a crowd of Legionnaires and others who gathered at the new Oxford Vista Senior Living Residences facility that is nearing complete restoration. “This new post will help veterans and military families in Wichita build community with one another and find new ways to continue serving our state and country. It’s really a place where those who share similar experiences can find camaraderie and support, support they knew during their military service and make certain that future generations will never forget the sacrifices of the men and women who came before them and continue working to build a stronger America.”

The former Masonic Home that was built more than 90 years ago recently welcomed its first independent-living resident as work continues to finish the skilled-nursing side and other areas in a phased opening. Once completed, it will have 53 independent living units, 64 assisted living units and 20 more in memory care.

The American Legion Department of Kansas has worked with Oxford Vista to get the new facility off to a good start, by bringing in the necessary 15 veterans to serve as charter members of Post 444.

“We’re thrilled about it,” American Legion Department of Kansas Commander Randy Frank said. “We have an opportunity to provide additional assistance to veterans who need medical assistance of different levels. There’s a lot of them out there.”

Post 444 Commander Joe Hicks said the opportunity to charter a new post inside the historic and massively modernized facility – and to make it “veteran-centric,” as a founding investor puts it – has been smooth. 

“It’s something different, and we’re getting a lot of help from Oxford Vista to get started,” Hicks said. “So, it’s not going to be as difficult as otherwise starting with nothing. They’re helping us a lot, and we’ll help them in return, with activities for the residents and, of course, we’re going to try to get members from outside of here, who live in the local area, to build our numbers in the Legion – new members and any of the elderly in our Wichita area who wish to live here.”

A 7% veteran discount on rooms in a full-service facility that was modeled for affordability is one aspect of the project – in addition to the new post – that aims to improve housing availability for those who have served in uniform. Another aspect is that the investor group has been led by the son of Holocaust survivors who has been grateful to the U.S. Armed Forces all of his life and committed to veteran employment opportunities for the last several years.

Hymie Barber, co-founder of USA Care Living, LLC, presented the Oxford Vista project concept to the American Legion Employment & Education Commission at the Washington Conference in February. His interest in connecting with the nation’s largest organization of wartime veterans spans back to a time before he was born.

“My folks were Holocaust survivors,” he told The American Legion Magazine during the annual conference at the nation’s capital. “They were both liberated by the U.S. Army. My father was always really grateful to the U.S. military.”

Barber said he remembers that his parents frequently hosted U.S. military personnel at their home in Kentucky after they came to the United States. “They would come to our house, and I would have to step over them, as a little boy.”

He grew up, he said, wanting to be just like them. “I wanted to be an Army man in the worst way. Life doesn’t always work out the way you wanted it to, but I always wanted to give back.”

During a 35-year career of financing health-care facilities across the country, Barber has seen, and acted upon, opportunities to fulfill his pledge to give back. His first commitment was to actively recruit and place veterans in jobs at health-care facilities he was helping. The next opportunity came when he realized that the high cost of long-term care rules out many veterans at a time when VA and state veterans homes cannot keep up with demand.

He kept hearing the same refrain in the industry: “We need an affordable model.”

However, he added, “A lot of lips were moving, but nothing was getting done. We put our money where our mouth is.”

Post 444 Commander Hicks is highly aware of the need the Oxford Vista facility is designed to fulfill. “A lot of veterans are struggling,” he explained. “They don’t have the extra money to live in these more elaborate, expensive retirement homes. This becomes affordable here, and they’re offering the discount, also.”

The investor group purchased the property, Oxford Vista successfully closed on it in January and went to work renovating it into a haven for veterans and their families, complete with its own brand-new American Legion post.

Legionnaires and the Kansas senator – son of a World War II veteran and a member of the Sons of The American Legion – believe the Oxford Vista project can be a model for other communities across the country.

“So many veterans who will need – or need care today – they want to be close to home,” Sen. Moran said. “Veterans homes certainly serve a purpose, but having something that is in their home community is even better. The ability to get more money to be spent from Washington, D.C., is a challenge, on veterans housing, but if the private sector and the veterans can come together, like what’s happening here, this is a model for the country.”

He said legislation has been introduced to expand long-term care options for veterans and said he will share his story from Wichita with his colleagues in Washington. In the meantime, “We’re going to figure out how, with this and other companies, we can try to encourage this to happen around the nation.”

Thursday’s event began when American Legion Family members – including a phalanx of American Legion Riders and their machines – rolled up to the historic entrance, raised the U.S. flag and saluted, awaiting their senator, and the birth of a new post where older veterans in residence will soon be joined by younger veterans employed there.

Barber describes the arrangement as “not a veteran-only campus, but a veteran-centric campus.”

And, says Sen. Moran, that creates an opportunity at a perilous time for U.S. national security. “We face some of the most significant challenges in our country’s history today,” he told the crowd. “Our adversaries are aligned. And they are lining up together to see if they can create the circumstances in which Americans have little or no future as Americans. We need those who have served to remind those who haven’t – we need those of an older generation to remind those of a younger generation of what it means to serve. We need to make certain that our country is prepared … and a new post suggests – and gives me hope – that America is prepared for what’s to come. I am grateful that this post will give veterans in this community a place to serve, to be together, to demonstrate, to be role models, to make a difference.

“Here, we bring together an American Legion post and housing that is designed to care for those who served our country. No place in Kansas is housing in excess supply. And many veterans face homelessness. Yet, here we are making a difference by providing housing for those who served.”