Legion staff make a warm donation

Homeless veterans in the nation’s capital are benefitting from the generosity of staff at the Legion’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., this holiday season. The staff donated and delivered nearly two dozen bags and boxes of clothes to the Southeast Veterans Service Center (SVSC) on Dec. 20.

“We just started the drive in early December, so the response was amazing and very heartening,” said Mark Walker, the Legion’s Deputy Economic director. Walker called the drive a “joint effort” of his division and VA&R (Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation). He and fellow volunteers routinely support the SVSC with donations of goods and services.

The SVSC and its collocated Chesapeake Veterans House in Washington, D.C., maintain a 98-bed transitional living facility for homeless male and female veterans of all eras. In-house services include substance abuse counseling, mental health therapy, family issue counseling, employment training and job placement services. The center also contains a VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic that provides medical treatment to center residents and visiting veterans.
SVSC was founded in the late 1970’s by then D.C. councilman H.R. Crawford after he became aware of the plight of homeless veterans in his legislative district. The story is recounted on the center’s website.