Welcome to Perspectives from WFSU public media i'm Tom Flanigan this program using the Zoom platform for probably just a few more weeks pre-recorded on tuesday June 29th for playback on the first day of July which is thursday of course the show being aired on WFSU fm also archived on WFSU.org well several years ago the Tallahassee and big bend area initiated an annual full court press I guess we could call it to provide the areas homeless and at risk veterans with a total menu of of services at one place and one time that proverbial one-stop shop to help them in both the short and the long hauls now this veteran stand down as it was called also had the goal of eventually putting itself out of business as more and more veterans embarked on a personal path to a more positive situation that was the idea of course then came kovit and this hopeful trend was essentially derailed or at least put out to pasture for a bit as the most serious part of the pandemic now seems to be behind us the need to revive the veterans stand down seems apparent how better than to talk about it with the folks who are in charge of that revival to talk about what it entails and how other folks in the community can get involved because this is a community-wide type of initiative so we we welcome via Zoom to the program Bill Eichhoefer who is stand down coordinator for the 2021 veterans stand down and Bill it is good to see your face after low too many months I agree and thank you so much for letting us come out on now it's really really critical to get the word out since stand down is taking place at a different time of year than what most people are accustomed to they're used to coming out to the fairgrounds in may but this year due to the covid restrictions and events gathering we're going to be doing it august 6th through 7th at the loss and multi-purpose center on FAMU's campus well that'll certainly be a cooler venue for this thing especially in the initial part of august Bill so I would venture to say that uh that may be a good turnout there it can get a little bit uh toasty and a bit buggy out there at the fairgrounds in august so that was a good call to relocate it to the lawson center on the Fayetteview campus yeah I expect a lot more volunteers this time air conditioning much much much better but we are going to have a full uh suite of providers there we're going to have the housing assistance we're going to have the va there chiropractors we're even going to have a veterinarian there to help with the homeless people's animals now one of the important things is id for homeless people and or getting a driver's license I was speaking to some pity people at citywalk yesterday getting the information out to them and they have a a number of people there who say that prevents them from getting a lot of the benefits that they need and we have some provisions for helping the veterans who are in that circumstances if you are needing an id or a driver's license and you don't have any proof of who you are go to our website at Tallahassee veterans outreach there's a veterans registration form but do it and turn it in by July 15th because we'll help you get birth certificates dd214s etc and when you come to stand down we have the flowmobile that's going to be there from the department of highway safety and motor vehicles and you'll be able to get a florida id or driver's license as the circumstances may dictate but we're also going to have one thing I want to throw in here real quick Bill and that is for those folks who uh need to go through this process here that one option might be the uh the resource area of the leon county public library because there is certainly access to online uh resources through there if the the the homeless vets who we're talking to here uh don't have any other way to go online to obtain that exactly and you can stop by several of the shelters like I said citywalk we're going to be getting it out to the hope community work we're working with the Big Bend homeless coalition and they're going to be bringing materials out to the different camps and other homeless communities to make these materials better are available for you if you have a serious issue like needing a driver's license or a legal issue if you can work with the homeless coalition or send us an email like you said go to the library my email is on the botTom of the site it's wi coffer at gmail and we'll have somebody get back with you to help you obtain this because you obviously you can't get a birth certificate overnight and you need that in order to get a driver's license and then that will help you open the door to getting the other assistance because you got to prove who you are in order to do these things with the various government programs exactly and so so many of the veterans that we would have in the area might not be florida born and you would have to obtain the birth certificate from from other state Bill before we get into some more stuff let's bring in the founder if we could do that who is Colonel Washington Sanchez now you have seen this guy if you have not met him in person you see him on the sides of one of the store metro buses here in town and Washington it is so good to hear from you thank you for joining us and uh how have you been in the course of our should we say interesting past a year and a half or so well I've been fine Tom and thanks for having us and I i really like to put a shout out for Bill because Bill was a godsend to us he's so knowledgeable of the Tallahassee area and and the dignitaries and and folks like yourself and what have you can bring that to the table and that's what we need is uh is a wide uh opening for everybody to understand what it is that we're trying to do so uh so I help wise I have been excellent really I can't believe it my age I won't say what it is but it's it's up there but uh you know I've been uh doing things like uh with the fitbit stepping uh I've not missed a day doing 10 000 steps a day I like to brag about that because most most people can't can't do that uh much younger age but but to stand down really truly uh has been a blessing for us all it's been a blessing for me to be able to give give back to our veterans uh my my ability to uh to do the things I did in the military for 28 years or what have you and so uh doing the stand down and and having the opportunity to to bring it back in being after being away for a year and bring it to my my home university if I am you uh it's just it's just an outstanding thing so we're really looking forward to to a real big turnout because as Bill said is we had a new air conditioned building and anything that we have on the outside in tents will will be uh our condition with portable commission fans and what have you so we are just excited that uh that we're having this opportunity to do this uh and do it for all the veterans mostly at risk because when I checked a couple years ago we had less than 100 veterans that were homeless and so we then turn to those veterans that are at risk and and I want to tell you that's the population that need help that's the population that we're losing through suicide at 20 a day or what have you throughout this nation and that uh that are needed to help they they are struggling with jobs and they are struggling to put food on the table they are struggling with uh even in housing apartment what have you serviced to be victim because they cannot pay their rent because they've been laid off from a job and just on and on and on so so yes that's that's that's where we're at right now yeah and we have seen that that resurgence Bill you sent me some really really scary numbers here earlier today that takes a look at the macro it look it looks at florida in general but you've got a a huge number of folks who are homeless a total homeless population here we're looking at for florida is just under 27 500 and these are the official stats there of course are an incredible number of people who really don't make any of these radar screens but are out there nonetheless and we're seeing that at least anecdotally here in the Tallahassee and big bend area it's almost impossible to go by any intersection in this town without seeing at least one or possibly more people in that location with the obligatory signs need help and it would seem that a significant number of these may very well be former members of the military who need that help out there so with the kearney center being shut down for a long period of time during covent it has now reopened the city walk center and that attendant controversy it has it has really struck that community hard hasn't it yeah it has uh covid jobs that would normally go to our alice population for those of you who don't know that it's the asset limited income constrained employed in other words we're talking about the working poor and the big bend area since this is the north florida stand down we have 53.6 percent of the population in the big bend that are the working poor people who cannot afford things like child care food transportation they barely afford a place to live they're often working multiple jobs and that doesn't even account for those people who are below the poverty line if you look at some of the statistics I gave you I believe it was in florida there are 2.6 million florida hospitals excuse me households who fit this alice population and then you add another million they they say that are below the poverty level and you put that up against 7.8 million people in florida we got a tremendous problem in this state and it extends to the big bend with 53 percent are the working poor so we need to uh reach out if you know somebody or if you fall into that once again stand down is for the um at risk people too so don't think you have to be living on the street to ask for our help or to register if you're a veteran it's available for you we'll have people there to help you get jobs we're going to have health care we've got something new for health care as a matter of fact this year uh pancare from panama city they often provide of course the medical van and the dental van but they're bringing their vision ban so if you need gla van if you need glasses you're going to be able to get glasses or at least see an eye doctor uh while you're at stand down but we're if you need help we'll do what we can to do it you know I might mention uh yesterday uh vice president of our organization and I met at va with the eligibility folks and they are really excited to help us with uh making sure that any veteran come whether or not they have a vehicle or not they they will be sent through the eligibility and there's a possibility that they can start getting in health care right there that day they can they can be given the eligibility to uh to go over to va on orange avenue and and start the process of uh of getting care and that care is starting with for uh you know a complete physical with a primary care doctor and then if you have some specific uh ailment where you need a specialist the primary care doctor can refer you to not only the va doctors but also output other uh doctors in the community because there's something called uh trite tricare what habit is available to our veterans but uh this choice program is also available where they can do civilian doctors uh and do not come in to va to to get help and what have you and I was really surprised how openly they they want to be so they will be at stand down to in fact uh address our veterans right right from that beginning because I think that there's a perception out there Washington is there not that oh once you muster out well the va will just take you into its arms and walk you through all of the processes for how you obtain services like at our big clinic out on orange avenue they'll be in constant contact with you they'll be looking out for you that is not necessarily true that's a joke that's a joke that's why I've said it many many times the reason why we continue to stand now beyond the homeless population that's that's gone from around 400 down to uh less than 100 is that that is not happening many people that I meet say well hey I was only in for two years and I didn't I didn't go and and fight anywhere I stayed in the station so i'm not a veteran that is not so that is not so diverse categories of of uh veterans and so you need to talk to the eligibility folks they can tell you whether or not you're eligible not not for yourself and one of the things I learned just recently was that uh you know there's an income limit uh that you're out the meeting so if you you are so well off that your your income is over but if you have a disability you auTomatically in and once you're in with a disability you can get all the services uh you know pam as we say pampers bringing over a vision but uh one of the things that's normal with the va care is it's glasses uh you get a uh an uh examination every year and if you need glasses you get them every year so uh that's the benefit that's available to every veteran so and I must say you know if you don't want to sign up as a participant you can sign up as a volunteer you can sign up as a volunteer participant we just want you to to be aware because you can learn a lot that's where I learned a lot by by being involved in this thing now I did not know that there were so many services that were available when you see our flyer you see you know a total of around 20 different uh activities that that we will have that will be available to our veterans if they come and that leads to the next question with the numbers reflecting an increase here Bill I coffee how many veterans are you set up to accommodate given the fact that we probably will have far more response to this this year than even two years ago out at the fairgrounds when the numbers were on that downward slide if you will after a year and a half of being slammed by covet and many people falling into more dire circumstances than they had before can you guys handle it if we get a real slam turnout for this well we hope we can we're not going to turn anybody away and if we have to be there longer than uh the scheduled hours then we will and I assume our providers most of them are of the same opinion we're there to help the people and we'll do what we can and uh we're not gonna walk out on you but we're expecting around 400 people that's between the homeless and the at risk that would make a lot of sense Washington Sanchez we touched on this briefly before but during that first stand down which by the way was not a Tallahassee idea you kind of appropriated it from another community out west back in the day didn't you as a matter of fact uh we were exposed to it by by folks that in san diego who started the first standard in 2008 and what they did was very very unique they they wrote a standard operating procedure which is an sop which military folks are aware of so we got that and and knowing how to read an sop from being in the military what have you we we conducted a three-day stand now in that vein and it was so interesting uh tracking with them because they were feeding back and forth to us telling us how to do it I went out to san diego on my own dime I paid my way out and stayed on on a navy base out there and I i was amazed that over a thousand veterans showed up I mean it was it was it was an unreal type thing they took over a school facility uh the the entire baseball area football area and they just had they must have had 60 tents out there and so I learned from that and I learned that one of the biggest problem that a lot of veterans have is legal and it can be legal from the standpoint of losing their license and once you lose your license if you have child support issues that go against your license if you have another speeding ticket that goes get your license or if you have uh some other you know offense whatever all goes against your license not only in your state but in any other state that you might be in and so that was one of the reasons why we had half court and we were able to get the the George George flurry that started with for us to uh to take on offenses that were in california or in new york or illinois or wherever it was and he could adjudicate those particular offenses right there and report back to the status of what was done that was a big deal I mean that really cleared a lot of them so we had veterans that would come without a license without an ID card go to court and leave court with with a clear uh record to a point where they could just go into the flowmobile and get their license right there and we then had to follow through and make them do their community service hours which was a challenge but we've overcome that as well well that was something I thought we could uh touch upon because of the just nature of the beast if you will Bill that you've got a lot of folks who if they have spent any time on the street probably have been hit with all kinds of in most cases minor misdemeanor offenses trespassing after warning all these kinds of things and as we know any kind of a an offense today is essentially a life sentence because that record is going to follow you wherever you go how does that work when you bring people from the second judicial circuit to a veteran stand down and you have folks lining up who have these minor offenses how did the how does the judge and the other court personnel handle that without caving into what i'm sure some people would say oh you're just you know cutting them an unfair break or you're making their uh their punishment go away unfairly how do you deal with that well let me let me Bill let me address that because i'm a mentor with the veteran treatment court which is uh which is a program that's uh that started I think in 2016 or what have you where there's a judge that's over a set of veterans that might have of fences might have a felony uh charge what have you might might have offenses that are drug related what have you uh they go through a four phase uh system and normally take anywhere from six six months to over and uh they go to court every other week uh depending on what stage they're in uh and when they come out they are drug free because they they have to be tested uh every week you know for for drugs or for any kind of offense of that nature and uh that program is is very that's a nation national program whatever that help our veterans but also the the uh the what we call the stand down court that's uh now being held by George richardson uh that that helped uh as well because she can adjudicate uh minor offenses what have you in the community service and we as an organization uh italian veteran outreach we can pay for our reinstatement of the license and pay small fees and what have you that allow them to get the license that's why we bring the flammable Bill out to the state now and we'll bring it out this year although we don't have court home at the stand now we will have court immediately after the stand down based on those veterans that have asked for assistance and need to go to court in order to get their their fines and fees or what have it a lot of them may be in different states and so we have to have attorneys reach out to a state to find out what is offensive and get that transferred to uh to florida and then the second circuit and and they can adjudicate that particular offense and and turn it into a community service are a a small amount of charges that that we can assist them in paying we're hoping to have funds that would allow us to do that as an organization but typically you see a lot of these these fines and even uh jail time converted over to community service hours so that the veterans can then discharge their obligation if you will that's exactly exactly what happens and of course we we try to use uh you know the bloody buddhist system and elementals that are that are that are working with the veteran to guide them and and make sure that they are doing what they need to do and I've I've been involved with it before they started uh back in 2016 when I was at the foundation as a chairman uh we got involved in that and it's been a great system they've graduated many many veterans out of that but we've also been able to to help veterans that are that are not you know debilitated with drugs or what have you you know get community service uh through George richardson and come out to have their licensing whatever and and and there's a there's a program now called expungement uh that uh that's being worked through the system as well so you can get your your records uh you know uh get his funds that mean eliminated off your system so when you go and apply for a job you really don't have to uh report something that's already been uh sealed or locked uh or got in the way with and and George George can do that as well with the veteran treatment court so so our veterans are getting a break I mean they're getting a tremendous break and which they deserve I mean I i don't back up to the table with any benefit I get and I encourage them not to as well but seek each and every one that's available Bill I cover there's so many great stories that have come out of previous stand downs and programs ongoing like Washington just mentioned to help veterans get back on track are there any that stand out to you that you could without mentioning any names certainly just talk about how this coalition of services that we've been able to put together in this area have essentially saved lives well one thing we do at stand down every year is suicide prevention and I know we've talked about a lot of this in numbers but you got to realize these these aren't just numbers these are people these are your cousins your neighbors their children uh your people in your community it's not just the number and a lot of the people when they come out of the military it's not just physical disabilities but they are having ptsd I can assure you they didn't join the military and plan on coming out and being homeless I don't think that was their intention so we need to address and and we're hoping to address here is to help with suicide prevention and I know Washington had some information he wanted to share with you on that particular instance yeah go ahead Washington yeah suicide prevention I've been involved in quite a bit because you know believe it or not I have a post-traumatic stressors auto ptsd as well as a traumatic brain injury uh from my military service and I did not know about it until almost after I re well after I retired uh for the most part but but we've been involved uh in this uh for quite a few years as a matter of fact just the uh about two days ago I was talking to a lady from va that's involved with um the white house because they they have a program where they are not only talking about suicide prevention but they also talking about you know getting a vaccine for a number of people especially noises who are reluctant about getting uh shot because they are familiar with some of the horror stories that's happened in the past the Tuskegee situation what have you which is not even close to being uh an environment in what what we're looking at today so we uh we in fact on our website uh we have been showing all information from from va from the county uh the testing what have you I got my shot from a church what have you as opposed to va because the church was was giving it from a civilian standpoint faster than va would give it and as we met yesterday with the va eligible other people they say if anyone come to stand out they don't care whether or not they are a veteran an escort or someone who is volunteering to uh to work with our veterans our vendor they will give they will give a shot to that particular person and and they and they'll give you know the the one-time shot and and pam care who is coming to do medical stuff they are bringing the capability of doing shots you may know that fam you have been doing testing but now for months and I tell you their their testing is is quite a way I mean you know I i took a test about three or four months ago and before I got home they added results to me so uh I want to tell you that's a good thing and at the lawson center today you know they are in fact giving the the vaccine so so we we're going to the heart of where things are happening we're taking we're taking the stand down to a place where it should have been for years ago uh we shouldn't you know and there's no reason why we we're not indifferent to the background but when you can get into the heart of a university and and have university students uh exposed to to the the critical situations of helping veterans and I attended that university went through our ROTC program we'll get the ROTC folks involved and what have you so all of that is is is very important to to come into an end game that says that we are taking care of veterans and will helping to prevent suicide that that is a priority for not only the va but for the white house as well and to leverage a worldwide pandemic on top of this situation winding down though it may be it further complicates things immeasurably beyond what we have seen in previous stand downs right right well you know when you look at our flyers i'm looking at one right now i'm I mean i'm just amazed with it with the stuff we have on it we haven't even mentioned voter registration we were doing free haircuts uh free food uh free distribution of packaged food from uh from uh pam k I mean from from uh second harvest and and from uh you know food source and what have you so we uh you know I think Bill mentioned the veterinary service that we'll have out there uh we we we will have the ability for a veteran to come in identify himself not knowing whether he's qualified for a service from va but find out that he is and if he has some illness he can go to a veterans service officer right there and they can apply for a disability that will go anywhere from 10 up to 100 percent and we're talking about real real funds that are tax deductible you know 100 percent uh disability get you 3 000 thirty six thousand dollars a year that you don't have to pay taxes on and expected in a lot of cases from from antibiotic gauging even even in the divorce case they can't touch your disability oh Tom back to your question an example of uh some people that were affected that I met uh through stand down a number of them were homeowners and I would work with them to help get them as many or as much of a tax savings as they can a lot of them were seniors and often what I could help them and show them how to save money on taxes would pay for their drugs there are some tax exemptions for combat disabled veterans which uh give you a direct reduction in your taxes let's say if you're 70 percent disabled due to combat and you're age 65 your taxes are knocked by down by that amount and that helps our seniors because they are on limited incomes so things along those lines helping people stay in their housing helping them free up money so they can pay for their drugs or make their mortgage payment so there are circumstances that yes and those are some of the life-changing ones that I've worked on but Washington and the suicide prevention and providing food and helping people get off the street are really some of the more important ones yeah absolutely Bill and it seems that we can't go through a legislative session without the lawmakers coming up with a new homestead exemption many of which as you said are totally tied to a prior military service so that's something that a lot of folks you know from your day job back then didn't really take into account when they're trying to figure out what their tax burden is going to be on their on their homesteaded property so good point yeah I was involved in that with the constitutional amendment that just passed uh for combat injured veterans that extended the exemption to their surviving spouse I lobbied for that I worked with the florida department of veterans to help make that a reality along with so many of the commanders here locally and think of how that affects people when your spouse dies what happens you I mean besides the grief your Bills and your your Bills don't change you probably got more because you got to pay for funerals etc but your income drops and having to face losing your home being able to put food on the table this exemption may not take care of all of it but it does make a difference and it is now law in florida to help these people that served and uh stood on our place and fought for us so we could have this conversation a free radio station i might answer that uh there's something called dependent indemnity compensation which uh a a spouse is uh may be eligible for but they have to have had their their veteran participate in in with va and va card and have a disability and one of the key things to to being eligible for that is to have not that if everybody's going to die you know we know you're going to expire at some point in time but if you die of a disability uh that's put on your death certificate that's an end from for to be eligible for dic and you know we have a national cemetery here so that's something that will be available to veterans that as well they can they can pre-register for a uh internment at the national cemetery they can do that at the stand now because we'll have someone from the cemetery uh there and so uh we we're trying to cover all bases uh anything that can be made available to a veteran we will try to have a piece of it at the stand down and in fact we don't stop after the 6th and 7th of august we will continue to the service veterans uh and and we're doing that right now as they sign up we send uh their information to a particular activity that can start taking care of that that particular problem that they have i'm dealing with two people right now that uh that needs services uh and so i'm telling them what to do where to go and and matter of fact yesterday I took a veteran with me as I went to the eligibility people and I said okay now that we finished the general stuff let's talk specifically about this veteran one of the things we learned that he was over income but but if his disability come through with hearing then he's in and he'll get the same service as anybody else regardless of income and that a lot of people don't know they say well I make too much money well you do you might nobody makes too much money but that's that's what you want to say but you can still get va services which will be a be a really life-saving uh type thing for your family members if you in fact uh pursue that but just having all of that information and those resources available at that one place and time is invaluable as you pointed out Washington so many of the service access problems are really not knowing who to talk to or what the rules of the road are when it comes to what what am I eligible for what can I get and that is almost impenetrable even if you go on and I know that they have the best intentions at heart but you go on to the va's website or some of these other online resources that are available and you try to pick apart well gosh does this apply to me uh could my family get this it is difficult to tell unless you've got someone who really has a lot of savvy and experience in this and that having it at stand down is going to be really important for folks and and we will have that we'll have uh for example we'll have uh the county veterans service officer uh will be there ben bradwell uh with with the uh the county uh what have you and a lot of times uh the first thing that's asked for is the daily phone 214 and they have no idea what it is or where it is and what have you and so in in this case you can turn the ban because ben get a copy of the dd phone 214 as a veteran was identified come into the county uh they get it at the state level department of veterans affairs get it and they share it with with the veterans service officers at at the county level so uh and I've had instances of that where well a widow came to me shortly after their husband died and he asked uh can you help and I said have you have you found your diddy his video phone 214 that's the first thing you got to do before you can go to the funeral home and they can do anything for you uh and then I said if you if you can't find it then hey we'll send you to uh ben bradwell at the county and he can look it up in most cases he might have it if not he knows how to get it through va let me encourage everyone to tell your veterans even if they can't pre-register still come we know that a lot of you don't have access to computers etc still come to the event we'll get you into the system and do everything we can help now those who can the forms for veterans are online if you want to be a provider they are online we need volunteers on approximately July 7th you're going to be able to go on to the Tallahassee veterans outreach.org site and sign up to be a volunteer also these events they're not free I would like to encourage you to support stand down this interview wouldn't be complete I don't think without bringing up something lieutenant Colonel George Hardy of the Tuskegee airmen is so concerned about the veterans up in the panhandle he is going to be coming in september to help raise money for stand down in florida veterans and how he's going to do that is through a show called wings and wheels it's going to be an airplane show we've got the Commemorative Air Force flying in a number of their planes and we've got a number of other military planes are going to be there we expect about 30 planes we have a car show we're going to have world war ii vehicles command cars troop carriers it'll be a nice day out for the family but lieutenant Colonel of the George harvey of the Tuskegee airmen is going to come to Tallahassee to help the veterans in this area and to help see that we can continue to do stand down so that's going to be taking place in the fall and will that be since there are aircraft involved with that will that be out at the airport then Bill or what yes yes it is a flight line it's going to be actually at the old airport flight line in conjunction with the airport uh if you've got a plane you want to fly it in and show it we've got the fees waived uh the car show and the motorcycles will be in flight line we have security and everything so it'll be a nice safe place for you to bring your family and have a good time and help out with the veterans I recall one of the Tuskegee guys brought in one of those uh red-tailed mustangs p51s a couple years ago out to the uh the flight line area and that was just inspiring to see that and to think of what that uh that particular aircraft meant in the in the course of world war ii that was absolutely wonderful yeah keep us keep us in mind for uh uh future uh talking about those kinds of things too Bill because that'll be oh thank you we appreciate that because we gotta you know stand down we're gonna have this one we'll get through this one and we got it's got to continue on and we got to look for next year and this that event will actually go for paying for next year's stand down but the bigger success the more people we can help in reach don't forget that habitat for humanity is generally present at stand down those of you who are veterans and have an income you can apply for housing you're looking at a three or four bedroom house you can get from habitat from humanity for about a 430 dollar a month mortgage payment now of course you have to go through their uh process of working on other homes and look at your credit but it's not strict like if you're getting going from a commercial lender because they carry their own paper and the city and the county have donated seven lots for veterans but habitat isn't getting a lot of veterans to apply so if you're out there and you need affordable housing 450 for a brand new house compared to 900 I think is the average rent in Tallahassee it's a no-brainer it's like a no-brainer to me yeah Bill and I have been working to try to get uh I was building I think we've gotten one one Bill within the program veteran Bill uh since and we're looking to uh to get yet another one Bill is as soon as possible we can't we can't say exactly uh when but we have to raise a certain amount of funds in order to to start a particular property itself a lot is uh is available and and Bill and I have dedicated our our efforts toward raising funds necessary to get that going but even if you don't show up to stand down you can go online and make sure you go to big bend habitat for humanity if you just and donate there or apply there if you go to habitat for humanity the national organization gets it you want your money to stay local go to big bend habitat for humanity what is the status of the development out on lake bradford road that was set aside for veterans those properties uh along there uh are are there any availabilities still out there are they all booked up right now that I actually do not know Tom i'm not sure do you know marshall because uh that's something that we should know but Bill and I we will we will get you an answer to that and you can maybe augment uh presentation with it uh uh thank you that would be that's what you can do more than we do and I know as you mentioned Bill the city and county have been cognition to the fact that this is a need that uh has to be met at uh at an increasing rate than perhaps we have had there's even talk of once the uh the construction of the new Tallahassee police station at the old northwood center is done and they demo the current station that that property could conceivably be turned into some kind of affordable housing availability that is not cast in concrete or even plywood at this point but that's something that has been discussed and that certainly would be uh worthwhile to make sure that the areas veterans who are in need would have access to to that and any other affordable housing initiatives that come up in the area well I know some things we we've been talking about with uh habitat was changing the way you look at it because there are a lot of single people they don't need a three-bedroom house and they haven't done this yet but it's possible to build duplexes or quadruplexes think about how that would help our seniors who you know I remember in the old days talking about a lot of meeting cat food and dog food which is really sad and I hope that's still not true but uh imagine if they built a duplex and you could get if you're a senior and you were paying 300 even a month for that that's a lot better than a section 8 apartment you'd own it you'd create a legacy we're not putting you in the projects or anything like that we're putting you out in the neighborhoods so that you can be part of the community and Washington Sanchez as you have said so many times before the greatest remedy for homelessness is simply a home and that's what we're talking about here yes I mean that's that's the goal uh you know rent is one thing uh and it's not temporarily uh but uh owning your own home for less than four hundred dollars a month is is just unbelievable but but many many uh citizens and we are citizens as well as veterans uh are taking advantage of that they they build a number of homes a year and and we need to get on that train uh to make sure it happened but veterans are very modest they they they don't think they deserve this and that and whatever and I keep saying you deserve everything that we can provide to you you have served your country now it's time to serve you and uh and that's and I really believe in that uh that's why I stand down is so important as uh and and we've had as many as uh you know 300 volunteers along with you know 360 uh veterans that show up at the 219 2019 stand down so we we we do have the participation and I might say although we may not have that many people signed up generally only about a third of the folks that come to stand now actually pre-pre-rush to us but we don't care as long as we can accommodate them uh we have a lady samuel Washington who works closely with the uh with with the uh the sent out out there at the fairground uh she she get things done and so uh in in this case uh we say come and let us figure out how we can take care of you and we will surely try to do that we won't leave you out in in the cold we'll make sure that we do something for you we got you know farms here and second harvest giving food like they give around the place we have it strictly for veterans and we'll have a backpack full of stuff it will be a carnival type thing really but but it'll be some serious stuff happening there such as health care such as uh free needs uh for barriers such as dental health that veterans don't get unless they're 100 percent so there is a reason to participate and we ask you to come and help us do what we can do for our most deserving citizen Washington Sanchez you mentioned not leaving anyone out in the cold since this is august uh sixth and seventh we don't want to leave people out in the heat either in the lawson center it is air-conditioned as you mentioned some of you know how to count things we're very proud of the fact that we'll be inside and you can stay inside the whole time you're there and get the services on and the only service you cannot get inside would be the veterinarian you know if you have a pet and something like you have to go out and we'll have an air conditioned tent for you to set in and wait and we'll have the service available to you so so we'll come in all bases and someone want to bring another service that's needed uh we will welcome them we we say we're not selling anything if you come in to sell or make money off of veterans or anybody else you you'll come in the wrong place because we're gonna we will not allow you to do that but if you come in to give a service to a veteran we welcome your your service and we'll find a place for you if it's appropriate and we thank you for your service Colonel Washington Sanchez the founder of the veterans stand down here in Tallahassee in leon county Bill icoffer thank you so much for your participation and your your great conversation today it's always good to hear from you and we will see you guys that stand down at the lawson center on the FAMU campus august 6th and 7th thanks for coming on guys we welcome you Tom thank you Perspectives is produced by WFSU public media in Tallahassee thanks to Taylor Cox, Paul Dam, Amy Diaz de Villegas, Devin Bittner Brandon Brown, Trisha Moynihan, Lydell Rawls, our director of content Kim Kelling is executive producer and I’m Tom Flanigan we're still in the process of finalizing next week's program but it'll be fun and you're invited to be part of it right here on Perspectives from WFSU Public Media take care.