Before I start this article, I want to state my bias. The following issue affects me because I was homeless at one point in my life, and I am also a veteran. I served five long years in the U.S. Navy. With that in mind, I shall begin.

Imagine for a moment that you were a Humboldt State University student. You were also in the Army National Guard so you could pay for college. You got activated and sent to Iraq for a one-year tour. You did your time and were released from active duty, but now you do not have a home because you rented when you were in school. You don’t have any family in Humboldt County, but love the area and want to stay here. Here’s the kicker, and the unfortunate truth for many Iraqi war vets: you suffer from severe psychological trauma from the death and destruction that you witnessed and, most likely, contributed to. What are your options? Where do you turn for help? Not to the Fireside Motel, if business owners in northwestern Eureka have their way.

Facility for Veterans Proposed

	The NCVRC wants to turn the old Fireside Motel into a transitional facility for veterans.

The former Fireside Motel property is located on U.S. Highway 101 in Eureka and is owned by the city of Eureka. Ben Fewell is the director of the North Coast Veterans Resource Center (NCVRC), and he wants to construct a transitional housing facility for homeless veterans on the property. He also wants to provide job training skills, counseling services and a place for clean and sober veterans to live.

“We want to provide a program which includes transitional housing coupled with intensive case management, for the focus of getting homeless veterans back to self-sufficiency,” he said.

The facility will have three sources of funding, Fewell said, including money from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program and the Veterans’ Workforce Investment Program. The funding is for stabilizing and retraining homeless veterans to go back into the workforce. It includes job placement, job orientation and job assistance.

The proposed facility will house 34 vets, primarily men, but will also accommodate three women. The facility will have staff offices, classrooms and common areas. If the Conditional Use Permit allows, drug and alcohol counseling will be provided onsite. The facility will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with surveillance cameras outside and inside.

Each individual living at the facility will be required to undergo a thorough background check, including a mental health check, and each must have been clean and sober for at least 30 days, before entering—although that can be shortened depending on the situation. Residents must have been discharged under conditions other than dishonorable, and they must submit to random drug testing.

The NCVRC does not want to let these veterans fall through the cracks of society, Fewell said. The facility will be for veterans from this area, but at times may take veterans from programs outside the area if they are appropriate candidates.

Many Eureka business owners would prefer that the NCRVC find an alternative space for their center.

Business Owners Say ‘No’

Attorney Larry Kluck represents 60 business owners and more than 90 properties in the area of the proposed project. They have received a temporary restraining order preventing transfer of the property’s title from the city to the NCVRC. On Oct. 8, Kluck attended a preliminary injunction hearing to try to permanently stop the transfer.

These business owners do not want this facility to go ahead as planned because they feel it will degrade the area. Kluck said that the issue is not about patriotism, support of veterans or of politics. The issue is strictly about the economic upswing of the northwestern business district of Eureka, an economically depressed area. The business owners want other businesses on that site. New businesses would revitalize the economy and bring in money, he said.

“All the business owners want is to move it to another location,” Kluck said. “Why not one street over?”

He said the area of the proposed facility— at R Street and Highway 101, across from Pizza Hut—is zoned for commercial use, not treatment or residential use. The city gave special treatment to Fewell when they agreed to sell this property to the NCVRC, Kluck said. He also said the city is shortchanging itself and the businesses in the area if they sell the property to Fewell. If the transitional housing facility gets underway, he said, Eureka will lose about $4 million per year.

	Despite its appearance, proponents say only minor renovations would be needed to ready the facility.

On June 17, at the Eureka City Council meeting, business owners reiterated their support for veterans. However, their main concern was preventing the proposed facility.

“The business owners put their collective feet in their collective mouths,” Cai Williams, director of Veterans Affairs at HSU, said. “They expounded their support for veterans and their patriotism, but did not want this facility in their neighborhood.”

Fewell said the former Fireside property is the best choice for this facility. These services are primarily needed in Eureka and it is a central location with a free-standing building, needing only minimal remodeling.