Grand Opening Held for Richmond Veterans Resource Center

By Bay City News Service

U.S. military veterans, local leaders and supporters were warmly welcomed Thursday afternoon to a new home and resource center for local veterans in Richmond.

About three dozen people gathered for Thursday's grand opening of the Veterans Resource Program at the roomy two-story house surrounded by a white picket fence at 934 Maine Ave.

Rhonda Harris, the program's founder and director, dedicated the new center to her father, the late Pvt. Harry L. Williams, and told attendees  Thursday that the house is meant to be a place where veterans of all ages can find much-needed help and support.

"The veterans' program was born out of a desire to honor my father. It's a place where they can obtain resources for their immediate and future needs," she said.

The program will connect veterans to services through the United States and California Departments of Veteran Affairs and non-profit organizations and will provide information about employment, housing and health care resources.

Veterans who walk into the new resource center can also get help filing benefits claims forms, use computers to search for jobs, or socialize with fellow former servicemen and women.

The center is also home to four previously homeless veterans.

One of those residents, former U.S. Marine Jaime Garcia, 59, said that since moving into the house on Maine Avenue a year ago, he has been able to overcome an alcohol addiction that worsened when he lived under a freeway overpass in Oakland.

"This is like a restarting point. It allows you to reclaim your good character back again. It gives you the time to transition from all of the negative," he said.

Harris, a longtime supporter of local veterans, said that the organization, which she and resource center residents are funding, is seeking sponsors.

In addition, the new organization is now meeting monthly with city leaders, the local homeless advocacy group Shelter, Inc. and the American Legion post of El Cerrito to better meet local veterans' needs.

Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Peter Gravett, secretary of the state Department of Veteran Affairs, each stressed the important role of community organizations like the Veterans Resource Program in helping veterans transition back to civilian life.

"All veterans don't need services, but for the veterans that do, we need to make sure we reach out at every level," Gravett said at Thursday's grand opening ceremony. "They are our national treasures."

In addition to housing, medical and employment resources, the new veterans' program aims to link vets with benefits they may not have known about, such as college tuition reimbursement for veterans and their children, said Eddie Ramirez, a military veteran who works with the San Francisco Veterans' Affairs Commission.

There are an estimated 2.2 million veterans in California alone, Ramirez said.

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