SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, Calif- The San Luis Obispo Housing Authority is working with Veterans Affairs to help get homeless veterans housing.
Last month Chuck Dollison moved into a studio in downtown San Luis Obispo. He was in the military for 14 years and once he left the marine core he went back to work, but it didn't last. "I got laid off from a job I had down in San Diego and basically came on some hard times and I ended up losing my housing and went into a shelter in San Diego," said Chuck Dollison, a client of the housing authority.
He then heard about the program, Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing in San Luis Obispo and got help. "The housing authority provides housing assistance to them and the VA provides a social worker that assists them with their medical needs, there employment needs, and those kinds of things," said the Executive Director of the SLO Housing Authority, Scott Smith.
The goal for the SLO Housing Authority is to help 100 veterans this year. So far they've served 60, but have run into a problem with finding 17 veterans homes. "It's a very tight housing market and the rental vacancy rate is very low, probably 1-percent, and so veterans have a difficult time competing in that rental market," said Smith.
The housing authority is hoping more and more landlords open up their doors for people like Dollison, who is now enrolled at Cuesta College and Cal Poly as a full time student.
"It's just a night and day difference, from where I was from where I am now, the quality of my life is so much more improved," said Dollison. Now the way the program works is the veterans pays 30 percent of their income for rent and the housing authority picks up the rest and pays it directly to the land lord.
San Luis Obispo Housing Authority: 805.594.5311
