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Veterans Advisory Committee <br /> Minutes November 26,2019 <br /> Page 22 <br /> Sheridan: Is there any homeless in the outlying areas? They're mostly in the major areas, <br /> Kona, Hilo. <br /> Sales: There used to be a lot in Oceanview area, Glenwood, those areas. We see them <br /> come in, they'll come in to get benefits to get service connected. They'll go back and <br /> when they need something, they'll come back in. <br /> Sheridan: Yeah but are they homeless or just living out there? <br /> Sales: Living out there. Sometime when you talk about homeless, they make a <br /> differentiation between being homeless and houseless. <br /> Wery: You got a colony in lower Puna called Black Sands. Full of them in there. <br /> Sheridan: yeah but are they homeless or just living out there? <br /> Wery: They're squatting, going from house to house, friend to friend. You see um <br /> between the first and the fifth at Malama Market. <br /> Lewis: One thing I wanted to bring up if I may, I was over at the VFW on Kona side <br /> yesterday and what happened is, the Commander has someone from Veterans Court that <br /> he mentors and heard of the issue, apparently the person in Veterans Court they have <br /> some housing that had been designated for homeless and was living next door to someone <br /> who was pretty much on their own because they passed away and no one knew for about <br /> a month. But it was a Veteran and had only been a Veteran for about a year. But their <br /> accommodations, what he was telling me is that their accommodations moved umm in, at <br /> least on the west side. He had music, he had a moped that he got a loan on, took um off <br /> the street,put um in this place. VFW heard about it only because of the Veterans <br /> Treatment Court guy. They ended up trying to find the DD214 and today they're doing a <br /> service for him at West Hawaii. But what I wanted to bring up is there is an office in <br /> Hilo. I don't know if they manage both the east and west side,but they track those who <br /> pass who don't have any family members here. He didn't have any family members here <br /> on the island. That commander did a lot for that family to get closure. There're reasons <br /> why they break off from their family. The idea is what it reminded, when we had a <br /> service lately was the fact that there's a person that knows this list and who do they share <br /> this list with. If we don't know there's someone that's passed and needs to be buried, we <br /> don't necessarily get the word on that until late. What I'm wondering is the connection <br /> between the reason we have the cemeteries is to honor the remains of the Veteran and <br /> their life and it makes it very difficult when you don't know who doesn't have the family <br /> members. There's a woman I know that tracks that, that's her full-time job trying to find <br /> out about these Veterans. But who is that shared with? It makes it very difficult for <br /> anyone to respond in a timely manner. <br />