Salvation Army expanding services to veterans

Pahrump’s Salvation Army has expanded its services for area veterans and their families.

Social Services Director Jon Watt said aside from food assistance, the agency can now help veterans with a wide variety of services including utilities, housing, and more.

“If you’re a veteran or a family member of a veteran, and you’re having issues, come and see me,” he said. “We can help with utilities, and I’ll put them in contact with our people in Las Vegas, who can talk over the phone with the veteran. We can help any veteran regardless of discharge, except for dishonorable ones, so if they have a bad conduct discharge, they can still come in and get help.”

Watt also spoke in-depth of services the agency can provide for homeless veterans and their families.

“If they are homeless, we will transport them into Vegas and they will be put into a residential program there, whether it’s for the night, or an extended period of time,” he said. “The rooms that they get are normally $20 a night, and they are free for the veteran, and it’s my understanding that their family would be taken care of too. Obviously we are talking about both male and female veterans.”

Additional programs Watt noted, can benefit veterans who may be suffering from health and emotional issues.

“We’ve already had a couple of people go up to Vegas to be taken care of with certain residential two-to-three year programs, where they help work on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder issues,” he said. “They will be in a good environment and they help veterans find jobs. Once they finish the program they have apartments in the complex that can be paid for, for an additional year. They take one-third of the paycheck, and everything else is taken care of. We can help with utility assistance, mortgage assistance, and rental assistance for veterans and their families. The veteran just comes in here and we call up our folks in Las Vegas.”

Moreover, Watt noted that the Salvation Army also works in tandem with other agencies in order to get veterans the assistance that they need, including their DD-214 discharge papers.

“The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) agency accesses the services, knowing that I’ve got the ability on the Salvation Army side,” he said. “They have asked me to help out on anything they’ve got on their side, which is part of what I’m doing on the Salvation Army side. They get a caseworker who works with them, so the veteran ends up having two case managers, which will be one from the Veterans Administration, and one from the Salvation Army, so they get two caseworkers to help them get their lives back in order.”

Pahrump’s Salvation Army is located at 721 Buol Road, off of West Wilson Road.

For additional information call 775-751-6181.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes