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QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT DEATHS AT CHICAGO VETS'
HOUSING RUN BY CATHOLIC CHARITIES -- Some
neighbors
suspect one vet's body rotted in an apartment for
days. One
says he recognized this kind of stench from his
military service.
Issa Umi, secretary of St. Leo’s
tenant council, blames the deaths on Catholic Charities. (photo:
WBEZ / Chip Mitchell) |
For a previous story about St. Leo's, click
here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfAPR07/nf041707-6.htm
Be sure to listen to the audio version of this
story at the link below.
Story here...
http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=27330
Story below:
-------------------------
Deaths at Veterans
Home
Since opening last year, a Chicago apartment building has earned national
recognition for helping dozens of homeless veterans get on their feet. But
Chicago Public Radio has learned that at least six of the building’s
tenants have died since last fall. The deaths raise questions about the
building’s management by one of the nation’s largest charities. And they
expose weak oversight of publicly funded veterans housing.
A top official of Chicago’s Catholic Charities traveled to Washington,
D.C., in April to testify before a U.S. House panel.
D’ARCY: Hello, Mr. Chairman, honorable committee members and guests. My
name is William D’Arcy...
 He
reported on a Catholic Charities project that’s been running since last
year on Chicago’s South Side. About a quarter of the $20 million for the
project came from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. D’Arcy
explained that a centerpiece of the project is called St. Leo’s Residence.
D’ARCY: The project provides 141 formerly homeless veterans with studio
apartments. The veteran has to commit to seeking and obtaining and
maintaining employment, they have to pay rent, and they have to agree to
live in a drug-free environment.
D’Arcy said Catholic Charities also helped build a VA clinic behind the
residence.
D’ARCY: And Catholic Charities provides case managers whose goal is to
make the veterans self-sufficient again.
D’Arcy told the Congressman that St. Leo’s has been a success for its
tenants, who’re mostly Vietnam vets. He said 79 of the residents got some
sort of job during the project’s first year. He said 23 moved into more
independent housing. But Chicago Public Radio has learned that things have
not gone so well for at least a half-dozen other St. Leo’s residents.
Those six died.
UMI: This would be the apartment of Nathanial Thomas. This would be his,
Apartment 204.
Issa Umi is secretary of St. Leo’s tenant council. He brings me to where a
53-year-old veteran lived until passing away in April. Cook County records
indicate that the man died of cocaine intoxication. According to the
records, another five tenants succumbed to diseases ranging from liver
cancer to heart ailments and diabetes.
UMI: This is the apartment of -- this is Ciszek’s apartment here.
In June, 53-year-old Robert Ciszek turned up dead in his fourth floor
room. The county medical examiner determined Ciszek died from heart
disease and chronic drug use. Some of his neighbors suspect the body
rotted in the apartment for days. One says he recognized this kind of
stench from his military service. Umi says Ciszek didn’t have to die this
way.
UMI: One of the things that has come up a whole lot of times is something
called wellbeing checks -- the social-service people to check on their
clients at least once or twice a week to make sure that people don’t fall
through that crack.
St. Leo’s has four social workers but no medical staff. Catholic Charities
acknowledges it didn’t screen tenants for drug abuse, medical conditions
or mental illnesses. Tenants say there are other risks, like
malfunctioning phones and smoke detectors. And they worry about a rapid
turnover of St. Leo’s staff.
ANSWERING MACHINE: To reach the property manager, William Connor, press
one. For the assistant property manager...
A St. Leo’s answering machine lists five staff members. Four of those
individuals no longer work at the building. I raised most of these
concerns with Chicago’s Catholic Charities chief, Reverend Michael Boland.
BOLAND: What you’re looking at is ridiculous.
Boland says his organization never envisioned St. Leo’s as a full-service
recovery center for veterans. He says the deaths are no cause for alarm,
considering what the tenants have gone through.
BOLAND: They have been living for a long time on the streets. Often times
they’ve been suffering from different kinds of ailments or different kinds
of clinical disorders. And they’ve been self-medicating. So their bodies
are, really, very fragile. So they’re medically fragile, which is why from
the very beginning we wanted the VA to be there with the clinic.
Reverend Boland is referring to the veterans’ clinic behind the residence.
He says Catholic Charities has not investigated whether the deaths are
related. The organization issued a statement that says St. Leo’s “offers
veterans a chance to live out their lives in a dignified manner and look
after their own health.” That makes sense to St. Leo’s tenant Lawrence
Watkins.
WATKINS: A lot of us are disabled veterans. So there comes a time, when
we’re disabled, we’re sick and we pass on. I may kick tomorrow. I’m an old
guy, 55. But, apart from that, there are no problems. I was homeless. And
thanks to St. Leo’s they helped me to get on veterans disability. This is
the best place I’ve ever had in my life.
But some advocates for homeless veterans see red flags about what’s
happening at St. Leo’s. Rick Weidman directs policy and government affairs
for Vietnam Veterans of America.
WEIDMAN: If the first step is getting people into some kind of shelter so
that they’re not freezing to death on Chicago streets, then the second
step is getting them into transitional housing, where they have to get dry
and clean, and there’s a zero-tolerance policy. And, there, you have
pretty close oversight on the medical end, both neuropsychiatric as well
as physiological health. From the sounds of what’s going on at St. Leo’s,
the individuals who perished should have been at that second stage of
transitional housing with close oversight. The second step was missing.
The deaths have caught the attention of at least one government official.
Eugene Herskovic directs the VA’s Chicago-area homeless programs. He says
his job includes keeping an eye on St. Leo’s.
HERSKOVIC: It’s one of my responsibilities, oversight.
And do you think they addressed the problems?
HERSKOVIC: I made them address the problems.
Herskovic says he made St. Leo’s register its tenants at the VA clinic
nearby. Asked about other problems, he refers me to this VA spokesman,
Raymond Leber.
LEBER: These deaths, it’s the first I’ve heard about this. There’s nothing
we can really comment on though, because this is not our facility. This
is, St. Leo’s is owned and operated by Catholic Charities.
Catholic Charities says its project could be a model for housing homeless
veterans. But some St. Leo’s tenants say there will be no model until
Catholic Charities comes to grips with the six deaths.
Ambi: Knocking.
UMI: This apartment, we’re standing in front of 423. This was George
Smith’s apartment. He was wheelchair bound.
Issa Umi, the tenant council secretary, brings me to another room. He says
he feels responsible for keeping tabs on the health and welfare of the
other tenants. He fears it’s only a matter of time before he’ll be
pointing out more apartments of people who died.
I’m Chip Mitchell, Chicago Public Radio.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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