Veterans utilizing the home will be charged a percentage of their income or monthly fees of up to $2,500, whichever is less. The completed veterans home will also represent a boon to the local economy, with hundreds of jobs ranging from administration to kitchen staff among positions that will need to be filled.Compton, a resident of Santa Paula until he was 11 years old who attended Barbara Webster School, said that those interested in residential opportunities in the Veterans Home can send letters of intent, but that actual applications will not be available until construction is more advanced. “The actual application is very thick,” requiring detailed information, “and if we accepted them now they would be out of date before the home is built,” he noted.Compton, a retired colonel, sees veterans’ services expanding in Ventura County. “I’m very fortunate... since I’ve been in this job” community-based medical clinics offering veterans’ medical services have expanded throughout the county, including Santa Paula, “so our veterans don’t have to go all the way to Los Angeles” for basic care.The Veterans Center also moved from Santa Barbara County to Ventura County, among other positives. “The veterans in Ventura County are fortunate to have” so many services and programs “so close, it’s kind of nice.”Compton said that those veterans interested in the new Veterans Home who would like a letter of intent can “call my office or email me; as long as I have a name and address we’ll send them one.” Call 385-6366 or email Compton at george.compton@ventura.org.
Vets’ Home underway, wait almost over for housing, daytime services
August 10, 2007
Santa Paula News
The ground’s been broken, but the wait for Ventura County veterans to have a place they can call their own continues.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThe ground’s been broken, but the wait for Ventura County veterans to have a place they can call their own continues. The Veterans Home of California, Ventura will be located on Telephone Road off Wells Road in Saticoy, and is expected to house its first veteran in December 2008.“We expect that home to be built in 18 months,” although George Compton, veterans service officer for the County of Ventura Human Services Agency, said he has hopes it will be completed in a year.The facility will provide 60 beds for veterans who have some need for medical care, but are able to monitor their own medication and are somewhat mobile. There will also be daytime services at the Saticoy site for an additional 50 veterans. It’s taken about 15 years for the project to reach the stage of the June groundbreaking, which drew hundreds of veterans, administration representatives and local and state elected officials.The $26.5 million Saticoy facility is part of a trio of such homes being built in the state: Lancaster will have a similar sized facility, while a 400-bed multi-story home is being constructed in West Los Angeles. In all the three homes will cost about $300 million, garnered through a partnership of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and voter-approved state bond funds.Initial plans for the Saticoy site had been for about 400 beds, but amid political jockeying that at one time threatened the facility it was finally reduced by 90 percent. The 22-acre parcel will also feature a Native-American veterans’ memorial... a portion of the site holds a Chumash burial ground. Ventura County is home to one of the largest populations of veterans in the United States - up to 65,000 - with an average age of 65.
