Employee Spotlight
March 8, 2024
Dixon McReynolds
HUD-VASH Housing Development Program Specialist
West Palm Beach VA
This year, we’re spotlighting VA’s Housing First approach through a series of interviews with VA employees and taking a look at how they’re working to end Veteran homelessness through this approach. Learn more about Housing First.
Q: How long have you worked with people experiencing homelessness?
A: I started working with the homeless community in 2002. In 2019, I began working at VA with the Housing and Urban Development – VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) team in West Palm Beach, Florida. I’ve been with them for almost five years. [Editor’s Note: After 44 years of service, 21 in the military and 23 in civil service, McReynolds recently retired from VA.]
Q: How does being a Veteran impact your work?
A: Veterans speak our own language. One of the first things a lot of Veterans ask me is if I’m a Veteran as well. They often think that another Veteran would better understand where they’ve been, since they have walked in their shoes.
They’re more receptive to opening up to other Veterans, letting us know what they think and how they feel about something. That makes it easier to encourage them to get help.
Q: When you think of Housing First, what does it mean to you personally?
A: To me, Housing First means getting people off the street and into immediate shelter first, then connecting them with wraparound services afterward. It’s important to get people into a clean, safe, affordable place to live so they can focus on other things in their lives.
You have some Veterans who aren’t sure at first that they want to come off the street, so you try to show them the best scenario in which they could succeed. We try to make sure that people understand there is another place to go, and how that could be better.
As a part of Housing First, we also have to look at how to keep them in the program. If we get them in and then they’re going out the back door, they’re back in a situation that isn’t safe. that is where the wraparound services come in, as those help them get stable.
Q: How have you worked to cultivate relationships with landlords who rent to Veterans through HUD-VASH?
A: Prior to COVID, I went to realtors’ meetings to explain the program and the subsidy and talk about the Veterans we serve. The realtors were very receptive, but it has gotten harder the last few years. Now, it seems like they don’t want to say they don’t want the vouchers, but they’re putting more parameters around accepting them.
Our Veterans have the subsidy, but they don’t have the extra income that a lot of landlords are asking for. If they qualify for HUD-VASH, they probably don’t have two or three times the monthly rent in income. So, we talk to landlords about the advantages of helping Veterans find housing, and how we help them stay housed.
We keep a list of realtors who keep me up-to-date on if they have housing available. Our housing authorities have been very helpful as well, letting us know if there’s housing and keeping in contact with the landlords.
One of the main complaints from landlords is that the process takes too long. I’ve worked with our local housing authorities to make that process more efficient so the landlords can get their money right away and don’t have to wait to start getting their subsidy.
I also go out to each landlord to ask them, “What can we do to keep you as a landlord? What can we do to help you?” I’m in the Treasure Coast, and a lot of the landlords are really particular. The prices are a lot higher. But I’m trying to speak to their sense of humanity about these Veterans and what they’ve sacrificed, and how all they want is a clean, safe, affordable place to live. With their help, we can do that.
We talk to landlords, social workers, and our peer support specialists about our team approach to help make Veterans more successful. Our model has worked well because we tag team. Veterans are getting their psychosocial needs met, and they also have their housing specialist there if they have any issues with their housing.
I go with social workers on home visits, making sure that each Veteran’s housing is secure and that they’re paying their rent, and checking with the property managers to make sure there are no problems.
That team approach really helps with landlords—letting them know that they won’t be on their own. If they have problems or if there are rent issues, there’s a case worker who is there when they need them. That has been the strongest argument.
Q: What do you think people get wrong about Housing First, and what would you want them to know instead?
A: I think it’s important for people to understand that Housing First doesn’t mean I’m going to put you in a house and say goodbye. First, yes, it gets you off the street. But then, we bring in our partners in the community, our clinicians, our medical people, and our peers—people who will basically wrap around those Veterans. That helps greatly because it gives them a road map showing where they can go and what they can accomplish if they work hard and have someone to help them.
Also, people often have the misconception that people who are homeless are lazy. In reality, people just need help. A lot of people need a hand up, not a handout. And they fly when that happens.
Q: Is there anything you’d like to share that we didn’t ask about?
A: With Housing First, it’s important to consider that when Veterans joined the military, they went to basic training with 30 or 40 of their buddies. They went to tech school with 30 or 40 people.
After that, they went to their bases, where they didn’t have that same camaraderie. They had people there, but it wasn’t the same. I think we should look at shared housing, but in a thoughtful manner, because not everybody can live together.
To make it work, we would need to make sure that we evaluate it up front. It’s not a perfect science, and we would have to consider if two people would do well together and be able to live harmoniously. They’d both have a place to live, and they would both be Veterans. If one has a problem, they can talk to the other and vice versa. For some Veterans, this would work really well.
