Employee Spotlight
June 12, 2024
Jason Goman
HUD-VASH Housing Specialist
VA Albany Healthcare System
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 for VA?
A: I’ve been in this position for about a year-and-a-half. Before working at VA, I ran a not-for-profit homeless Veterans reintegration program in Albany through the Department of Labor for six years. I then spent a brief time at VA in the Veteran Services Office, but it didn’t fulfill my passion to directly help Veterans. I wanted to be in the trenches. I left for a bit, then when this opportunity to be a HUD-VASH housing specialist presented itself, I jumped on it.
Q: When you think about Housing First, what does it mean to you personally and why is it important in your work?
A: When people are suffering from substance use, mental health issues, and other problems, being homeless doesn’t help those issues whatsoever. When we get someone stably housed, they often manage to move toward a better path in life. While we’re working with them on housing, we offer whatever assistance they’re ready for to connect them with primary care, mental health care, and substance use treatment. Some Veterans won’t be ready to engage before they’re housed, and that’s OK. Having the choice about when and how to engage with services is a really important part of Housing First.
Q: As a housing specialist, can you talk about some of the things you do to expedite getting Veterans into housing?
A: I work hard to continuously develop a network of landlords and property managers, so I know who is housing each Veteran. My contacts in the community trust me, and I try to match personalities when I can. I direct Veterans to the landlords or property managers who I think they’re going to get along with. I’m able to do a warm handoff from a Veteran to a property manager or owner, and 9 times out of 10, it works on the first shot.
Q: Do you run into any challenges when you’re trying to recruit new landlords, and how do you deal with those?
A: A lot of property managers and owners have been burned by other housing programs, but those programs are not as all-encompassing. Sometimes, it gets rough. The second they find out that it’s programmatic, or they’re on a voucher, it’s shut down. It’s not the Veteran’s fault, and it’s not VA’s fault, but they’ve been burned.
I will explain that Veterans have case management. We stick with them. They may graduate out of case management, but we never go away. We have Veterans who have been HUD-VASH graduates for 10 years and every year when they have to recertify, they call us and we’re right there to help them out.
Q: Do you, as a housing specialist, stay involved with the Veteran after they are housed?
A: It’s on a case-by-case basis. If I develop a strong therapeutic relationship with them, or if the case manager has asked me to stick around, I do. My door is always open. If you ever want to talk, or need something, or have a question and can’t find your case manager, I’m here. Don’t be afraid to come see me. Also, if you’re at VA, pop in and say hi. At the end of the day, we’re both Veterans, and we speak the same language.
Q: Could you talk about your experience with a particular Veteran, and through the lens of Housing First, how you approached them and got them into services?
A: About a month after I started, I began working with a Veteran who was being evicted from his apartment. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 and substance use issues, this Veteran had decompensated. He was not in a good space. The landlord who was evicting him would house anyone, so his housing options were very limited.
About 30 days before my one-year mark, I was able to get him into a beautiful, brand-new apartment. During my time trying to get him housed, it was amazing to see the change in him. He wasn’t housed yet, but I think he saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
He got back into talk therapy. He started going back to anger management groups. He started back on his medicine. He made a complete 180. The Veteran who I had met almost 365 days before was not the same Veteran who is now stably housed.
It was a really hard-fought battle because he had burned a lot of bridges previously, which happens with some Veterans. That’s a good example of how Housing First works.
Q: What do you think people get wrong about Housing First, and what would you want them to know instead?
A: They don’t realize that people can, and do, get better. They see someone who has addiction or mental illness who is homeless, and there’s an automatic stigma. I want more people to realize that if you give a person a chance, they’re going to improve, especially once their situation is improved. Clearing their headspace by getting them housed empowers them to make bigger improvements in their life.
Q: What’s your “why” for the work that you do?
A: I was a Marine Corps reservist myself. I went to boot camp on October 15, 2001, so I saw the events of 9/11 unfold. I served with VMGR 452, the Yankees, a C-130 Squadron out of Newburgh, New York, and was in Iraq from 2004 to 2005.
When I went to Iraq, my biggest goal was to bring everyone home with me. Being young, my idea of bringing everyone home was just physically bringing everyone home. But the journey home isn’t complete just because they arrive back here on U.S. soil. Unfortunately, some people, some of my friends, didn’t make it home fully.
My biggest drive is that I want everyone to fully make it home in mind, body, and soul at the end of the day. That’s why I’m here.
