Residential Renovation
Many of the buildings on this facility are no longer in use and have many problems from leaky roofs to needing everything from plumbing, electrical upgrades, new windows, and many other needed improvements. These buildings no longer fit the requirements of today’s world. They were built for young men returning from WWII. Today’s population consists of about 50% over the age of 60 extending into their 80’s.
So obviously there are two different sets of needs the Veterans have. Those below 60 need to get back on their feet, back to work, and their own place. To do this they need to have any physical and mental health issues taken care of, possible job skill updates or complete retraining, and a reliable vehicle to get them to and from work, etc.
The older group are our fathers, grandfathers, and even great grandfathers. We need to provide them a place where they can live out their lives in dignity. At present, I believe that 30 of the Veterans make less than $300 dollars a month and some of those have zero income.
The Connecticut Department of Veteran Affairs Director of Project Management here is also an architect and estimates that it would take over 100 million dollars to bring this entire facility up to date. We here at One Voice would like to make that our overall goal for fundraising. Now as a former Marine I firmly believe in being audacious however we need to start somewhere so we have only listed a few of the so many projects that are needed here to start.