Garrison For Veterans is delighted to be apart of the Freedom's Path Dublin Development Team responsible for the adaptive-reuse of two historic buildings on the Carl Vinson Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus. Freedom's Path at Dublin, Georgia, is a Public-Private Veteran Housing Development with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Freedom's Path Development Team is a Veteran Housing Development Joint Venture between Garrison For Veterans, Communities For Veterans, Solutions For Veterans and the Dublin Housing Authority.

​

Freedom's Path at Dublin, Georgia, located at 1826 Veterans Blvd, Dublin, Georgia. Freedom's Path Dublin will provide 50 units of affordable housing to the most vulnerable of the Veteran population: the homeless. 

​

Two existing buildings, Building 34 & Building 35, will be redeveloped to provide 44 units of housing. Building 34 & 35 have been designated historic by the National Park Service. In addition, 6 units of new construction is proposed to be constructed behind Building 35. Freedom's Path Dublin will increase the number of decent, affordable housing units for Veterans by 50 units in total! This is a win for Georgia and all U.S. Military Veterans.

​

The Dublin project includes 4.3 acres of land on which two historic VA structures are located. The buildings were constructed toward the end of World War II to handle the needs of returning Veterans from that war. Over the years with the development both of new buildings and new treatment modalities the buildings became obsolete. In 2001 they were transferred to a State agency for residential services to patients with mental health challenges. However, changes in Federal Laws, coupled with the deteriorating condition of the buildings led to their abandonment a second time with the buildings were transferred back to the VA. Subsequently, they were offered through the RFP process referenced above, which is how GFV became involved.

 

This project includes the adaptive re-use and historic renovation of the two existing buildings to generate 44 units (22 efficiency and 22 one bedroom) with a leasing preference being afforded to Veterans who are homeless, near homeless, or disabled, who meet the income guidelines of the program. Six two bedroom units are being developed to serve small households, which may include a single male or female Veteran or two parent households with a child. With more women in the military, this has become an emerging issue in terms of housing Veterans with income or disability issues. As noted above, the housing will include a preference for Veterans, but will not be restricted to Veterans. Conversely, any Veterans with a HUD-VASH Housing Choice Voucher will be afforded a Housing First preference, meaning that typical underwriting that might preclude the Veteran from being able to access standard rental housing (e.g. job history, criminal record, prior rental history) will be relaxed. The criterion for admission will be predicated on their selection for a Voucher by the PHA. It has been shown through the Corporation for Supportive Housing, various National Equity Fund financed projects and through these completed VA BURR projects that Veterans living with other Veterans, in proximity to the panoply of VA services that are afforded to them via immediate access to the VA Medical Center that an on-campus housing option affords to them, has a remarkable success rate regarding remaining in permanent housing and moving forward with education, employment and life enrichment activities. This is the model of housing and services, both VA and non-VA provided, that is being emulated here.

 

The City of Dublin has totally embraced this project and its goals, demonstrated in part by including this area of housing in its redevelopment plans and its Georgia Institute for Community Housing objectives. The City is also enabling this project to move forward with various fee waivers and other concessions to typical development and operating costs. The Dublin Housing Authority and Garrison for Veterans (a service connected disabled Veteran minority small business) are involved as joint venture partners with CfV, bringing local knowledge, relationships, services and resources to the project. This is in addition to the VA itself, which will provide a tremendous array of medical, pharmacy, therapeutic and rehabilitation services to the future Veteran residents. Finally, several Veteran Service Organizations and local non-profits will augment the services of the VA for those Veterans and non-Veterans (if any) who may elect not to utilize or not be eligible to use VA provided services. The project will be financed using the availability of the land and buildings at no cost from the VA, federal and state historic tax credits, along with low income housing tax credits. This is a model of financing that the Freedom's Path Development Team has used in all of its other VA projects. Given the population being served, this affords GFV the ability to utilize free cash flow to augment the VA and other non-profit services by contributing back into the project additional financial resources from cash flow. The resident population will be drawn primarily from Veterans who are being treated at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center upon their release as a transition from in-patient treatment programs to an out-patient locally available permanent housing option. Further, Veterans reporting to the medical center as homeless or near homeless will be referred by the homeless coordinator for HUD-VASH voucher approval, or if resources through disability payments or other income can ensure the payment of rents, through direct provision of housing at the property. The point here is that the VA Medical Center will be the primary locus of identification of Veterans who would need and benefit from the housing. The project will be managed by Cushman & Wakefield, a nationally recognized affordable housing property manager that manages all other Freedom's Path Veteran projects around the country. The Freedom's Path Development Team has successfully redeveloped three historic buildings on the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center campus with a total of 98 units. One of the two buildings on the Dublin campus is a scaled down version of one of the buildings on the Augusta campus, so there is a history of the successful completion of historic rehab projects in Georgia on a VA campus for Veterans.

 

​