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Hampton City Council votes down permit for transitional housing for homeless veterans

Posted at 10:19 PM, Oct 09, 2013
and last updated 2013-10-10 00:08:26-04

Update: NewsChannel 3 has learned that the Hampton City Council unanimously voted against the plan to house homeless veterans.

The program providing transitional housing has been without a home in Hampton for nearly nine months.

Hampton, Va. (WTKR) - The Veterans Transitional Residence Program will present its plan for a new location in Hampton before City Council Wednesday evening.

The program would include 60 beds for transitional for veterans and 15 rooms of emergency housing for displaced families at what is currently a motel on Commander Shepard Boulevard.

The VTRP was housed at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in Hampton for 12 years, where it served more than 2,000 veterans.

That location shuttered on January 31, 2013 because the building was in need of major repairs and Veterans Affairs deemed it more cost effective to demolish the building.

Major Kim Feinauer with the Salvation Army on the Peninula, which runs the program, says finding another location has been difficult because of strict requirements.

He's hopeful though to get the green light for the new location so that the important work of helping veterans can continue.

"We've had a very good success rate of about 70% getting these vets back in their own housing and getting them back in jobs," Feinauer explained. "It's a way that somebody who has fallen through the cracks can make it back and be a contributing member of society."