Operation Stand Down adds housing units for veterans in Westerly

Updated 2:30 p.m.
WESTERLY – Operation Stand Down Rhode Island has opened its latest housing project, offering veterans a new three-building property featuring 10 apartments, including four family units.

The new facility, at 54-58 Pierce St. in Westerly, also has an outreach office, allowing Operation Stand Down Rhode Island to provide services to veterans in South County.

This project marks Operation Stand Down Rhode Island’s seventh veterans’ housing development in the state, and means that the nonprofit organization now has a total of 59 units available to veterans.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Monday for the new veteran housing units.

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Those in attendance included Anthony DeQuattro, board president and chairman of Operation Stand Down Rhode Island; U.S. Sens Jack Reed and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse; U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin; Cumberland Mayor and Lt. Gov.-elect Dan McKee; Westerly Town Council President Dianna Serra; state Sen. Dennis Algiere, R-Westerly; Rhode Island Housing Executive Director Richard Godfrey; and Office of Housing and Community Chief/Executive Director Michael Tondra.

Operation Stand Down Rhode Island was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Johnston. It services low income veterans, and prorates rent to 30 percent of a veteran’s income. If a person has no income, they pay no rent, according to Dee DeQuattro, a spokeswoman for the group.

In addition to housing, the organization provides basic human needs assistance such as food and clothing, and employment training.

In a related event on Monday, Reed and Whitehouse joined the Omni Development Corporation, R.I. Department of Behavioral Healthcare and Rhode Island Housing to celebrate the creation of the Turning Point II development, which provides 14 affordable rental homes for veterans with disabilities who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.
The project restored an historic building at 3-5 Convent St. in the Elmhurst neighborhood, near the Veterans Administration Medical Center.
These new homes will assist the state in meeting its goal under the Opening Doors RI plan to end veterans’ homelessness in our state, according to a press release about the events from Rhode Island Housing.
The state’s goal through its Opening Doors Rhode Island plan is to end veterans’ homelessness by Dec. 31, 2015.

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