Programs aim to help veterans avoid debt collectors

In a state with double-digit unemployment, there are many Rhode Islanders struggling to pay bills, including veterans who often resist asking for handouts.
“I just attended a New England regional conference and financial issues are one of the major concerns for our veterans,” said Lt. Col. Bruce Fletcher, director of family programs for the Rhode Island National Guard. “Military people generally don’t like coming forward with any problem, but when they do now, it’s often financial. The most common example is a veteran with a spouse and three children. They’re behind on the mortgage and about to lose their house.”
In order to help such veterans nationwide, leaders in the debt-collection industry are offering grants to pay down, or pay off, delinquent bills.
ARMing Heroes is a nonprofit organization that raises funds mainly from the debt-collection-management industry. The Collingswood, N.J.-based organization sponsors programs such as “No Debts for Vets.”
Local veterans organizations agree funding is needed to supplement existing financial-assistance programs.
Fletcher said the National Guard provides financial briefings before servicemen and servicewomen are deployed, as well as when they come back. A personal financial counselor is on staff and matches veterans with available financial resources.
“But just like everyone else, veterans face a rough economy and high unemployment,” Fletcher said.
Rhode Island Associate Director of Veterans Affairs Kim Ripoli said many existing resources keep veterans’ debt concerns from becoming a crisis.
“There’s not a large number of veterans clamoring for debt relief,” said Ripoli, listing many charitable organizations that offer financial assistance, including the Marines’ Semper Fi Fund and Operation Homefront. She said Naval Station Newport offers financial counseling.
Providing additional financial support for veterans, to honor their service, is the mission of ARMing Heroes, said the organization’s founder Nick Bernardo, owner of a marketing firm who works with the debt-collection industry.
Bernardo said he started the program to ease the strain of debts that may be piled on top of many other issues veterans and their families face as a result of their service, such as being deployed for long stretches of time. ARMing Heroes is also a way Bernardo feels he can honor his father and grandfather, who both served in the military.*
Mainly because of his location in New Jersey and client base, Bernardo said most of the fundraising and grants for ARMing Heroes, so far, have been in the mid-Atlantic region.
“In the past two years, we’ve awarded $35,000 in grants to about two dozen vets in states including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Bernardo said. “The money goes directly to the creditor.”
Bernardo is glad to have recently garnered the support of ACA International, a trade association for consumer debt-collection agencies. Its expanded reach is expected to assist in fundraising, as well as identifying recipients eligible for grants.
A recent fundraising campaign drew donations from debt-collection companies across the country and will enable ARMing Heroes to give grants to another five to 15 veterans during the coming year, Bernardo said. The average grant is $2,500, but as much as $7,000 has been awarded, he said.
Such assistance would be welcome in the Ocean State, said John McDonough, director of supportive services for Operation Stand Down Rhode Island, a Johnston-based nonprofit that assists veterans, mainly with housing issues.
“A lot of these veterans have been deployed numerous times and are out of work when they get back,” McDonough said. “And some disabled veterans get something from the VA, but not enough to sustain a healthy life, with all their basic needs.”
ACA International spokesman Mark Schiffman said, “This is something members of our industry can do to help veterans – provide financial assistance. And also, help veterans find jobs.”
That’s the second part of ARMing Heroes – encouraging debt-collection agencies to review veterans’ resumes and make servicemen and servicewomen aware of employment opportunities in the accounts receivable management industry. Ernest Boisvert helps veterans with disabilities get compensation in his capacity as veteran adviser for Woonsocket. Even though Boisvert hasn’t heard of ARMing Heroes, he thinks the financial assistance would be helpful, because he understands how debts can pile up for veterans.
“A lot of the veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even Desert Storm, are coming back and not having jobs,” Boisvert said. “They’ve got to support their families and they might be living off their credit cards.”
The financial assistance offered by ARMing Heroes would likely be welcome, but not quite as critical in Massachusetts, said Ray Hague, director of veterans services for Fall River. That’s because Massachusetts has state-mandated veterans-services offices in cities and towns, and state law provides medical benefits and living expenses to veterans as a stop-gap measure until they find a job, Hague said.
“There are financial-assistance programs available, and if we know someone has a financial difficulty, we refer them to those,” Hague said
“Everything helps,” Hague said. “I think, especially in some of the younger families, they might have used their line of credit to keep things going while one of the spouses was deployed.”
Hague said difficulties with mortgages nationwide are naturally reflected in military families. He said there are some federal programs that can help veterans refinance.
Rhode Island’s veterans-service program is different than what Massachusetts offers, says Rick Baccus, administrator of the Rhode Island Veterans Home in Bristol, which also serves as a clearinghouse for resources for veterans. “We have social workers on staff to assist veterans with a variety of issues, and they refer them to available resources.
“In Rhode Island, almost all the veterans who come back go through a demobilization process through the federal Department of Veterans Affairs,” said Baccus. That makes them aware of available resources, he said, including financial-assistance programs. •


For more information, visit www.armingheroes.org

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