U.S. REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS APPLAUDS STATE FUNDING FOR VETERANS HOME IN TUCSON

Stimulus funds to pay for most of new $28.5 million facility

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords today applauded the Arizona Legislature’s decision to help pay for a new skilled nursing home for veterans to be built in Tucson.

Federal stimulus money from The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will pay $18.5 million, or approximately 65 percent, of the facility’s total cost. The remaining $10 million was approved Tuesday by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

A Tucson veterans home has been in the planning stages for five years and Giffords’ efforts to secure the federal share of the funding began in 2007.

“The Legislature did the right thing for our veterans,” said Giffords, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “Southern Arizona veterans have waited far too long for a skilled nursing home they can call their own. Thanks to state and stimulus funds, the wait will soon come to an end.”

Work is scheduled to start on the facility in February and the four 30-bed, long-term-care units should open by September 2011. The home will be located next to the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System at 3601 S. Sixth Ave.

“This project is long overdue,” said Giffords. “There are about 600,000 veterans in Arizona and we should have at least five veterans homes. But until now there was only one – in Phoenix.”

Giffords’ 8th Congressional District is home to an estimated 94,000 veterans – the ninth-largest veteran population in the country. This is why the congresswoman is fighting for a Vet Center in Cochise County.

To serve the sizable veterans population in Sierra Vista and the surrounding area, Giffords’ recently urged Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to reconsider his decision last month not to establish a Vet Center in Cochise County.

In a letter to Shinseki, the congresswoman wrote that there is a robust military presence in the Sierra Vista area and that Fort Huachuca’s main responsibility is to train and deploy military intelligence operators – a job that subjects soldiers and their families to a high level of stress.

“Vet Centers remain the only option for an active duty soldier who cannot get or would not pursue behavioral health care and counseling at a base clinic,” she said.

There are currently 232 Vet Centers across the country, including six in Arizona. The Tucson center, on North First Avenue, is the only one in Southern Arizona. The centers provide readjustment counseling and outreach services to veterans who served in any combat zone. Services are also available for their family members for military related issues. The benefits are provided at no cost.
 
“I will continue to look for ways to ensure that those who have worn the nation’s uniform are treated with respect and gratitude,” Giffords said. “Our veterans were there for us when we needed them most. We need to be there for them.”