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February 13, 2008

Dispute Erupts Over D.C. Veterans Shelter

A nonprofit veterans group that runs a shelter for 50 homeless veterans in Washington is facing a hard reality — its shelter, Ignatia House, will be leveled at the end of the month to develop property for the Armed Forces Retirement Home, reports The Washington Post.

If the development gets final approval, the demolished home will be replaced with a mix of buildings to help generate income for the retirement home, which otherwise relies on a trust fund drawn from service members’ paychecks to operate.

Shelter officials say they had expected the home to find another place to house the veterans on its campus, all of whom received honorable discharges. Many have substance-abuse problems. “At no time over the course of four and a half years did we anticipate being displaced,” said Stephanie Buckley, regional director of the U.S. Veterans Initiative, the nonprofit group that runs U.S. Vets as a collaboration with Cloudbreak Development, a special-needs housing developer in California. “We never thought we’d be faced with that.”

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