Category: Uncategorized

By Leah Nelson 

The Razorback Reporter

The Fayetteville Housing Authority has four buildings which helps house people who need assistance with finding an affordable place to rent.

The housing authority has three programs with 878 rental units for people with low income and is on a first come, first serve bases.

The Fayetteville Housing Authority has a few veterans living in their four buildings but they’re either elderly or have a disability. Most veterans the housing authority helps are in the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Veterans Association Supportive Housing program.

The VA provides veterans with health care, mental health care and substance use counseling to help them in their recovery process and their ability to maintain housing in the community, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website.

The program is for homeless veterans who are brought to the housing authority by the VA after the veterans’ case has been handled.

“They provide the supportive and we provide the housing,” said Joy Hunnicutt, the section 8 housing specialist at the Fayetteville Housing Authority.

Veterans work with case managers from the VA to help them pick a place to live if they meet certain requirements. If they are a registered sex offender they are not eligible for the program. The Fayetteville Housing Authority houses 112 veterans through HUD VASH vouchers, Hunnicutt said.

Case managers help veterans with their problems and get jobs, so they eventually earn a high enough income and they do not need to be in the affordable housing system anymore.

“Income isn’t initially an issue but veterans eventually go off the program because their income exceeds our maximum, low income requirement,” said Deniece Smiley the director of the Fayetteville Housing Authority.

The veterans have 120 days to use the voucher from the housing authority in order to receive an affordable housing rental. It takes veterans about one to two months to find a suitable one-bedroom apartment but they usually find a place quickly, Hunnicutt said.

“The difficult thing is that every veteran has a different situation they’re going through, so the time frame is different as well,” Hunnicutt said.

By Lindsey Guimont

The Razorback Reporter

More than $40,000 has been raised toward awareness of suicide and research for prevention, organizers said this week after a successful event in Bentonville.

The Arkansas chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention presented the fourth annual Northwest Arkansas Out of the Darkness Walk Sunday. The event attracted loss survivors to commemorate those they lost to death by suicide and to promote prevention. Participants released yellow balloons at the end of the walk.

“We currently stand at over $40,000 raised and we have until the end of the year to raise more money,” Maureen Cover-Bryan, a loss survivor and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention volunteer, said in an interview.

Cover-Bryan participates in the foundation because she lost her son, Colin Bryan to death by suicide July 25, 2011, she said. Colin Bryan was an Army veteran paratrooper who was honorably discharged. He was being treated for mental illness up until his time of death.

“He was under care of a physician, a psychiatrist, under the care of the VA and he was receiving counseling,” Cover-Bryan said. “We knew he had suicidal thoughts and ideation and he was being medicated, yet still he had lots of problems and had been in and out of facilities for the last seven or eight months of his life.”

Cover-Bryan volunteers with the foundation, because they are the largest private provider of research funds for suicide, she said.

The Northwest Arkansas Out of the Darkness Walk was one of 320 such events nationwide. Organizations in northwest Arkansas are planning for more events throughout September. The Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks presented an event specifically for veterans, Sept. 9.

“We partnered with Arkansas Freedom Fund. It was a bike ride because one of the things that my passion here in Fort Smith is to get veterans involved in a cycling group. We have a cycling group named Project Hero Fort Smith,” said Ashley Moffett, suicide prevention coordinator for Veteran’s Health Care System of the Ozarks in Fayetteville and Fort Smith.

During the bike ride, Moffett said, they set up booths with awareness information and goodie bags with the Veterans Crisis Line phone number (800-273-8255). She also will set up similar booths at events throughout the month of September.

The University of Arkansas community is joining the effort to raise awareness and provide services for suicide prevention.

The Pat Walker Health Center will promote Let’s Talk, a program introduced on campus during the second week of September, said Michele Cooper, suicide prevention coordinator for Counseling and Psychological Services. Let’s Talk will be available in Bell Engineering on Tuesdays and the Arkansas Union on Fridays for students to be able to drop in and have a consultation with clinicians.

“It’s not traditional therapy, but it makes CAPS more accessible to everyone,” Cooper said.

Cooper and Counseling and Psychological Services also will participate in the Lane Marrs 5K Memorial Run in Fayetteville Sept. 16. They will have a table with officials from the Dean of Students offices and UofA Cares to provide information and support for anyone who needs it, she said.