SHORELINE — Darren Branning knows what it means to be given a second chance.
In February 2002 he was living under a bridge in Renton, homeless.
He was an alcoholic and methamphetamine addict, and suffered from mental illness. He was also a veteran.
“I was having conversations with the voices in my head, and praying for the strength to end my life,” Branning said.
Another homeless man told him he was crazy and needed to be in a hospital, and gave him the $1.75 to take the bus to Harborview.
He spent 25 days in the psychiatric unit. He began working on his recovery from addiction and started taking medicine for his mental illness. A week before being released, he needed to start looking for a place to live.
“At the other local homeless shelters there were addicts, the insane. I knew I’d be better off on the street than be in there,” he said.
That’s when he called the King County Veterans Program under the county’s Department of Community and Humans Services, which put him in touch with the Compass Center, a Lutheran organization that provides transitional and emergency services for the homeless.
“To get a King County Veteran bed at a Compass Center house, I had to go to weekly Vet meetings, meet with (a case manager) and work a program. I learned that recovery is a way of life, and it doesn’t happen overnight,” Branning said.
“Today, I am one year clean, still doing rehab work and continue psychiatric care,” he said. He is also the house manager of a transitional housing facility for veterans run by Compass.
Branning spoke to a crowd of about 50 people in Shoreline on July 3 in celebration of the ground breaking of a 13,500 square foot Compass Veterans Center, to be built on 200th Street across from Costco near the King and Snohomish county line. The center will provide 26 private rooms for homeless veterans from both King and Snohomish counties for up to 24 months. It will also provide life skills programs, case management, therapeutic services, vocational and education services and follow-up care for the veterans.
Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel, King County Executive Ron Sims, a representative from U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee’s office and County Council member Carolyn Edmonds also attended the event.
Drewel said 25 percent of the veterans served by this new Compass Veterans Center will be from Snohomish County.
“There are 66,000 homeless vets in the state of Washington. That means there are 6,000 homeless vets in Snohomish County and that’s unacceptable,” Drewel said. “Last year we housed 261 homeless vets, but we turned away twice that many. This is a clear indicator of why this facility is needed.”
Sims said “In this region there are 2,000 homeless vets every night. This center represents a commitment by this region that we care about those who served us — we stand by them.”
Edmonds said she first heard about this project when she served in the state Legislature, and she gave it her support then.
“It’s embarrassing to me that we live in a society that finds it acceptable that 40 percent of our male homeless population are vets — it makes this project crucial,” Edmonds said.
Construction on the $3.2 million facility will begin in August and the facility plans to open in June 2004, said Rick Friedhoff, executive director of Compass.
“The Veterans Administration is funding $1 million of the project, King County $1 million, the state is funding $800,000 and the rest has been raised through private fundraising,” Friedhoff said.
Branning said, “This won’t be just another transitional facility, it will change people’s lives — and I thank Compass Center for saving my life.”
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