MIDLAND, Texas —
Governor Greg Abbott recently announced that grants were given out to eight organizations in West Texas to help support veteran services. The Salvation Army of Midland was one of these organizations chosen to receive money, $260,000 to be exact.
The Midland Salvation Army (SA) told NewsWest 9 that they don’t turn away anyone looking for help, which includes veterans.
However, before receiving the grant, when it came to services more specific to veterans, the Salvation Army could only do so much.
“In the past, we haven't been able to really work with them that much because we didn't have the funds, we could help them get their IDs and Social Security cards and birth certificates. We could help them with utility assistance, just like we can everyone else," said Mikell McLaughlin, community relations at Midland SA. "But now with this extra funding, we're not only going to be able to work with us, but also other agencies, in order to help the veterans with the most we can help them with.”
That money is now being used to open a special veterans track for their rehousing program at both the Midland and Odessa Salvation Army. This is all to provide better aid for veterans' specific needs.
“So, it's going to be mostly used for helping house them. We can also help them with food boxes if they needed help with food boxes. We could also help them with utility assistance if they get in their own apartment and something happens and they get behind on their on their utility bill, we can help with that,” said McLaughlin.
McLaughlin said they’ve already began using the money to help veterans and plan to continue doing so until the money runs out.
“We've started it, it is in the early stages. We didn't get the funding till June 1st. So, we weren't able to start doing the funding till June 1st, but it is still kind of in the early stages," McLaughlin said. "We do have some veterans that we're working with right now and actually have some veterans that we have been able to get into their own apartment that are no longer here now and we hope to be able to do that with more.”