Local veteran looking to start The Captain's House to help homeless vets, service people

Jun. 7—Wesley McCaskill has an uphill battle when it comes to achieving his vision for creating a place to help homeless veterans find their way. But, then again, having served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force and, before that, being enlisted in the U.S. Marines, McCaskill knows a thing or two about winning a battle.

McCaskill is working at starting up The Captain's House. "It will be a community-based, non-profit transitional housing and support center for male and female services members, veterans and their families," he explained.

The plan is to take the old Cundiff Building on West Mount Vernon Street and remodel it. He is currently in the middle of cleaning it up — as of Wednesday he's been working on it for 12 days — and converting it into support offices and transitional housing, with hopefully between 40 and 70 apartments available.

Those apartments will mainly be single-space and family-space (double) apartments, with a limited number of three-bedroom apartments.

The facility would also feature a recreation room with cable television; an area for pool tables, foosball tables and ping pong tables; a reading room with a computer lab; a conference room; mail room; counseling areas and an open conference room that will be available for Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings daily.

There will also be access to legal services, daily living services, employment and training services, personal finance planning support and transportation assistance.

"The services that we will be providing to our military veterans through Veterans Affairs are going to be veterans peer support services," McCaskill said. "If you're a military veteran and you are struggling in certain areas, we will have peer support veterans that will be able to help you and walk you through. They have persevered through their adversities, and they're going to be encouraging you, almost like a sponsor.

"Once they have been here for a while, and they feel like they've overcome their underlying issues, whether they be mental health issues or drugs, alcohol, we want to make sure that they be able to have the ability to go out and get a home and be able to sustain themselves," he said.

"If you don't have a system in place that will assist them with dealing with their underlying issues prior to giving them a home, you're just wasting time, you're wasting money, you're wasting resources, because they're not going to be ready and they'll be right back on the street again."

That's why he's motivated to help his fellow veterans and service members, he said. However, he admits he was very scared to commit to such a project, since the need is so great and the requirements to get such a project off the ground are massive.

After a meeting with Somerset Mayor Alan Keck in which the mayor got McCaskill in touch with building owner Phil Farley, McCaskill was able to discuss his plan with Farley. In support, Farley allowed McCaskill access to the building.

Now, McCaskill is looking for people who would be willing to join a board of directors in getting the non-profit up and running. He said he is especially looking for a CPA/financial expert who can navigate through the waters of securing funding and applying for grants.

That financial person would need to be willing to work without compensation.

The goal, McCaskill said, is to see about getting loans up front to complete the needed work on the building, then go to the VA to request grant funds to pay off their debts. He said he felt it would be easier to convince the VA if they can show them a completed project rather than offer them a "vision" and ask for the funding.

Unfortunately, the building itself needs a lot of work. The former office building has been sitting empty for quite some time. The bare bones of the building are intact, but besides needing a new roof and new interior fixtures, it has been accessed by homeless people and lived in. The evidence for that can be found in the broken windows and glass scattered around, as well as the heavily-graffitied walls.

Those who are interested in helping with The Captain's House or who would be interested in serving on the board of directors can contact McCaskill through The Captain's House's Facebook page, or by emailing him at mccaskillwesley@yahoo.com.

McCaskill said it was important for the public to understand why the need is so great, not only in this community but across the U.S.

"We have lost more veterans by suicide than we have lost in combat, and we need facilities like this that can help people address those issues before it gets too late. We're losing 22 per day," he said.

Carla Slavey can be reached at cslavey@somerset-kentucky.com

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