This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The families of veterans coming from afar to receive medical treatment at Salt Lake City's Veterans Affairs Medical Center sometimes sleep in their cars because they cannot afford to stay in a hotel, state Department of Veterans Affairs director Terry Schow said Monday.
Schow said that's why he and others are throwing their support behind the Fisher House organization, which has named the Salt Lake V.A. campus as one of 10 locations it is considering for the building of a 21-suite hotel where the families of injured service members and veterans can stay. With 37 homes in 16 states and one in Germany (near Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, where combat wounded service members are transported from Iraq and Afghanistan) the privately-run Fisher House facilities are typically opened to families for free or at greatly reduced costs.
Sixteen other locations are currently in construction, planning or design. If approved, The Salt Lake City home would likely be built around 2010, V.A. Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Huff said.
"There is definitely a need here," Huff said. "With the number of men and women who have deployed to the current conflicts, eventually those men and women who have been injured will be returning home, and some of them will need continuing care."
Huff said Fisher House facilities "help in the healing process" by allowing families to be nearby. She said Utah's only V.A. hospital has rooms - often booked to capacity - for visiting veterans but not for their families.
Schow noted that the Salt Lake hospital has one of the largest coverage areas of any such facility in the V.A. system, with patients coming from hundreds of miles away for care. "People come from great distances," Schow said. He said the only option for family members who want to come help their loved ones heal are the city's expensive hotels.
Though preliminary fundraising efforts have been under way for three months - officials say the nonprofit Fisher House Foundation has asked that one-tenth of the $5 million in anticipated construction costs be raised locally - local fundraising chairman Ray Bachiller said he is not yet ready to begin taking checks.
Bachiller said he is going to try to raise the money in small donations from hundreds of community members, rather than seek out a single large donor for the project. "The real importance of a project like this is to make sure it reflects everybody in the community," Bachiller said.
10 locations under consideration for Fisher House facilities.
* National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Md. (two centers)
* USAF Medical Center, Nellis AFB, Nev.
* New York Harbor V.A. Health Care System, Brooklyn, N.Y.
* V.A. Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh
* Miami V.A. Health Care System, Miami
* Augusta V.A. Medical Center, Augusta, Ga.
* V.A. Salt Lake City Health Care System, Salt Lake City
* New York Harbor VAMC, N.Y. (two centers)
Source: http://www.fisherhouse.org