Vets raise questions about Belle Fourche shelter management - KOTA Territory News

Vets raise questions about Belle Fourche shelter management

Just days after the Women of War Project in Belle Fourche closed down, questions arise about how the homeless shelter for female vets was managed.

Some former residents claim the project was "doomed" or never meant to succeed in the first place.

Veterans say the problems started when the home's original director was fired in March.

But an attorney for Women of War claims the possible wrongful termination lawsuit she found out about yesterday has no merit.
 
And that's just the beginning of the controversy.
 
"They got fired, it changed administration, and phones quit ringing," said LaDean Bennett, a former member of the 82nd Airborne medical evacuation unit.
 
She said the outreach just stopped.

No one new was walking through the doors, and no one was trying to change that.
 
"I kept feeling like it was going to get shut down," she said, "and I kept feeling like something was going to happen."
 
The home's finances were intertwined with per diem payments from the Department of Veterans' Affairs -- about $40 per resident per day -- so fewer vets meant less money.

There were five women living at the shelter when it closed down on Monday. At the peak, there were only eight, ten fewer than the group needed to break even.

The group's legal counsel, Emily Wolff, said it was there, the residents just didn't see the outreach.
 
"There were fears of confidentiality breaches by making these outreach phone calls with the residents being there," said Wolff.
 
Now accusations are surfacing that even the money that was coming in was spent on paying down loans, not operations, as was intended.

Wolff said they're exactly that, just accusations, but declined to show us any financial records.
 
"We're not finding that there's been any misappropriation or any misuse of funds," she said.
 
After the administration changed, veterans say programs started evaporating.

Group counseling sessions became sparse; the Alcoholics Anonymous leader was let go; transportation to and from jobs and interviews became harder to lock down.
 
"Everything that we were just growing on, making us grow and helping us and giving the tools to survive was all gradually taken away in steps," said Bennett.
 
Not so, said Wolff.
 
"They were receiving this daily help through the counselors," Wolff said, "through the director herself, even."
 
But due to massive debt, any help they were getting from the home ended on Monday.

Bennett said she received a letter at 11:30 Monday morning (9:30, according to Wolff) telling her to pack a single bag and leave by noon.

The letter said the rest of her belongings would be packed up for her to come pick up later.

"Sorry, that's not the way you treat a veteran," Bennett said, rubbing tears from her eyes.
 
We were also told an investigation is pending by the V.A., but the agency wouldn't confirm nor deny it.