The commission helped secure $5.2 million in awarded claims and back pay in 2022, and the office saw a 58% increase in Soldiers and Sailors Relief Fund spending, answering demand for food and help for veterans in paying rent and utilities.
When a veteran calls the commission at (937) 225-4801, the office’s goal is to “get to saying ‘Yes,’” Suddith said at Tuesday’s meeting, held at Top of the Market in Dayton.
Medical transportation services have grown 542%, the commission said in its 2022 annual report. Free legal consultations with attorney Steven Strain rose to more than 700 last year, up from 377 in 2021. Those services saved veterans an estimated $200,000 in legal fees.
In all, nearly 300 benefits claims were filed for Montgomery County veterans last year, with more than 700 applications for financial help accepted and processed.
The commission had appropriations of about $2.4 million in 2022 and spent about $2 million of that.
Commission partners include Clothes That Work, Miami Valley Meals, the Foodbank, Catholic Social Services, the Montgomery County Veterans Treatment Court and others. It’s the second year that the commission brought what Suddith called the Dayton-area “veterans care ecosystem” under one roof for its annual meeting.
“People find out we’re more than just VA claims,” Suddith said.
“These are great days to be a veteran, in part because of events just like this one,” said Dr. Thomas Hardy, chief of staff at the Dayton VA Medical Center.
Hardy said today’s environment for veterans has markedly improved from what he recalls of returning from the Vietnam War to an airport in San Francisco, “where it seemed like every long-haired hippie on the West Coast had unkind things to say and unkind acts.”
He said he didn’t recall anyone thanking him for his service in the U.S. Army until after the events of Sept. 11, 2001,” which he believed awakened an awareness that “our military kept us safe.”
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