“We put homeless veterans first.”
That’s the welcoming slogan of Little Rock’s Drop-in Day Treatment Center on Second Street.
Estella Morris, a diminutive manager with an easy smile and a quiet authority, presides over the Center which offers meals, shelter, medical care and a leg up in the world to those veterans willing to play by the rules.
Ninety percent of the 50 or more veterans who visit the facility every day (95 percent are men) have an addiction to alcohol or other drugs, which makes for a potentially unruly constituency.
So playing by the rules, Morris says, includes going to 12-Step meetings. The first one on the premises is at 7:30 a.m., and if you want breakfast—usually bacon and eggs and biscuits—you attend it. The second meeting is at one p.m. and veterans are encouraged to go to meetings outside the center at various locations around the city.
Fundamentally, Morris says in the facility’s brochure, “Our goal is to provide veterans with a safe, secure and comfortable daytime environment with an opportunity to work toward mental, social, and physical stability.”
Specifically, Veterans can take showers at the Center, do their laundry and avail themselves of a variety of medical and counseling services.
There is a nurse on the premises and therapists who can evaluate veterans and help them navigate short term mental health and addiction problems. Counseling services help them develop the life skills that will lead to jobs, home ownership and the other benefits which accrue to healthy members of society.
The Drop-In Center also collaborates with transitional housing facilities—like Sober Living and St. Francis House—and treatment facilities like Wilbur Mills in Searcy in providing necessary care for veterans. Some of the veterans have been in prison and others, who may not have been in prison, are facing legal problems, and the Center is organized to work with the court system in dealing with these problems.
Many veterans (an estimated 25 percent are combat veterans) require medical treatment and the Drop-In Center provides shuttle bus service to the Little Rock and North Little Rock VA hospitals.
The house rules, which include a ban on smoking, prescribe the following standards of conduct: “Drugs or alcohol use or possession, theft of property, buying or selling illegal drugs or prescription medications, possession of drug paraphernalia, acts of violence or possession of weapons will result in immediate expulsion from the facility.”
Veterans are also asked to keep the noise down and are reminded that “intimidating, disruptive, or disrespectful behavior or profanity will not be tolerated.”
The Center, Morris says with a smile, likes to reward veterans for good behavior and offers a variety of inducements such as hats and t-Shirts. That’s the carrot. The stick is the law enforcement officer on the premises.
The facility staff members, for their part, are expected to be respectful, Morris says. In her policy statement, she states, “We value good customer service and expect staff to be dedicated and courteous and to recognize the worth and dignity of all ‘persons served…’ ”
