Housing facility for homeless veterans in New Albany nears completion

NEW ALBANY, IN (WAVE) - In less than two weeks, a new housing facility will open up to serve veterans who are homeless or at risk of being homeless in the Louisville area.

Known as Liberty Place, it will be located just off Grant Line Road in New Albany. The facility will be run by Kaiser Home Support Services and staff there say this is needed.

Carefully setting up new furniture, crews worked inside Liberty Place, preparing the new housing facility for opening day.

The design is unique, tailored to veterans.

“All of our fathers are veterans. So we said, what do we want for our fathers?" Emily Trinkle, Director of Programs at Kaiser Home Support Services, said. "And that’s how we decided what we came up with.”

Parts of the decor inside are precious to staff -- the faces of veterans they know and those veterans who will move in sit proudly on a table inside, looking out at staff.

“The gentleman in front served in Vietnam and his name is now on the Vietnam Memorial,” Trinkle said, matching the faces to stories about each veteran.

Trinkle said Kaiser had the chance to expand. Seeing the amount of veterans who are homeless, or at risk for being homeless after serving our country, she said they decided they wanted to step up and serve them.

“It doesn’t seem right that these men and women, whether they’re Vietnam area or Korean era or today, serving today, that they’ve done this for us and they’ve put themselves on the line and they come home and they don’t have what they need,” Trinkle said.

Friday, crews unloaded the furniture for the facility, assembling it in the rooms inside. There’s a lot to be done still to get the building ready.

Once Liberty Place opens up, it will be able to house 16 veterans. With private bedrooms and bathrooms for each veteran moving in, they'll be able to provide transitional, quality care.

It’s not a shelter, but instead, more long-term care for those at risk for homelessness, working to help get them back on their feet.

Liberty Place will serve both men and women from Kentucky and Indiana.

“Peace time, war time, any branch,” Trinkle said. “We are not limiting it to New Albany. Any veteran who is considered homeless or potentially homeless is a candidate for our services. It’s a transitional program, so we expect them to stay for a while once they are here.”

An open house will soon welcome the community for a look inside. Soon after, she said they’ll be ready for veterans to start moving in.

“We’re going to try to do our part,” Trinkle said.

For more information to see if you or someone you know will qualify to live at Liberty Place, you can stop by Kaiser Home Support Services at 2633 Grant Line Road in New Albany, visit their website or call 812-945-6868.

The open house for the program will be held Wednesday, Feb. 20 from 2 to 6 p.m. with a formal program at 2:30 p.m.

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