Transitional home for veterans and homeless opens in Madera

A retired hospital lab technician from the San Francisco Bay Area has opened a shelter and support program for veterans and the homeless in Madera.

Madera House, 16236 N. Lake St., is the second location for Retraining the Village, started by Halley Crumb in 2012. The house can serve up to a dozen residents – only men – and provides them with job training and life skills. The goal, Crumb said, is to “empower, employ and educate.”

“They’re going to be able to learn website development…they’re going to be able to do construction classes,” Crumb said. “We’re going to make them employable so when they leave the home, which is transitional up to a year, they’re going to be job-ready. We’ll help with financial and life skills, family reunification.”

She opened her first transitional housing program shortly after retiring from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco, where she witnessed firsthand the struggle of veterans and the homeless to rebuild their lives.

“When I retired, I said I want to do something about this re-entry thing,” Crumb said.

“God gave me all the time I needed to help them out.”

Madera was picked as a second location because of the need, Crumb said, and because of the skyrocketing home prices in the Bay Area, which makes it difficult for clients to find and afford permanent housing. The center will have 10 employees.

A grand opening was held on Jan. 6. There is still space available for residents but a referral is needed. The center is working with community homeless agencies and the Madera County health and social services department and the probation and parole department.

For more information, visit Retraining the Village on Facebook or retrainingthevillage.net.

This story was originally published January 11, 2017 at 12:39 PM with the headline "Transitional home for veterans and homeless opens in Madera."