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Deaths at Veterans Home
Produced by Chip Mitchell on Thursday, August 07, 2008
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Issa Umi, secretary of St. Leo’s tenant council, blames the deaths on Catholic Charities. (WBEZ/Chip Mitchell) |
Since opening last year, a Chicago apartment building has earned national recognition for helping dozens of homeless veterans get on their feet. But Chicago Public Radio has learned that at least six of the building’s tenants have died since last fall. The deaths raise questions about the building’s management by one of the nation’s largest charities. And they expose weak oversight of publicly funded veterans housing.
A top official of Chicago’s Catholic Charities traveled to Washington, D.C., in April to testify before a U.S. House panel.
D’ARCY: Hello, Mr. Chairman, honorable committee members and guests. My name is William D’Arcy...
He reported on a Catholic Charities project that’s been running since last year on Chicago’s South Side. About a quarter of the $20 million for the project came from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. D’Arcy explained that a centerpiece of the project is called St. Leo’s Residence.
D’ARCY: The project provides 141 formerly homeless veterans with studio apartments. The veteran has to commit to seeking and obtaining and maintaining employment, they have to pay rent, and they have to agree to live in a drug-free environment.
D’Arcy said Catholic Charities also helped build a VA clinic behind the residence.
D’ARCY: And Catholic Charities provides case managers whose goal is to make the veterans self-sufficient again.
D’Arcy told the Congressman that St. Leo’s has been a success for its tenants, who’re mostly Vietnam vets. He said 79 of the residents got some sort of job during the project’s first year. He said 23 moved into more independent housing. But Chicago Public Radio has learned that things have not gone so well for at least a half-dozen other St. Leo’s residents. Those six died.
UMI: This would be the apartment of Nathanial Thomas. This would be his, Apartment 204.
Issa Umi is secretary of St. Leo’s tenant council. He brings me to where a 53-year-old veteran lived until passing away in April. Cook County records indicate that the man died of cocaine intoxication. According to the records, another five tenants succumbed to diseases ranging from liver cancer to heart ailments and diabetes.
UMI: This is the apartment of -- this is Ciszek’s apartment here.
In June, 53-year-old Robert Ciszek turned up dead in his fourth floor room. The county medical examiner determined Ciszek died from heart disease and chronic drug use. Some of his neighbors suspect the body rotted in the apartment for days. One says he recognized this kind of stench from his military service. Umi says Ciszek didn’t have to die this way.
UMI: One of the things that has come up a whole lot of times is something called wellbeing checks -- the social-service people to check on their clients at least once or twice a week to make sure that people don’t fall through that crack.
St. Leo’s has four social workers but no medical staff. Catholic Charities acknowledges it didn’t screen tenants for drug abuse, medical conditions or mental illnesses. Tenants say there are other risks, like malfunctioning phones and smoke detectors. And they worry about a rapid turnover of St. Leo’s staff.
ANSWERING MACHINE: To reach the property manager, William Connor, press one. For the assistant property manager...
A St. Leo’s answering machine lists five staff members. Four of those individuals no longer work at the building. I raised most of these concerns with Chicago’s Catholic Charities chief, Reverend Michael Boland.
BOLAND: What you’re looking at is ridiculous.
Boland says his organization never envisioned St. Leo’s as a full-service recovery center for veterans. He says the deaths are no cause for alarm, considering what the tenants have gone through.
BOLAND: They have been living for a long time on the streets. Often times they’ve been suffering from different kinds of ailments or different kinds of clinical disorders. And they’ve been self-medicating. So their bodies are, really, very fragile. So they’re medically fragile, which is why from the very beginning we wanted the VA to be there with the clinic.
Reverend Boland is referring to the veterans’ clinic behind the residence. He says Catholic Charities has not investigated whether the deaths are related. The organization issued a statement that says St. Leo’s “offers veterans a chance to live out their lives in a dignified manner and look after their own health.” That makes sense to St. Leo’s tenant Lawrence Watkins.
WATKINS: A lot of us are disabled veterans. So there comes a time, when we’re disabled, we’re sick and we pass on. I may kick tomorrow. I’m an old guy, 55. But, apart from that, there are no problems. I was homeless. And thanks to St. Leo’s they helped me to get on veterans disability. This is the best place I’ve ever had in my life.
But some advocates for homeless veterans see red flags about what’s happening at St. Leo’s. Rick Weidman directs policy and government affairs for Vietnam Veterans of America.
WEIDMAN: If the first step is getting people into some kind of shelter so that they’re not freezing to death on Chicago streets, then the second step is getting them into transitional housing, where they have to get dry and clean, and there’s a zero-tolerance policy. And, there, you have pretty close oversight on the medical end, both neuropsychiatric as well as physiological health. From the sounds of what’s going on at St. Leo’s, the individuals who perished should have been at that second stage of transitional housing with close oversight. The second step was missing.
The deaths have caught the attention of at least one government official. Eugene Herskovic directs the VA’s Chicago-area homeless programs. He says his job includes keeping an eye on St. Leo’s.
HERSKOVIC: It’s one of my responsibilities, oversight.
And do you think they addressed the problems?
HERSKOVIC: I made them address the problems.
Herskovic says he made St. Leo’s register its tenants at the VA clinic nearby. Asked about other problems, he refers me to this VA spokesman, Raymond Leber.
LEBER: These deaths, it’s the first I’ve heard about this. There’s nothing we can really comment on though, because this is not our facility. This is, St. Leo’s is owned and operated by Catholic Charities.
Catholic Charities says its project could be a model for housing homeless veterans. But some St. Leo’s tenants say there will be no model until Catholic Charities comes to grips with the six deaths.
Ambi: Knocking.
UMI: This apartment, we’re standing in front of 423. This was George Smith’s apartment. He was wheelchair bound.
Issa Umi, the tenant council secretary, brings me to another room. He says he feels responsible for keeping tabs on the health and welfare of the other tenants. He fears it’s only a matter of time before he’ll be pointing out more apartments of people who died.
I’m Chip Mitchell, Chicago Public Radio.
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MEG KREUSER, SKOKIE // Thursday, August 07, 2008 @ 9:30 AM
I was opposed to the VietNam war, the Gulf war and now the Middle East war; however, once in, this country owes veterans a debt. I am sickened every time I hear stories about the lack of care and concern for these men and women. God help these men and women because no one seems to be.
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j // Thursday, August 07, 2008 @ 10:25 AM
Considering that you did not provide the cause of death for all six individuals, I would say that this is shoddy reporting. You imply in this story that there is negligence on the Part of Catholic Charities and possibly the VA, but you do not provide any hard evidence. Additionally, you make statements that the individuals in this facility should be provided treatment in transitional living/substance abuse treatment facilities. Did you check to see if the individuals that died, or other residents of St. Leo's had already recieved transitional living/treatment prior to transitioning into community living at St. Leo's. What about the individual's Choice to live how he or she wants to live and to obtain the medical service that he or she wants? More work should have been done investigating this story before providing this irresponsible piece of reporting.
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Chip Mitchell, Chicago Public Radio // Thursday, August 07, 2008 @ 1:16 PM
Here are the dates and causes of the six known deaths of St. Leo's residents, according to Cook County records.
(1) Cedell Johnson died Sept. 12, 2007, from a hepatoma.
(2) Willie Bass died October 6, 2007, from hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
(3) Timothy Leo Burton died February 19, 2008, from arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus.
(4) Nathaniel Thomas died April 9, 2008, from cocaine intoxication and, secondarily, hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
(5) George Smith died May 27, 2008, from arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
(6) Robert Ciszek died June 17, 2008, from arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease and, secondarily, chronic narcotism.
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Tim Hill, Grayslake, IL // Friday, August 08, 2008 @ 7:41 AM
I was very disappointed at the sensationalistic nature by which this story was reported. I felt like I was listening to a story being reported by one of the Tabloids, not the quality, balanced reporting I expect from NPR. There was no fowl play associated or suspected with these deaths.
There is no doubt we can do better in support our Veterans, but when groups like Catholic Charities try to make a difference and this reporting is the type of reward they get... I, for one, commend Catholic Charities and I pray that this report does not dishearten their efforts in any way.
As for you NPR and particularly Chip Mitchell, very disappointing. I completely support your efforts in raising awareness of the challenges our nations vets face, but you need to do it the NPR way, not the National Equirer way.
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Kim Driscoll, St. Leo Resident // Friday, August 08, 2008 @ 5:11 PM
I am a resident of St. Leo’s and must begin by saying how grateful I am to Catholic Charities, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, and all of the other donors for the St. Leo Campus. On the other hand, I am also grateful to Chicago Public Radio for shedding light on what I believe to be a “Catch 22” for St. Leo management and the resident veterans.
Although most of our St. Leo vets died from health-related causes, my concern is for the drug-related deaths (including a drug overdose by a non-resident veteran visiting one of the tenants). Substance abuse is a huge problem at St. Leo’s but due to constraints from funding sources for the residence, Catholic Charities’ hands are tied, making it difficult if not impossible, to enforce treatment programs for its tenants. Even though it is widely reported that nearly half of all homeless vets suffer from mental illness or substance abuse issues, this fact seems to be one that Catholic Charities and St. Leo property managers have overlooked. But the question stands: If you are housing 141 veterans and there is a chance that half of them have past drug and/or alcohol problems, would it not be logical to ensure that these vets are actively involved in a recovery program?
Initially, the requirements for tenancy stated that a vet must be clean and sober; however, without the means for ongoing enforcement, maintaining one’s recovery is extremely difficult. I am sick and tired of seeing my fellow veterans complete a drug rehab stint and then get released to St. Leo’s where they inevitably end up using again. I am also disappointed that Father Boland stated that the St. Leo’s residence was “never envisioned to be a full service recovery center.” Many veterans moved into the facility believing it to be safe.
There is a sign in the lobby at St. Leo’s that says the residence is a place to heal. Perhaps it should be changed to: “A Place to Heal—if you’re not struggling with addiction.”
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Eugene Stepney III, Chicago IL. // Wednesday, August 13, 2008 @ 11:28 AM
I am one of the veterns that also lives at St. Leo,s, also you did interview me. I want to go on record to say that Catholic Charities has not keep a single word or promise that they have made. How is the world are you going to build a building that takes in homeless veterns with little or no income and expect them to pay rent? Also as far as the drug screening I think its ok, but how about drug screening for the Staff as well? I have know on Staff member that was there that was soo by-poular that you was dreading that you had to even deal with that person. The over-all spirit of the staff from downtown to St. Leo,s is that the vets are a dumb lot of men and women. And many along with myself at St Leo,s belive that Catholic Charities have done nothing but PIMPED the veterns to get the funding from the goverment and other perple to fund their other objectives. I have seen donations come in and leave right back out the door with the staff members. So until all the problems are addressed nothing is going to change. My statement is this. When a man or woman takes an oath to defend this country with their very life... When is this country going to defend its veterns? Thanks Chip
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Michael Hill, President, St. Leo. Tenant Advisory Council // Thursday, August 14, 2008 @ 3:33 PM
Your thirst for information, and the tactics used, gives credibility to the belief that journalists will take information, subtract from it, add to it, sway it left, sway it right, whichever way best serves their interest.
Chip, there is no argument that these deaths took place. nor the cause. However, what you fell to report is the location of the deaths, which is critical.
One death was a non resident 1
Two deaths occurred away from St. Leo 2 One terminally ill 1
One Massive Heart Attack 1 One fell and could not get up 1
Six 6
The evidence reflects no trend to the deaths. As a result, assigning responsibility to Catholic Charities Social Services, or Building Management would be wrong.
Most of us are Viet Nam Era Veterans with a host problems, conditions and disabilities; be it emotional or mental, be it physical or psychological, veterans will continue to die.
As a suggestion, a report on the life expectancy of Viet Nam Era Veterans would be welcomed.
Michael Hill, President
St. Leo Tenant Advisory Council
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Chip Mitchell, Chicago Public Radio // Friday, August 15, 2008 @ 4:35 PM
The six who perished were all St. Leo’s residents when they died, according to Cook County records. In addition to those six, another man died while visiting the building last winter. That death, according to a Catholic Charities statement, resulted from an “accidental overdose.”
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