Officials Break Ground on Veterans Facility at Homeless Emergency Project

There was no Purple Heart for Brendan Macdonald Fyfe.

No band. No pageantry.

“But a casualty of war he surely is,” his father Bruce Fyfe of Dunedin said choking up on the pulpit at Everybody’s Tabernacle.

Brendan survived three tours in Iraq between 2004 and 2007.

But, back home, he became addicted to pills to help cope from post-traumatic stress disorder, Fyfe said. And 15 months ago, Brendan was found dead from an overdose. He was 24.

Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony was especially emotional for Fyfe, the chairman of the Homeless Emergency Project, a Clearwater-based, non-profit homeless outreach group nearby Dunedin city limits. The HEP facility will house veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Construction will soon begin on the three-acre, nearly $3.5-million addition to the Homeless Emergency Project. It features a 2,500-square-foot clubhouse and 32 one-bedroom units for male and female veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

About $800,000 for the facility comes from the Brendan MacDonald Fyfe Foundation.

The new center will feature an activity director charged with developing programming and activities to help veterans get together with each other. A technology room will provide online opportunities for veterans to search for jobs or just stay connected. It is expected to open in spring 2012.

The project is the first phase of a five-year plan that would eventually add 112 units to what will become an eight-acre campus. All the space is solely for helping to rehabilitate veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“This gives us the edge we need,” Fyfe said.

About 100 people came in support despite rain and clouds that moved the ceremony inside Everybody’s Tabernacle, the church that stands at the center of the campus. The gold groundbreaking shovels stood against the pulpit and hard hats on the thick-carpeted floor.

Dunedin Mayor Dave Eggers was in attendance at the event, but was not one of the speakers.

Rev. Otis Green founded the Homeless Emergency Project in 1986 with two full-time employees and a $100,000 annual budget. Now, it is an organization with 46 full-time employees and a $3.7 million annual budget.

HEP helps 340 people including homeless children, families and veterans. It offers emergency, overnight, transitional and permanent housing. There are support services aimed at rehabilitation including case management, dental and medical help, food and nutritional classes and education and vocational assistance.

George Rohrmann, who oversees the treatment and rehabilitation program at the Bay Pines Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, has listened to survivor stories from veterans from World War I to the current operations in Iraq. Whether it is shell shock, neurosis or hysteria, the name has changed over the years but the effect of war is similar. Rohrmann said it was not until 1980 that post-traumatic stress disorder was recognized as a term to describe the anxiety, nightmares, fears and other symptoms. And as more veterans come home, there will be more cases.

“The VA cannot do it alone,” Rohrmann said. “We need help from groups like HEP.”

The theme for the ceremony seemed to be service. Nearly each speaker mentioned taking their pledge to serve in the military.

Fyfe choked up at times as he talked about being able to serve veterans.

“The war does not end when they get home,” Fyfe said. "These are our children who went to war for us. This is our opportunity to say we do not forget.”