Agency looking to be model for hiring vets

REVERE – Housing Authority Director Linda Marie Shaw wants her agency to set an example for businesses and public agencies by hiring veterans – that is, if she can find money to meet her goal.”Like everyone, we’re operating on a very tight budget,” Shaw said.Shaw has asked state legislators for assistance in helping provide the authority with money to hire veterans to work for the authority and train them in job skills they can convert into careers. In a letter to state Sen. Sal DiDomenico, she said a $250,000 grant would pay for four veterans’ salaries for a year.She said the authority and other municipal and state agencies should set an example of hiring veterans, and she recalled how tax dollars 50, even 60, years ago, paid for veterans housing construction in communities.”As a larger employer, we should step up for veterans,” she said.Shaw said the authority offers opportunities to train veterans in skills, including plumbing and carpentry. The agency oversees 900 Revere housing units.Revere is not the only area city working to provide increased veteran employment and housing opportunities. Lynn and Peabody launched their own initiatives with Peabody Veterans Director Christopher Tighe pointing out how federal veterans housing programs have help local veterans.”Peabody’s pretty stable in this regard,” Tighe said.Lynn housing and development officials and Military Friends, a Boston-based organization, are working together to aid homeless veterans and provide other assistance. Shaw said housing preferences for veterans are not clear-cut compared to policies in force in past years.She said housing officials across the state follow a priority list outlining situations, including homelessness and domestic abuse, where available housing is matched with needy individuals. Veterans needs are ranked as a “preference” under priority categories, she said.”At one time, there was public housing set aside solely for veterans returning home from wars. They were given preference for this housing, but that is no longer the case,” Shaw wrote DiDomenico.