Lacey Veterans Services Center will expand, add more services

An additional 3,200 square feet of space has opened up next door to the Lacey Veterans Services Center, so the city of Lacey will expand the center and add to its services.

City Manager Scott Spence offered that opportunity to the Lacey City Council Thursday night, and the council responded warmly. They also agreed to pay $90,000 for the expansion — $30,000 for rent and utilities and $60,000 to hire a coordinator for the expanded center.

The addition will roughly quadruple the size of the existing center, which is behind the main building on South Puget Sound Community College’s new Lacey campus. It currently provides mental health services and has been used by about 750 veterans since it opened, according to city data. It occupies about 1,000 square feet.

But the city also has had a longtime goal of creating a one-stop destination for veterans. With help from the city’s nonprofit partners, the expanded center will allow veterans to obtain information about housing, medical benefits or employment, Spence said.

“We have an obligation to do this, given the size of our military community,” Councilman Jeff Gadman said about the expanded center.

But he also had concerns about long-term funding of the center. He suggested the city try to strike a financial arrangement with other area jurisdictions.

Councilman Lenny Greenstein said he is fully supportive of the expanded center, too, but shared a similar concern about funding.

“We need to start looking immediately at how we are going to fund this long term,” he said. “We owe it to our veterans population to do this.”

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 1:17 AM with the headline "Lacey Veterans Services Center will expand, add more services."