SLC ranked among ‘most patriotic cities,’ but how many veterans use their benefits?

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical campus in Rapid City, South Dakota. Photo: South Dakota Searchlight // Seth Tupper

The Utah Department of Veterans and Military Affairs has supported mental health, businesses and recreational opportunities for veterans

Written by Alixel Cabrera for Utah News Dispatch

If patriotism can be measured by how much support veterans receive and some forms of civic engagement, Salt Lake City ranks 5th in the list of most patriotic cities in the country.

That’s what a survey conducted by Veterans United Home Loans found when it studied the veteran population, presence of Veterans Affairs health facilities, veteran-owned businesses, Google search interest for Veterans Day, and voter turnout, according to its website.

Salt Lake City has a relatively small veteran population, the lender wrote. But, services and community support for that community are “proportionately high.” There are more than 1,280 veteran-owned businesses in the city. That, in addition to an over 90% voter turnout in the 2020 general election, earned Utah’s capital a high score among 99 other metropolitan areas.

But with those local numbers boosted by voting participation, you may be wondering about the status of the 140,000 veterans who live in Utah. A state office that helps veterans access federal programs has some insight.

The Utah Department of Veterans and Military Affairs helps veterans access dedicated benefits including health care with the VA, housing benefits, education and free access to state parks, said Taylor Ricks, director of communications for the office.

“Getting those claims through the VA can be quite difficult. It’s quite a large organization, and so it can be kind of tedious,” Ricks said about the work his office does. “And we come in as kind of middlemen or caseworkers, if you may; we help walk them through that process and help them get approved.”

Mental health and education

In addition to the over 500 different claims the office helps handle every month, it also runs initiatives for suicide prevention among veterans along with the Department of Health and Human Services, creating a training specific to suicide prevention measures among members of the military, including tools to recognize thoughts of suicide or a mental health crisis.

“We know that in 2023, veterans made up about 12% of the suicide deaths here in the state, and they account for about 5% of the population,” Ricks said. “So you can kind of see the disparity there.”

The state also hired a Family Programs Manager for military families that may be moving for different assignments, including helping kids adjust to different education programs.

“A lot of it is childhood education, and a lot of it also can be therapy,” Ricks said. “They’ve recently added some mental health therapists in the districts on Hill Air Force Base that are specific to the military children. And so that’s something that kind of goes hand in hand with this family programs manager.”

Businesses and housing

Apart from that, the Veteran Business Resource Center, which partners with Salt Lake Community College to help veterans get started with their business ventures, has supported the creation of more than 1,500 businesses, Ricks said, including food trucks, restaurants, coffee shops, and videography and manufacturing companies.

In housing, apart from the home loans backed by the VA, the state has a first-time-buyer grant that offers about $2,500 for those who have transitioned out of service in the last year. The $500,000 the Legislature appropriates every year is enough to fund 181 grants a year, Ricks said.

Recreation

The Legislature passed a bill last general session, appropriating $200,000 to grant free admission to state parks for veterans who are Utah residents and have a current service-connected disability rating issued by the U.S. Veterans Benefits Administration. Lawmakers also created a pilot program extending the benefits to all veterans with an Interagency Military-Lifetime Pass for national parks.

The Utah Department of Veterans and Military Affairs hopes the pilot can turn into a long-term program, Ricks said, since interest in it ran high.

“The applications filled up within just a couple weeks of announcing it,” he said about the 1,600 passes that were offered through a newsletter and emails.