June 18, 2021: Stand Down for Homeless Veterans and their families

A 2021 Stand Down for Veterans will be held at 249 – 10th Street, Marina, California on Friday, June 18, 2021, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

All levels of military discharge are welcome.

To pre-register or for more information, visit the Monterey County Stand Down website https://www.montereystanddown.org or call Marlene at (831) 883-8387, extension 238 (at the Veterans Transition Center / VTC ).

With respect to COVID-19 protocols, masks will be issued to everyone attending, and social distancing observed.

The event is sponsored by the Veterans Transition Center of Monterey County and the Monterey County Military and Veterans Affairs Office.

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For the latest info, visit https://www.montereystanddown.org

The info below was previously published in 2018 and has not been updated.

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Volunteer, donate, and tell veterans about the free event Monterey County Stand Down for Homeless Veterans, September 28-30, 2018 at the Monterey County Fair & Event Center.

Homeless veterans and their families are invited to receive a variety of free services over the weekend. They are also welcome to enjoy camping on the fairgrounds site. Accommodations available. All levels of discharge welcome. For details, visit the Monterey County Stand Down website, http://www.montereystanddown.org.

Learn more via media stories and other resources linked at the end of this post.

Free transportation to and from

Monterey County Stand Down

As announced by Monterey-Salinas Transit, MST and MV Transportation, along with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), will provide free transportation for those attending. Beginning at 8 a.m. on Friday, September 28, MST and MV will run five routes as far south as King City and as far north as Palo Alto to bring attendees to the Monterey County Fairgrounds. At noon on Sunday, September 30, all three transit agencies will have their vehicles lined up at the fairgrounds to return attendees to their home communities. Details: http://www.montereystanddown.org/bus-schedules.html

Anyone taking a bicycle aboard public transit may want to refer to the following tips:

• For MST, go to the following link, then scroll down to “Bicycles on buses”: http://mst.org/riders-guide/how-to-ride/transit-tips/. You may also wish to refer to Bicycling Monterey’s tips, developed in cooperation with MST, “Monterey-Salinas Transit: What to do when bike racks on buses are full…plus many more MST tips.”
• For VTA, go to the following link, then click on “Bikes on Transit” tab: http://www.vta.org/getting-around/bicycle-ped
• For MV Transportation, kindly note: This division is a contractor for Monterey-Salinas Transit and Amtrak. MST provides the vehicles that MV Transportation operates for them. As such, the MST Fixed Route and On-Call mini-busses and trollies that MVT operates have bicycle racks installed. The MST Paratransit Rides mini-busses do not. The Amtrak shuttle that MVT operates also does not have a bike rack installed. If you have any questions about MVT, please contact: http://www.mvtransit.com/contact

Tip: Free bicycles. A veteran (or other person) whose budget doesn’t allow purchasing a new or even a used bicycle may wish to email Gears4Good.org. As available supply allows, Gears 4 Good has free bicycles for people unable to buy their own, and who need a bicycle so they can bike or bike-and-ride to school, work, medical appointments, etc.

Haven’t been biking lately? Be inspired by these active-duty military service members who bike!

Veterans and volunteers bicycling to Monterey County Stand Down may find the directional tips below useful:

The Monterey County Stand Down venue (Monterey County Fair & Event Center) is a short bike ride from the popular coastal bike/multi-use trail that is part of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail network. Below are two of the routes many people take. For additional directions help, refer to Bicycle maps / Mapas de bicicletas – en español and English for Monterey County.

Bike-there direx from the coastal trail at Casa Verde

Note: This route is nearly entirely flat, with only one very short and cinchy hill just before you reach Fremont Avenue.

1. Leave the bike/multi-use trail at the Casa Verde intersection, where Casa Verde intersects the trail and the street that parallels the trail there, Del Monte Avenue. (Not familiar with that intersection?  A landmark on the southwest corner of Casa Verde and Del Monte is Bay View Academy.)
   
2. Cross Del Monte Avenue and bike south on Casa Verde. There are no bike lanes on Casa Verde nearly all the way to the fairgrounds, so use extra caution as you share the traffic lane with cars.
3. Continue up Casa Verde all the way to the T-intersection at Fairground Road. (When you’re nearly there, Casa Verde crosses Fremont Avenue. At the Casa Verde and Fremont intersection, on your right is a gas station and, across Fremont, a Beverly’s fabrics/crafts store.)
4. After crossing Fremont, you’ll see a “green lane” (added in 2016, to welcome people who bike to the Monterey County Fair & Event Center). That’s the fairgrounds marquee straight ahead of you! 

Bike-there direx from coastal trail at Camino Aguajito

Note: This route is mostly flat, with some slight uphill on Mark Thomas that most people will find comfortable.

1. Leave the bike/multi-use trail at Camino Aguajito, which has a traffic signal. You’ll be crossing the street that parallels the trail there, Del Monte Avenue. (Not familiar with that intersection? There’s a gas station on the southeast corner of Camino Aguajito and Del Monte.) 
2. Continue south on Camino Aguajito to Third Street. Turn left on Third Street (landmark—but not the direction you’re going: on the right, that street is named Pearl Street and bridges over Lake El Estero).
3. Continue east on Third Street to the T-intersection at Sloat, which runs alongside the Naval Postgraduate School.
4. Turn right onto Sloat. Continue south on Sloat until you reach the traffic light at Mark Thomas Drive.
5. Turn left onto Mark Thomas Drive.
6. Continue east on Mark Thomas to the traffic signal at Garden Road. (Just fyi, at Garden Road, Mark Thomas becomes Fairground Road.) 
7. You’ve arrived at the fairgrounds!

Who organizes Monterey County Stand Down?

The Stand Down is a biennial event coordinated by the Veterans Transition Center of Monterey County (VTC) and cosponsored by VTC and the United Veterans Council of Monterey County. Over a thousand volunteers attend to provide services including:

• haircuts
• meals
• clothing
• health and dental check-ups
• counseling services for employment, housing, VA claims, legal issues
• music and entertainment
• veterinary services for your pet
• and much more

September 28-30, 2018 will be the fourth Stand Down since it began in 2012. At the event in 2016, over four hundreds veterans participated.

Learn more on the website http://www.montereystanddown.org

Media reports 

Media reports on Monterey County Stand Down for Homeless Veterans 2018: Walter Ryce, Monterey County Weekly, http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/people/831/the-monterey-county-stand-down-creates-a-provisional-village-to/article_28ade26c-c1de-11e8-97d2-1bd66c7f5244.html; Erika Mahoney, KAZU, http://www.kazu.org/post/upcoming-homeless-veterans-stand-down-needs-donations-volunteers#stream/0; Sierra Starks, KSBW, http://www.ksbw.com/article/donations-volunteers-still-needed-for-homeless-veterans-stand-down-event/23443612; James Herrera, Monterey County Herald, http://www.montereyherald.com/veterans/20180926/monterey-county-stand-down-for-homeless-veterans-this-weekend-at-fairgrounds.

Related resources

http://nchv.org/index.php/news/media/background_and_statistics/

http://www.va.gov/opa/issues/homelessness.asp

http://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2017/12/06/number-of-homeless-veterans-nationwide-rises-for-first-time-in-seven-years/

Short link to this post: http://bit.ly/MRYStandDown

This post was originally published in 2018. The post’s only update for 2021 is the poster at the top.