Hands to Help Seniors

View From A Non-Profit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside and Soledad California

The inability of veterans to tap into benefits because of the massive red tape at the Veterans Administration (VA) which has caused a huge backlog continues to make front page news.  USA Today profiled Michael "Mickey" Flynn who filed a disability claim over 15 months ago and shares company with more than 850,000 veterans who have filed claims but not received an answer on whether they have been approved.  The troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq in huge numbers have only made the problem worse.  This is a sad situation and totally unacceptable.  I hope something can be done about it.  Two-thirds of the Senate and a third of House members have signed letters to the President demanding improvements, but it's still a mess.  Thankfully, the VA has approved overtime and has workers looking at the oldest cases.  Unbelievably, when they took a closer look they found a case which was 20 years old and still pending.  This should not be happening in America.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/11/va-veterans-benefits-backlog-ptsd-soldiers/2384429/

About Richard Kuehn & Hands to Help Seniors:

After more than a decade of caregiving, both in a professional environment and for a 97 year old family member, it became clear to me that there are many seniors that can't afford to pay for a private duty caregiver, not to mention medical expenses, food and property taxes on their home.  I decided to form a non-profit to help seniors with any service they might need to get by, should they be unable to afford this themselves.  From putting on a new roof to providing a hot meal, Hands to Help Seniors is there to help.  Please visit my blog where I talk about important senior issues at:

http://www.h2hs.org/news-and-media.html

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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View From A Non-Profit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside and Soledad California

The Monterey Herald reported that the state Legislature approved $1.5 mil. in funding for the Monterey County's Veterans cemetery, something which many have been fighting for for years.  However, the fight isn't over.  First, the governor still has to sign the new budget bill.  Following that, those which are actually constructing the cemetery can apply for federal funds. The organization will then try and find more funding sources to complete the project.  The federal funds for the Central Coast State Veterans Cemetery are expected to be only $11.2 million, well below the $26 million which was initially sought.  At this point, the federal funds would only cover an above-ground columbarium to store cremated remains, so the fundraisers have a long way to go to build a below-ground burial cemetery.  The foundation needs spots for 5,600 burial and crypt sites for the next decade.  There is also an issue over the adjoining land, with two groups running around town trying to get enough signatures for a special election deciding whether land should be preserved or used for Monterey Downs, a project which would include a racetrack, homes, hotels and retail.  The Central Coast State Veterans Cemetery is considering selling its endowment parcel to the Monterey Downs backers for $1.5 million because funding is so tight.  26,000 people have signed a petition for Access Initiative to block this development, enough to get it on the ballot, while the opposition (supported by Monterey County's veterans and business councils) have also gathered more than 26,000 signatures.  In addition to the ballot measure, there is a hearing scheduled for June 21 in Monterey County Superior Court to look at whether Access Initiative failed to follow state election law in its petition and used false, misleading and incomplete materials when it was asking people to sign its petition.  One thing is for sure.  This hot issue will be a long drawn out battle in the courts and at the polls.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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View From A Non-Profit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside and Soledad California

Take note : Those over 60 years old who are low-income and have not already received a 2013 Senior Farmers Market coupon can pick up a free $20 coupon/check booklet at a number of local places.  To be eligible, your income must be $1,772 per month or less ($21,257 per year) if you are single.  If there are more than one person in your household, add $620/month ($7,437/year) per person to the income threshold.  Locations and dates for picking up the coupon/check booklet are below:

June 12 (Wednesday) at 11:00 a.m. at Natividad Hospital, 1441 Constitution Boulevard in Salinas;

June 15 (Saturday) at 8:00 a.m. at Northridge Mall on North Main Street in Salinas;

June 21 (Friday) 3:00 p.m. in Gonzales at Central Park, 207 5^th Street;

June 24 (Monday) at 4:00 p.m. in Pacific Grove at Central Avenue and Grand;

July 7 (Sunday) at 10:00 a.m. in Marina at 215 Reservation Road;

July 12 (Friday) at 10:00 a.m. at Monterey Peninsula College in Parking Lot A; and

July 18 (Thursday) at 4:00 p.m. in Soledad at Soledad Street and Front Street.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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View From A Non-Profit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside and Soledad California

The plot in the IRS scandal continues to thicken, with the news pushing the story to the front page of the Wall Street Journal yesterday.  Top officials had been telling the public and the Obama administration that the targeting of non-profits with tea party and other Republican terms in their title was done by a rogue group of employees in a small office in Cincinnati Ohio.  However, that turned out to be false.  Elizabeth Hofacre from the  Cincinnati office told investigators that she was a pawn being supervised by an attorney in the Washington D.C. office named Carter Hull. "I was essentially a front person because I had no autonomy or authority to act on [applications] without Carter Hull's actions or input," she told investigators.  Ms. Hofacre told investigators she was furious when she saw press reports blaming the incidents on the Cincinnati office because she had personally handled many of the cases while being micro-managed by this attorney in the Washington D.C. office.  This news will likely set of an explosive debate in Congress about how such an important government arm can go so rogue with such an important job such as approving an organization's non-profit status.  Filing the required paperwork and answering questions from I.R.S. agents is an arduous and timely task and should not be complicated by someone with a political agenda.  It will be interesting to see how this case unfolds as we find out who knew what and when, and why nothing was done to stop this until recently.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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View From A Non-Profit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside and Soledad California

There have been a number of meetings over the past month to try to come up with a viable solution to deal with the growing population of homeless people in Monterey County.  After a homeless person murdered a store owner in Santa Cruz, the police chased many of them out of town and as you can see by walking through the downtown area, many of them arrived here.  Some people believe that the city should have places dedicated to the homeless where they could sleep at night, while others want ordinances passed which would make sleeping in public illegal.  It's a touchy issue, to be sure, and one law which had been drafted would have made it a crime to sit or lie on sidewalks or other places.  It stirred up quite an emotional debate and now appears to be off the table.  On the positive side, there are some options being considered which would appear to help the problem such as providing bus passes to the homeless so they could get to places where there is shelter, meals and other services.  The city council is also trying to create jobs for them.  Funding, of course, is a huge issue.  The city spent $123K last year on homeless services and is expected to only have $80K this year due to federal budget cuts.  "To create a new program without any new revenue sources will likely require the city to cut something else," City Manager Fred Meurer told the Monterey Herald.  Stay tuned as the city council holds more meetings on the topic, which will be open to the public. 

http://www.montereyherald.com/bartertown_news/ci_23296764/compassion-or-crackdown

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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