WHEREAS, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Pacific Center for Residential Rehabilitation Program, also known as the VA Hilo Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Residential Rehabilitation Program, started in 1992 with support of Hawaii's congressional delegation, with the first program providing services to veterans at the Naniloa Hotel in Hilo in 1993; and

WHEREAS, the Pacific Center for Residential Rehabilitation Program moved to its present location in Hilo at 891 Ululani Street in 1995, with sixteen beds for veterans programs on a seven-week cycle with seven cycles per year; and

WHEREAS, the Pacific Center for Residential Rehabilitation Program has a budget of over $1,800,000, with a professional staff of fifteen persons and has served over one thousand veterans from World War II to Desert Storm throughout Hawaii, Guam, and American Samoa; and

WHEREAS, because of the ongoing armed conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pacific Center for Residential Rehabilitation Program is expected to serve many more veterans; and

WHEREAS, in order for any veterans' program to be effective, the services it provides should be centrally located to promote the ease of accessibility to the constituency it serves; and

WHEREAS, the soon to be built Hilo Veterans Home is projected to have one hundred beds to provide long term care to veterans; and

WHEREAS, in addition to medical care, the Hilo Veterans Home is planning to establish a peer support group program led by volunteer veterans who will help veterans residing in the Hilo Veterans Home and in the surrounding community; and

WHEREAS, for these reasons, the ideal place for the Pacific Center for Residential Rehabilitation Program to be situated is the Hilo Veterans Home; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, that the Legislature supports the relocation of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Pacific Center for Residential Rehabilitation Program to the Hilo Veterans Home once the home is completed; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Secretary of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the Director of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Honolulu District Office, and each member of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

Report Title:

Pacific Center for Residential Rehabilitation Program