Contacts & Publisher

Subscription Form

Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2010 /  UDM law project helps veterans access benefits

by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published May 28, 2010

Project SALUTE, a program of the University of Detroit Mercy Law School, operates from a mobile unit.

DETROIT — Deceased veterans of the U.S. armed forces will be remembered this Monday, Memorial Day, but there are many living veterans who are not receiving benefits to which they are entitled.

Many of these veterans are wrestling with problems – even problems they brought back with them from the battlefield – but simply do not know about government benefits they could be receiving.

Others know about benefit programs, but wrongly accept an initial eligibility denial as the final word on their case.

That's the situation the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law's Project SALUTE seeks to address by training its own students as well as practicing attorneys to provide counseling.

It also sends UDM law students out into the field to operate clinics in locations ranging from the metro Detroit area to other places in Michigan and around the United States.

Launched in 2008 as a temporary project, the law school has decided to keep it going.

"We initially thought we'd be through by now, but there's such a need for this, and there has been such an overwhelming response from both veterans and attorneys that we've decided to make in an ongoing operation," says Tammy Kudialis, J.D., L.L.M., a UDM law professor and the project's director.

Sometimes it is a matter of just not knowing about programs or how to properly apply for them, but there are cases where a veteran has to challenge bureaucratic decisions and needs legal representation to cut through the red tape.

The idea that men and women who have served in the U.S. military could need legal help to secure benefits they have coming to them might come as a surprise to many people, but Kudialis assures it is the case.

And Tyrone Chatman, a U.S. Army veteran and veterans' advocate in Detroit, can speak of the situation from his own personal experience. Chatman, who was in Vietnam 1970-72 as an advisor to the South Vietnamese army, only recently began receiving benefits he had originally been denied.

"Sometimes, with the Veterans Administration, the red tape is extremely difficult to navigate. They have a way of saying no, and they have a way of writing their letters that looks so official and makes it sound so definitive that most vets figure they have no other recourse," says Chatman, executive director of the Detroit Veterans Center/Michigan Veterans Foundation.

UDM's Project SALUTE is "the best thing ever," in Chatman's opinion. "The students are young, enthusiastic about what they're doing, and appear to be very open-minded and non-judgmental" in working with the veterans at the Detroit Veterans Center, he says.

And Chatman adds that, for the law students, working with the veterans "is a living history lesson."

Kudialis says nearly 100 second- and third-year law students are involved in the program, which operates year-round. Since its inception, the program has visited 33 cities in 20 states, plus Washington, D.C. and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Its national outreach has given consultations to nearly 3,000 veterans and trained about 1,000 attorneys to work with veterans. Here in Michigan, students have consulted with 792 veterans and trained 300 attorneys, Kudialis says.

"Our typical client is a Vietnam-era veteran. Many of them are not even aware of how the disability and pension system works. Many times we encounter veterans who are disabled, but who have applied for benefits but were denied," she says.

Kudialis says it is not uncommon to meet veterans who do not know how to go about pressing their case with the Veterans Administration. "They think the VA's waiting for them to die, so they can cancel the claim altogether," she says.

Chatman says he believes the current director of the Veterans administration is sincerely trying to reform the system, but agrees that veterans still need assistance.

That is especially true, he says, for many of the veterans he works with, who are wrestling with problems such as homelessness and chemical addictions.

The Detroit Veterans Center, at 2770 Park Avenue, between Temple and Sproat, operates a 104-bed transitional housing facility for veterans who have been homeless, with programs that help to reintegrate them into society. It also operates an overnight shelter for up to 30 homeless veterans who it cannot yet accommodate.

"These are people who have been places and done things on behalf of this nation that qualify them for every bit of help available to them," Chatman says.