A journey that began more than 10 years ago finally came to an end in 2017 with Lake Charles’ new permanent Veterans Affairs clinic opening its doors.

The 24,000-square-foot clinic, at 3601 Gerstner Memorial Drive, opened Aug. 28. It provides services that include mental health, nutrition, pharmacy, dental, eye care, hearing aid services, X-ray imaging, physical therapy and prosthetics.

The clinic broke ground in June of 2016, and while it faced some brief weather-related delays, it was finished by its expected summer timeline.

It is a big step up from the interim clinic at 814 W. McNeese St. that had been open since November of 2015. Several months after the interim clinic opened, VA officials said it treated roughly 1,600 veterans.

Local veterans and VA officials alike see the new facility as a major upgrade from the mobile clinic on Fifth Avenue. Veterans said repeatedly that the mobile clinic wasn’t equipped to provide the care they needed. As a result, many veterans were forced to drive hours to the VA clinic in Alexandria.

Russell Henry with the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs Commission described the mobile clinic as “a bus that was only about 6- to 8-feet wide and about 30- to 40-feet long.”

Veterans had been long been frustrated with the lack of progress in securing a major VA clinic in Lake Charles. Former Lake Charles Mayor Randy Roach said during the 2016 groundbreaking that the concept dated back to October of 2000, with the idea being pushed by former Louisiana VA Secretary Joey Strickland.

The project encountered numerous delays over the years. Veterans were told in 2008 that the VA department would open five outpatient clinics statewide, including Lake Charles. The clinic was supposed to be seeing patients by 2009.

Meanwhile, veterans waited year after year for any progress on the clinic. Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter’s grandmother was a Navy veteran who served during World War II as a Woman Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. He said she needed assistance as she reached her late 80s, but couldn’t make the trips to Lafayette or Alexandria because it was too difficult.

As the years went on, the timeline for the Lake Charles clinic continued to be extended. When VA officials announced that a lease had been awarded for the clinic in Lafayette, they added that the local clinic would be open by the summer of 2015, then June of 2016.

Now those delays are in the past, and local veterans have access to care that doesn’t always require trips to other clinics hours away. 

Thomas Bowman, deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said during a dedication ceremony in October that the Lake Charles clinic “becomes the standard” of what the department should be doing throughout the country. He said he wants to see more clinics built and staffed how the local clinic is.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., called the facility “very impressive” during a tour right before it opened.

Bowman added that the patience and dedication from local veterans was key in getting this clinic built.

Skye McDougall, South Central VA Health Care Network director, said in October that nearly 7,000 veterans in the Lake Charles area have enrolled with the clinic, and the VA plans to have 10,000 veterans enrolled by next October.

The clinic is still working to ensure services are being delivered promptly and it is properly staffed. Jim Jackson, president of the Mayor’s Armed Forces Commission, said in October that 35 veterans were waiting to get blood drawn.

But Jackson said veterans who vowed never to return to Lake Charles are moving back from cities like Jennings and Beaumont, Texas.

Looking ahead, Bowman said federal resources will be focused on mental and behavioral health services for veterans. 

He said President Donald Trump’s administration is “fully engaged” in providing continued care for veterans.