SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — This week, Gov. Greg Abbott announced over $3.6 million in grants to Panhandle and Concho Valley veterans’ organizations. 

$300,000 was awarded to MHMR Concho Valley. The organization says the grant will go toward its veteran department’s operation hope and housing.

MHMR Concho Valley’s mental health awareness training coordinator, Denise Ortiz, says the funds will help provide financial assistance for veterans, surviving spouses and their families, including rent, mortgages and funeral costs. 

“It’s important because I think our veterans don’t know that we have this program,” Oritz said. “Even when they are discharged from the military, they don’t know where to go. So, it’s important that they know that, when they fall in hard times, they can come here to the MHMR Concho Valley. We have a military veteran peer network coordinator, and we also have the Operation Hope & Housing outreach worker that can work with them to show them the way where they can go as far as resources, not only here.”

This is the organization’s third year receiving this grant. They said over the past three years, they’ve served over 200 veterans and their families.