Atlanta council members want a city-run veterans affairs office

The Atlanta City Council’s lone military veteran is calling on Mayor Andre Dickens and his administration to create an office of veterans affairs.

Councilman Jason Dozier, who completed tours in Iraq and Afghanistan during his time in the U.S. Army, hopes the move will help streamline city services for Atlanta’s 16,000-plus veterans and their families.

The proposal has the support of Dozier’s colleagues, most of whom signed on to the resolution when it was formally introduced last week. The measure unanimously passed the council’s finance committee on the eve of Veterans Day, and heads to a final vote next week.

Dozier, a combat veteran, spent six years in the armed forces. He reached the rank of captain before separating from the Army in 2012.

The Office of Constituent Services currently organizes city-run events for Atlanta’s vets and does some outreach work, but Dozier said a designated office could have a much greater impact.

“We’ve been doing a lot of this stuff informally, but we don’t have anybody (to) quarterback veterans’ issues and veteran advocacy on behalf of the city,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.

New Orleans, New York, Washington D.C, Jacksonville and Houston are among the U.S. cities that have had designated veterans’ services offices for years, Dozier said.

As the City Council’s only military veteran in at least three decades, Dozier said he’s often asked to serve as liaison between outreach organizations and the city.

Having a designated person or even an entire staff dedicated to that work would be far more effective, he told his colleagues. He noted the city has similar offices for Atlanta’s LGBTQ residents and its immigrant communities.

“I just want to make sure the work’s getting done,” Dozier said, noting the city’s veterans’ commission hasn’t been staffed in five years.

His resolution asks the mayor to create the office sometime in the next 12 months.

Other council members suggested the office could be a great resource for the city’s homeless veterans. Council member Wayne Martin said he and his son recently spoke with to two unhoused vets: a man in his 70s and a woman in her 40s.