A resource fair reflects the changing needs of Monterey County’s aging veterans.

Chrissa Olson here, having spent a Friday morning talking with veterans and those who provide services for them to get a better understanding of the issues they face in Monterey County.

The Veterans Stand Down and Resource Fair in Marina on Sept. 25 brought social services and veterans together to provide a variety of health care, housing and financial services in one fell swoop. 

Veterans from the Veterans Transition Center, and also those that showed up on their own accord, milled in and outside the Military and Veterans Affairs Office building Friday, Sept. 25. Under blue tents, they signed up for health care, received free clothing, chatted with recruiters and got financial advice. 

A mobile clinic from the Department of Veterans Affairs provided flu shots on site, and an array of in-home health providers were available to answer questions. Outside, the Food Bank for Monterey County brought in crates of food while another table overflowed with clothing. 

The resource fair has gone through a lot of change—it was initially geared toward homeless veterans in 2012, with a three-day event at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, says Jack Murphy, director of the Monterey County Military and Veterans Affairs Center, and an Army veteran himself. 

That cost upward of $100,000. Now, with a reduced budget and a much smaller homeless veteran population, they put on their one-day event for a little under $5,000, according to Murphy. 

In 2026, 83 homeless veterans lived in Monterey County, according to Monterey County Point-in-Time count, with about 40 percent experiencing unsheltered homelessness. That’s about a 54-percent decrease from just two years ago, and in 2022, there were 154 homeless veterans in the county.

Murphy told me that due to this decrease, the Veterans Stand Down is now less focused on serving homeless veterans specifically, and has expanded to veterans in need more generally.

In particular, the abundance of health care services at the Stand Down reflected the needs of an aging veteran population in Monterey County, partially thanks to nearby Fort Ord, the former Army post, says Murphy. 

I also met some people who served in our military who made good use of the fair. Army veteran and Marina resident Bobbie Walker was picking through the clothing options in the morning, noting it was the reason he came the previous year too. The free gear was helpful, as were the legal and financial services, he says. 

Kalsey Morasci, who was in the Army for two years, says she attended to search for job opportunities that would fit her medical needs after having three brain surgeries this year. She hopes to go to CSU Monterey Bay to study social work.

I'm glad they were able to find help from the fair—it seemed like the people there were pretty intent on giving it, despite bureaucratic processes that can make it difficult for veterans to navigate a very complex system for social services.