"People come in who need an overhaul - a tune-up just won't do," said Larry Smyth, a VA clinical psychologist and Vietnam veteran who works at MC Vets.
The center is not a shelter; its goal is to return vets to society as productive citizens, and it claims a 75 percent success rate, with graduates earning an average of $13 an hour in full-time employment.
"This is one of the very, very few places where you can get an overhaul," Smyth said.
Veterans taken into the program here must be clean - detoxed. Once inside, they live in a structured military environment and are provided counseling, vocational education, medical and dental treatment and other services from state and federal agencies as well as the University of Maryland, the Johns Hopkins University and other organizations.
According to its most recent annual report, the center receives 78 percent of its funding from government sources.
"Right now, we're pretty safe," said Charles Williams, the center's executive director and a Vietnam veteran.
But he sees potential trouble ahead as the veterans' population swells and as other nonprofit organizations cut back their services because of shortfalls in financial support. "Some programs not as secure as us will have to cut back, and we will see those people here," he said.
Maryland Lt. Gov Anthony Brown, an Iraq war veteran, has fought to increase services for veterans, winning approval earlier this year for increased spending that includes a three-year national pilot program to locate veterans and connect them with such state and federal services as family counseling, substance abuse and financial counseling.
Adkins, the state veterans chief, is hiring three full-time counselors to help veterans file claims to benefits they have earned and to help veterans not eligible for benefits find other assistance.
These counselors will help Maryland veterans navigate the bewildering maze of U.S. Veterans Affairs regulations and procedures. About half of them now attempt it on their own, and as a result, the Maryland veteran's average compensation is one of the lowest in the country, about $7,654. In West Virginia, where veterans get better assistance from claims counselors, the average government compensation is $11,348.
Adkins says he hopes his department can make progress despite the storm clouds he sees ahead.
"We have not had to cut any support yet, but I've asked my staff to prepare just in case things get worse," he said in an interview last week. "I hope I don't have to deal with anything that cuts to the bone."
That's a worry shared by Williams, the director of MC Vets. With veterans like Hunter and Lamar not seeking services until months or years after they leave active duty, he knows that it is difficult to plan ahead.
"We have to get to them before drug and alcohol abuse becomes a pattern," he said. "If we can get them in here, we can work with them."
