Operation Chillout

LONG VALLEY  Filled with emotion and gratitude, one U.S. Marine veteran gave out lots of hugs but then each time, had difficulty letting go.

Recently, the former servicewoman approached volunteers from Operation Chillout, a ’round-the-clock emergency outreach to homeless veterans, who were staffing an information booth at an event in a New Jersey town. With hugs, she thanked them for giving her hope — and much-needed help — after her hours at work were cut and she lost her apartment. Right away, Operation Chillout sprang into action, getting her into a transitional housing program and referring her to a jobs program.

“It was very emotional to receive a ‘thank you’ from that Marine,” said Deacon Ray Chimileski of St. Luke Parish here, where he started Operation Chillout 20 years ago at first as a social ministry of the Morris County faith community. It is New Jersey’s only all-volunteer mobile outreach, which provides homeless veterans for their immediate needs, including temporary housing, food, water, clothing and personal items and referrals for job training, permanent housing and medical treatment. “We respond to the crisis of homelessness through direct compassionate action. We save lives. We help homeless veterans get back into civilian life. We are the eyes and ears of Christ in the streets,” he said.

That former Marine is one of more than 20,000 veterans who have been saved by Operation Chillout, now a registered 501-C-3 not-for-profit charitable organization, which celebrated its 20th anniversary on Dec. 21. All year ’round — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, its Rapid Response Team rescues homeless veterans by responding to referrals from its hotline and visiting places they frequent. Guided by its “no borders — no boundaries” policy, it serves every county in the Garden State and in northeast Pennsylvania and coastal Rhode Island, said Deacon Chimileski, also Operation Chillout’s executive director.

On Dec. 21, volunteers from Operation Chillout, who include veterans, gathered at St. Luke’s for Mass, celebrated by Father Owen Moran, pastor, to mark the anniversary. It was followed by the presentation of a proclamation from Washington Township in honor of the occasion, Deacon Chimileski said.

One Operation Chillout leader, Tony Destefano, served in the U.S. Army as a major in the Signal Corps and on the Coalition staff in the Iraqi war.

“We are a ground-level, grass-roots organization that gives veterans the basics but also works for long-term solutions,” said Destefano, who helps spot Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in homeless veterans so they can get treatment. “It feels incredible to help them,” he said.

To help combat homelessness, Operation Chillout either places veterans in temporary accommodations or refers them to another agency — or receives referrals from other agencies, Deacon Chimileski said.

In 2017, Operation Chillout designed and built its first tiny home for previously homeless veterans. Still in the works, this initiative, known as Supported Temporary Independent Living Experience (STILE), will provide veterans with 24 months of transitional housing and work on a farm with the opportunity to earn a Master Farmer Certificate from Rutgers University, Deacon Chimileski said.

“The goal is to replicate this sustainable model throughout New Jersey — the Garden State. Providing marketable skills and a good job is key to ending the poverty cycle among homeless veterans,” Deacon Chimileski said.

In the winter, Operation Chillout supplies groups and individuals with empty backpacks for them to return filled with new winter clothing: socks, thermal underwear, knit cap, pair of gloves and a zipped hooded sweatshirt. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s clothing drive was conducted virtually through its web site, www.operationchillout.org, where donors already have filled 1,000 backpacks for $25 each. It also provides new survival gear for homeless encampments including tents, tarps, cold-weather sleeping bags and ready-to-eat meals, Deacon Chimileski said.

During the summer, Operation Chillout distributes cases of life-saving bottled water — 31,000 bottles this year, new warm-weather clothing and toiletries, Deacon Chimileski said.

Operation Chillout was founded in 2000 after Deacon Chimileski and some of his friends visited a homeless Vietnam veteran who lived under a railroad trestle in Morris Country. Homeless veterans, he said, make up a small percentage of the entire vets’ population.

“We don’t expect them to come to us so we go to them,” said Deacon Chimileski, who visits them in their encampments and at agencies they visit such as Eva’s Village in Paterson. Despite the help, many veterans continue to struggle; sadly some of them — for many reasons — don’t make it, he said.

Over the years, Operation Chillout has received many awards including from Diocesan Catholic Charities. As a “top priority,” it also continues to call ”for the many deep systematic inequities in our culture to be addressed and eliminated to relieve the suffering of the poor and homeless in simple, humble and concrete ways,” Deacon Chimileski said.

Pastor of St. Luke’s when Operation Chillout was founded, Father Michael Drury, now a retired priest, continues to support the outreach and serves as its chaplain.

“Operation Chillout is a strong ministry to homeless veterans. They are grateful for the help. They share their sad stories about how they became homeless,” Father Drury said. “This is a reminder that veterans should not be forgotten. Society and the Church owe them a great deal for what they did — and still do — for this country,” he said.

Operation Chillout, which has no brick-and-mortar office and takes no government funding, always welcomes new volunteers and donors. To contact the organization, visit www.operationchillout.org. To report a homeless veteran, call (609) 619-0861.