POUGHKEEPSIE – Mental Health of America Dutchess County (MHA Dutchess) has taken ownership of a building in Pleasant Valley as a result of a valuable donation. The building is slated to become the new home of the agency’s veterans services programming.
The owners of Pleasant Valley Medical Arts LLC voted unanimously to approve the donation of the property at 1335 Route 44 in Pleasant Valley to MHA Dutchess.
MHA Dutchess CEO Andrew O’Grady said his agency took ownership on Friday, April 29. He said that there were several conversations with the owners of the building and they embraced the vision MHA has for the use of the property.
In a released statement O’Grady said, “The property is zoned for medical use and our vision is to populate the space with the full array of veterans’ whole health and wellness services. The space has convenient, off-street parking and a ground floor entrance to provide our veteran heroes with easy access to all the services we will provide there. The goal is to simplify what our service members have to go through to receive the care and benefits they earned when they chose to sacrifice to protect this great country.”
The current Vet2Vet Program, Veterans Vocational Services, and Veterans Homeless Assistance Services are located on Haight Avenue in Poughkeepsie, and they will relocate to the new space which is valued at more than $1 million. From there, MHA will work to entice other providers of veterans’ outpatient mental health and physical healthcare to be in the same location.
The goal, according to O’Grady, is to create a single location for providers of veteran services to reduce the burden of having to make several stops in multiple towns to get the services.
O’Grady added, “We cannot thank the equity owners of Pleasant Valley Medical Arts enough for their generosity and their faith in the mission and vision of MHA. We know that they built that space themselves and took very good care of it. The legacy of that space is important to them, and MHA will not let them down.”
