How a Mount Prospect man navigated bureaucracy to revive agency that helps veterans
Few veterans in Cook County know about the financial assistance for past-due rent and bills available to them, but more are finding out thanks to the efforts of a Mount Prospect veteran.
John “Dutch” DeGroot — already a well-known figure in the Illinois veterans’ community for his outreach and advocacy — has spent the better part of the last three years trying to revive the Veterans Assistance Commission of Cook County, a governmental agency that was plagued for years by bureaucratic inefficiency and infighting by the veterans groups charged with overseeing it.
“I attended a meeting, and I saw how toxic it was. I said, ‘What the hell did I get myself into? This is unbelievable.’ They couldn’t get through a roll call,” DeGroot said. “I said, ‘We’re going to get more members to join and we’re going to turn this thing around.’ And I haven’t taken my foot off the gas pedal.”
Though wrapped up in red tape for years, the services the commission provides to veterans and their families are vital and life changing, DeGroot says.
For instance, eligible veterans can get up to $1,400 in rent assistance; $550 for utility bills; $100 Aldi, Walgreens and Walmart gift cards for food, hygiene and clothing; and free weekly CTA and Pace cards for medical, educational and work-related travel. Agency staff can also help vets navigate Veterans Affairs benefits and assist with job searches.
DeGroot, the service officer for Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1337 in Mount Prospect and the VFW’s 4th District of Illinois, recruited new members from various veterans groups throughout Cook County to show up to commission meetings, got a position on the oversight board as second vice president, and wrangled votes to hire a new superintendent to handle day-to-day agency operations.
At the same time, DeGroot lobbied for a change in state law that allows veterans assistance commissions to tap into a tax levy to fund their operations. But the law change exempted Cook County, which meant DeGroot had some convincing to do of the elected commissioners who hold the purse strings.
The commission had an annual budget of $471,280 two years ago, until veterans packed a county board veterans committee meeting last year and successfully lobbied board members to increase the appropriation to $2 million.
Officials publicly acknowledged DeGroot for his advocacy.
“Dutch, I want to say thank you for never giving up,” said Commissioner Donna Miller, the veterans committee chair. “I always say leadership is a choice, and I’m so glad you chose to lead this effort. And with this board we will make that a commitment.”
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget calls for the commission to receive nearly $2.8 million. A final vote is set for Nov. 21.
It’s still a modest amount, DeGroot and other veterans advocates say, compared to neighboring Lake County, whose veterans commission has a $6 million budget and staff of 35 employees to serve 35,000 veterans who live in the county.
The Cook County commission has a staff of five, but is now budgeted for 14 full-time positions.
An estimated 170,000 veterans live in Cook County — the most in the state. County records show more and more are starting to get funding and services from the commission, which assisted 1,445 veterans in 2022 and 2,227 in 2023, and is on track to help 2,600 by the end of this year.
That’s despite the agency’s location in the basement of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, 1100 S. Hamilton Ave. on Chicago’s Near West Side. DeGroot eventually wants to move operations to a more prominent and accessible location, and has applied for congressional funding through U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez to open an office somewhere in the suburbs.
“We need to get out of the basement. We’re in a prison basement for God’s sakes,” DeGroot said. “Does a veteran feel warm and fuzzy going there?”