Returning their sacrifice with compassion and action

Baltimore County is home to more than 35,000 veterans—about 5.3% of our population—and many are part of military families.

In 2021, veterans in Baltimore County made up 6.1% of Maryland’s homeless population. Veterans are also 50% more likely to experience homelessness than civilians, and too many die younger than their peers. Every day, an estimated 17 veterans die by suicide.

Through the stories of his grandfathers, Nick Stewart knows the meaning of courage and sacrifice, and how policy becomes deeply personal. Both of his grandfathers were World War II veterans. One flew 19 combat missions over Germany in a B-17 at just 18 years old. The other served as an Army scientist, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. 

Growing up hearing their stories of service and sacrifice shaped Nick’s commitment to ensuring every veteran in Baltimore County gets the respect and support they’ve earned. They have served our country with courage and sacrifice. Now it’s our turn to be there for them.

Supporting veterans takes more than slogans—it requires a county government that shows up, does the work and delivers real solutions to the challenges veterans face.

Nick’s Plan to Support Veterans

Our veterans should come home to a community that values their service and their skills. That means building real pathways into good jobs, ensuring fair access for veteran-owned businesses, and cutting red tape so veterans and their families can receive the benefits they’ve earned without delay. It means guaranteeing resources to address homelessness and mental health challenges head-on. 

Dedicate Resources to Opportunities

Nick will create a full-time Veterans Affairs Officer within the Office of the County Executive. While the county currently has a Commission on Veterans Affairs, this new position will ensure there is a dedicated professional focused on advocacy and action. The Veterans Affairs Officer will champion the needs of Baltimore County’s veterans and lead a series of initiatives designed to deliver meaningful change, including:

• Strengthen the Commission with the resources, staffing and authority it needs to identify veterans’ needs, advocate for supportive programs and legislation and deliver real results for the veterans’ community. 
  • In particular, Nick will fight to ensure appointees include individuals from the enlisted ranks, who bring a unique perspective on the challenges veterans face.
• Streamline veterans’ transitions to civilian employment by partnering with state and federal agencies to create opportunities for workforce development, placement services, entrepreneurship support and apprenticeship opportunities. Specifically, we must:
  • Support programs like Project Opportunity, which provides entrepreneurship training tailored to veterans and active-duty service members who aspire to start or grow their own small businesses.
  • Support apprenticeship training in the trades through programs like Helmets to Hardhats, which connects service members with quality careers in construction.
  • Ensure veteran-entrepreneurs have access to the incubator programs Nick’s economic development plan to create innovative startups with pools of funding and a brain trust of graduates among the county’s assets. (Read More)
  • Assist veterans with job training and placements through the County Jobs Department that Nick will establish (Read more)
• Guarantee fair access to county contracts and grant opportunities by coordinating with the County Procurement department to set participation goals for Veterans Small Business Enterprise (VSBE) and Veteran-Owned Business Enterprise (VOBE) awardees similar to existing MBE/WBE standards.
• Lead system modernization efforts so that property tax exemptions and refunds for disabled veterans and surviving spouses are processed in days or weeks instead of months. We will also extend the retroactive refund period from three years to five, so veterans receive the full benefits they have earned.
• Partner with VFWs, American Legions and veterans’ organizations to ensure these groups have knowledge of and access to county and state resources, engaging them in identifying service gaps and building solutions together.

Care When It Counts

Like many areas of the country, we must make concerted efforts to address homelessness and mental health crises for the Veteran community. Nick has a bold plan for creating affordable housing, so no one is left out in the cold. (Read more here) But a solution to these issues only starts with housing. To make real progress, we will:

• Stand up a veteran advocacy team in the County Health Department who can help veterans navigate pension, compensation and health benefit questions with the state and federal agencies so that every veteran has a lifeline in the county. 
• Fully fund a crisis hotlines and crisis management facilities to give Veterans in distress or considering suicide with help when and where they need it. See what else Nick plans to do to address the Mental Health crisis in the County here.
• Prioritize ending veteran homelessness by implementing a crisis hotline for homelessness and ensuring veteran status is asked at intake for shelters so that we can connect these veterans to wraparound services tailored for them.
• Increase Support for the Baltimore County Veterans Treatment Court as it scales up, ensuring it has the resources to fully deliver on its mission of helping indicted veterans reintegrate with dignity and stability.
• Require the Baltimore County Police Department to participate in veterans-focused training on de-escalation, trauma awareness, PTSD recognition, reintegration challenges and veteran-sensitive communication.
• Establish Veterans Response Teams (VRTs)—peer-led units of law enforcement officers who are veterans—trained through the VA to use shared military experience to build trust, connect veterans to care instead of the criminal justice system and increase referrals to treatment programs.

A County that Shows Up

While we all take pride in the patriotic traditions and ceremonies that honor our active-duty service members and veterans—especially our veterans—there is so much more to it. Nick will ensure Baltimore County delivers real support so that every veteran who served this nation has a local government ready to serve them.

Nick will make sure Baltimore County lives up to its responsibility—serving every veteran who has served this nation.