A new $30M VA clinic in Rosenberg will double healthcare capacity for Fort Bend County veterans, bringing essential services closer to home.
The heavy rains in southeast Texas were nowhere in site during the warm and sunny May 28 groundbreaking ceremony that marked where a new 38,000-square-foot Veterans Affairs outpatient health clinic will be constructed in Fort Bend County.
Off the main U.S. Highway 59 in Rosenberg, located over 30 miles southwest of Houston, a large construction site was filled with mounds of wet soil. In the center was a tent with U.S. military flags next to a pile of shovels and yellow construction hats.
Health officials from Houston's Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, local veterans and representatives from the offices of U.S. Congressmen Ted Cruz and Troy Nehls were there to commemorate the groundbreaking. Amir Farooqi is the executive medical center director with the Houston VA who welcomed guests to the ceremony on Thursday.
He said there's a large need to serve Fort Bend County's growing veteran population.
The new Rosenberg clinic will offer Services including primary care, mental health, radiology, optometry, prosthetics and physical therapy. The expanded space is expected to improve appointment wait times, VA officials said.
"The new clinic in Rosenberg is going to have the capacity for up to 20,000 veterans," Farooqi said. "We are also, by the way, going to be hiring additional staff and so we're excited about that, but also it's going to provide more of our veterans some of those essential healthcare services really close to where they live."
Vietnam War Veteran Ken Dillon was at the ceremony and said the new clinic location will help patients in the region from having to travel further for services.
"Mental, physical, medications, you know, just so many different things that veterans need once they're transitioned out of military service to be able to provide care for everyone," Dillon said.
Since 2024, out of more than 6,000 veterans who needed services from the Houston VA’s referral center, nearly 1,000 veterans needed housing assistance or were at risk of becoming homeless.
"The Houston VA healthcare system in general is one of the fastest growing VA systems in the nation," Farooqi said. "We are enrolling approximately 1,000 veterans in VA healthcare just for the larger Houston area every single month. So this clinic is one of multiple expansions that we are looking at to expand."
Once complete, the outpatient clinic will replace an existing clinic located in the neighboring city of Richmond, which is "at capacity" according to Farooqi. Construction on the $30-million-dollar project is estimated to last until the end of 2027.
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A new $30 million VA clinic opening in 2027 will serve 20,000 veterans in southwest Houston and Fort Bend County, cutting travel times and wait periods for healthcare services like primary care, mental health, and physical therapy.
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