WORCESTER, Mass. — Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the Massachusetts delegation secured more than $2.5 million which will benefit Veteran's Inc.'s transitional housing facility. Warren celebrating the accomplishment with a tour of the nonprofit Thursday.

Their Grove Street facility was a long-abandoned building when they first got the keys back in 1991, and their leadership says upgrades are desperately needed.

"They're doing such incredible work," Warren said.

Warren said walking through the halls of Worcester's Veterans Inc. hit home for her, saying it's a reminder veterans have been there when we needed help, and now it's time to pay it back.

"Now to see the big living spaces, the dormitory spaces that are really in rough shape, they don't say to our veterans we honor your service," Warren said. "They're not the spaces that our veterans deserve. Our veterans deserve a lot better than that."

"It's a well-run, maintained organization that provides great services for our veterans here in the city of Worcester," Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty said. "And they've been expanding over the years."

The first phase of repairs will benefit the nonprofit's one-stop service and resource center. Phase two will improve the residential spaces, specifically helping veterans with behavioral health issues.

"We're really serving the whole veteran, providing supportive services, but also addressing their substance use and mental health disorders," Allison Alaimo of Veterans Inc. said.

Veterans Inc. says people using their residential services typically stay for a few months before moving to a more permanent housing situation, which is ultimately their main goal.

"We have a number of programs, employment training, supportive services where we can help pay for rent — first, last, security, help with utility payments. All of those wraparound support services which are so important to making sure when they're in the housing, they remain in the housing," Alaimo said.

"We're going to have air conditioning and heating, and going to make it more energy efficient," Warren said. "But most of all, it's a way to say through the space: our veterans matter to us."

There's no definitive timetable on when the improvements will take place, but Veterans Inc. expects to have the work completed in the next few years.