MANKATO — Mike Anderson, a formerly homeless Vietnam veteran, had a large and interesting group of visitors Wednesday morning to his home overlooking Lake Dorothy on Mankato’s northeast side.

Standing in his living room were a group of TV, radio and newspaper journalists; scattered about the townhouse were various government press aides; walking through the front door was Congressman Tim Walz. And the guest of honor was former Army general, former Army Chief of Staff, and current Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki.

Anderson admitted to being a bit nervous about the whole thing, but he agreed to it in return for being able to praise the Paul and Dorothy Radichel Veteran Town Homes and the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans that runs the 11-unit complex.

“Before this, I was really in bad shape,” Anderson told Shinseki and the other strangers packed into his one-bedroom home. “I didn’t have a place to live.”

His homelessness began almost immediately upon his return from Vietnam in 1974, he said in response to a question from Shinseki.

“It’s a beautiful place and I’m very thankful for what I have,” he said. “I wish more veterans could have it, because this is what they really need.”

Along with a roof over his head and gorgeous lake view off his back patio, the program provides support and assistance in obtaining other services needed for residents to stay healthy, sober and productive, according to Sue Sorenson, MAC-V’s regional director in Mankato.

The veterans in the facility, all of whom are formerly homeless, also have each others’ back, Sorenson said.

“They’ve become a family here,” she said. “... They look out for each other.”

The brief tour was the third event of the morning for Shinseki and Walz, a member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

There was a meeting with local veterans that Walz said allowed for frank discussion of how Shinseki’s agency was performing in providing services. There was also a stop at the Mankato Community-Based Outpatient Clinic on Madison Avenue.

The clinic, which opened in 2008, currently focuses on mental health care but is in the process of being expanded to provide primary health care services that would allow area vets to avoid many trips to the VA hospital in Minneapolis.

Veterans of World War II, Vietnam and the Iraq war were all on hand to talk about the importance of providing health care locally and the difficulty of making the trip to Minneapolis — both for aging veterans who increasingly find a drive to the Twin Cities daunting and for recent vets busy with young families and full college course loads.

“It would just be a huge benefit,” said Steve Robbins, an Iraq war vet.

Robbins and his wife, Donna (a Navy veteran), talked of the inefficiency of driving two hours for an blood-draw or other brief procedure that takes minutes to complete.

Vietnam veteran Tom McLaughlin said older veterans also have the quandary — when faced with a sudden health issue such as chest pain — of whether to go to the hospital in Mankato and pay for health care or try to get to Minneapolis where their care would be free.

Walz praised Shinseki’s efforts to improve access to care for veterans living outside large metropolitan areas. And he said Mankato offered Shinseki a case study in how to help homeless veterans.

Shinseki agreed, calling the Radichel Town Homes “a wonderful example of what can be done when we bring a community together to help veterans.”