It’s virtually unanimous: Most of us believe that all veterans who have served this country deserve to have roofs over their heads. As a result, cities across the country are working toward the goal of housing all the homeless vets in their communities. (Special props to Phoenix for already accomplishing this.) And now, the mayor of the city with the biggest veteran homelessness problem has pledged to join this quest.
In total, Los Angeles County has 6,300 homeless veterans — more than any other county in the United States. So on July 16, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti pledged to end veteran homelessness, at least for the 2,600 living within city limits by 2015.
Garcetti made this vow during the Unite for Veterans Summit, which included First Lady Michelle Obama. “The image of even one of these heroes sleeping out in the cold, huddled up next to an overpass—that should horrify all of us,” Obama said, according to Gale Holland of the Los Angeles Times. “Because that’s not who we are. And the truth is, we know that there are simple steps that we can take — whether that’s in business or government or in our communities — to prevent and solve these kinds of problems,” she said.
Los Angeles has 17 months to fulfill its promise, and it’s already working towards achieving it. The pipe fitters, elevator construction, painters and sheet metal worker unions are lending a hand by giving veterans first priority in their apprenticeship programs. And, earlier this year, construction began on renovating a Los Angeles County VA building into housing and supportive services for homeless veterans.
According to the Los Angeles Times, mayors from 40 states have already committed to the Obama administration’s challenge to end veteran homelessness. So hopefully the country is well on its way to meeting that goal.
MORE: Phoenix Just Became the First City to End Chronic Veteran Homelessness. Here’s How.
Tag: Homelessness
When Student Loans Didn’t Pan Out, This Teen Turned to Crowdfunding
With skyrocketing tuition costs making it so hard for many families to afford college, dreams of higher education can, at times, feel a little out of reach. Which is why some students have to get more creative and resourceful.
That’s exactly what James Ward realized when he left for college last year. Instead of borrowing money or having a typical work-study job, Ward chose a rather unconventional method — which is perhaps quite fitting for his unusual life. In order for this homeless student to achieve his dreams of higher education, he turned to the internet and more specifically, crowdfunding.
How did he come up with this unique funding option?
A few weeks before he was to head to Washington D.C. to attend Howard University in July 2013, Ward’s Parents Plus loans were rejected, leaving him with no money for school. Thankfully, though, his mentor, Jessica Sutherland – another former homeless child and college graduate — had the idea to turn to crowdsourcing.
Within eight hours after Homeless to Howard was launched, it had already raised $8,000. Ultimately, the campaign raised enough money to send Ward to college, paying for both his tuition and expenses.
Now, Ward has successfully completed his freshman year majoring in physics, making him the first member of his family to go to college.
As Ward told Here and Now’s Jeremy Hobson in an interview, “You have to stay strong and ambitious and determined because there are a thousand reasons why you shouldn’t succeed in life, but all you need is one to get you to where you need to be.”
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Meet the Woman Who Does a Lot of Good During Her Lunch Hour
Now this is how you make the most of a lunch break.
While many of us use this time to scarf down a sandwich, run to the post office, or pick up a birthday card, Chicago’s Kasonja Holley uses her precious hour to give back to her community.
Every Thursday for the last two years, Holley takes about $120 of own money to buy and deliver 20 boxed lunches to Chicago’s homeless. And as WGN reports, she doesn’t just give out food — she also hands out household necessities like face towels, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, and other toiletries.
It’s all part of her “Love in Motion” project to help feed the hungry and inspire others in the process.
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Why would she do such a thing? As Holley told WGN, “It’s really not for me….I don’t look for any reward. I just do it because it’s a good thing to do.”
The Huffington Post reports that besides having a full-time office job, Holley is also a part-time suite attendant at the United Center to help cover costs for Love in Motion. She also has a GoFundMe page to keep her project funded.
Incredibly, after news got out about her work, her fundraising site received a flood of donations, collecting over $4,800 in just three days.
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She wrote on her GoFundMe page that “EVERY PENNY of this money will go toward helping the less fortunate,” adding, that she’s raised enough money to purchase lunches for an entire year.
While some of Chicago’s homeless won’t go hungry on Thursdays because of people like Kasonja Holley, there are way too many Americans who do not have money for food or a home. According to a report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there are more than 610,000 people who currently do not have a roof over their heads.
However, it’s big hearts like Holley’s that demonstrate we don’t have to do a lot to make a big difference. And perhaps it can start by simply stepping away from that desk during lunch.
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Meet the Teen Who Spent a Year Sleeping Outdoors So Others Don’t Have To
For many Americans, this never-ending cold (and it’s extreme cold) was particularly difficult. But there’s one group that undoubtedly felt it the most: The homeless.
But as one compassionate teen says, “We all live on this planet together.”
These wise words are from Minnesota high schooler Rudy Hummel, who recently completed his mission of sleeping outside for a whole year, raising $6,000 for Western Lake Superior Habitat for Humanity and the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in the process.
The 17-year-old Boy Scout started his mission on June 7, 2013, steadfastly sleeping outside in 30 different places, including a tree platform, an ice hut, a hotel deck and tents, according to Inforum.
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In his hometown of Hermantown, temperatures dropped to 27 degrees below zero this year, making it the second-coldest and the third-snowiest winter on record. Rudy braved 76 nights of this bone-chilling weather.
Not that he was completely alone in his time outdoors. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, on a single night in January 2013, 610,042 Americans were experiencing homelessness.
“I thought about what’s important to me, like the outdoors. I also thought about how many people have to sleep outside all the time, without sleeping bags or warm clothing,” he wrote on his website Snore Outdoors. “Caring for people is important, and so is caring for the environment that sustains us.”
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Rudy’s commitment certainly inspired others. “It helped to energize us in our work,” Daryl Yankee, the executive director of Western Lake Superior Habitat for Humanity, told the Duluth News Tribune.
Yankee added, “It didn’t take him long to start thinking about his experience as it relates to other people and how they don’t always have a choice.”
Now that his year-long mission is complete, Rudy is now sleeping in his warm bed at home, but he’s still raising funds for his charities here, here and here.
And despite this year’s polar vortex, the young man remains dedicated and is up for another challenge.
“What a unique and incredible journey,” he wrote on his final blog post. “I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.”
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The Effort to End Veteran Homelessness Gets the First Lady Boost
“When a veteran comes home kissing the ground, it is unacceptable that he has to sleep on it.”
That was the emotional decree from First Lady Michelle Obama at a White House ceremony Wednesday as she ramps up efforts to eliminate veteran homelessness by the end of 2015 — a deadline that was set by President Barack Obama’s administration four years ago, NBC News reports.
The Mayors’ Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness already has gained commitment from 77 mayors, four governors, and four county officials. Obama, who partnered with Dr. Jill Biden for the initiative, is hoping to use a little friendly competition to urge officials to get more involved in finding homes for their local vets.
“I want to know if more mayors can challenge each other on this issue,” Obama added. “Can you challenge a neighboring mayor or governor to see who can get all their vets into housing first?”
“These leaders are best equipped to tackle this challenge because they know their communities inside and out. They are in touch with service providers who know these veterans by name,” the First Lady said. “They aren’t just going to address veteran homelessness in their cities and states, they are going to end it.”
Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan were also in attendance during the announcement of the new initiative.
Though veteran homelessness has dropped annually since 2010, the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that since 2013, there are almost 58,000 vets without a roof over their heads on any given night. That is still too high of a number to welcome home the men and women who fight for us, Obama notes, calling it a “moral outrage.”
“Tens of thousands of veterans who risked their lives for our country are sleeping in their cars, or in a shelter, or next to a subway vent.” Obama continued. “We should be horrified because that is not who we are as Americans.”
For veterans like Chris Fuentes, the extra attention on transition programs will give veterans one less thing to worry about upon returning home. Fuentes, who introduced the First Lady, had to send her daughter to live with her mother after coming home from service in Iraq, CNN reports. The soldier had lost her job and was living in a car before a fellow veteran informed her of VA services that assisted her in finding a new house to bring home her daughter.
With the help of state and local leaders, the First Lady is hoping all vets can return to a home of their own, too.
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This Formerly Homeless Man Shows What It Truly Means to Pay It Forward
Magic of Rahat has struck again!
It’s the third chapter of the YouTube star’s video series featuring a homeless man named Eric. And now, this incredible story has come full circle.
Back in March, Rahat orchestrated a “prank” on Eric that set him up to be a lottery winner. After scoring $1,000 in cash, Eric immediately wanted to share his prize. His heartwarming gesture touched so many viewers that they opened up their wallets and donated so much money ($44,000!) that Eric now has a furnished home that is completely paid for for the next year.
Now that he has a job and is no longer living on the streets, Eric is helping others in need — and his amazing act of kindness is captured in the video below.
With $1,000 of his own money, Eric approaches a homeless busker on a sweltering day and offers to pay for a hotel room. The man is suspicious at first, but ultimately takes up Eric on his kind offer.
At the hotel lobby, the two learn that the $1,000 will pay for a whole month at the hotel. When they get to the room (complete with air conditioning, a fridge, and a stove), the man is so overwhelmed that he breaks down in tears.
“I wanted to help,” Eric tells his new friend after a warm embrace. “And this is not the last time you’re going to see me.”
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According to a recent report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there are more than 610,000 people who do not have a roof over their heads. We need to do so much more to get our homeless Americans off the street. While it sounds like a daunting task, it can be done.
As you can see from Eric’s story, a little compassion can go a very long way.
Minnesota Looks to a Historic Structure to Help End Veteran Homelessness
First, the building served as a fort. Its second life? A Civil War induction station. Next, it was the Military Intelligence Service Language School during World War II, where soldiers learned Japanese. For its fourth incarnation, the fort was decommissioned and turned over to the Minnesota Historical Society and became a military museum. Now, the historic structure is being called to service once again — this time as housing for homeless veterans.
Fort Snelling, which sits at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, was built in the 1820s. To ready the structure for its new purpose, construction workers broke ground on May 29 to begin converting five of its historic buildings into 58 affordable housing units for homeless military veterans and their families — the CommonBond Veteran’s Housing.
Studios and one-, two-, and three-bedroom units are available. The complex will include medical and psychological health offices, job training services, and academic support. Residents will work with counselors to help get their lives back on track.
Collaboration between public and private groups, including United Health Group, the Home Depot Foundation, Neighborhood Works America, and many others raised the $17.2 million required for the project, which should be completed by spring 2015.
“I’m very proud of the progress that we have made. After years of hard work, Minnesota now has the lowest homeless rate for veterans in the country,” Senator Al Franken told Reg Chapman of CBS Minnesota. Minnesota has 320 homeless veterans, and state leaders have set a goal to end homelessness among veterans in the state by 2015.
Formerly homeless Marine Corps Vietnam veteran Jerry Readmond, who now serves as an advocate for homeless veterans, told Chapman, “We’re all trained in the military how to survive but when we come home we have to start surviving all over again.”
This new use of the old fort should make that quest for survival easier.
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The City of Miami Steps Up For Its Homeless Service Members
Over Memorial Day weekend, the city of Miami put the phrase “thank you for your service” into action.
The Southern Florida city gathered hundreds of volunteers together in an effort to offer homeless service members a wealth of services during Operation Stand Down. The three-day event, which had 100 organizations participating (such as the City of Miami Veterans Services Department and the Florida Veterans Foundation), helped more than 200 veterans.
In a tent city on the property of an American Legion post, volunteers distributed clothing and performed medical and dental exams. Miami-Dade Judge Steve Leifman was on hand, running a court to resolve any outstanding minor infractions on the homeless vets’ records, such as petty theft or traffic violations. Showers, hot meals, and haircuts were also provided; homeless vets stayed on cots housed in the tends during the weekend.
Veteran Arthur Woods told Natalie Zea of CBS Miami, “It’s helping me out considerably as far as me getting my act together and a lot of things I don’t have due to the fact that I’m homeless…I need dental. I need some eyeglasses. I mostly need a place to stay and I need some income.”
The nonprofit Operation Sacred Trust even provided two of the homeless veterans with their own homes. Coast Guard veteran Gregory Lewis, one of the recipients, said he was “elated.”
“To open that door is gonna be great because it’s going to open other doors. I have two kids and four grandkids and they’ll be able to visit me. I’ll have a stable environment.”
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When This Vet’s House Started to Crumble, Home Depot Stepped in with a $20,000 Renovation
Many of us have heard of the pervasive problem of homeless veterans, which the National Coalition for the Homeless estimates number between 130,000 and 200,000 on any given night. But what about vets who own homes, but due to disability or financial troubles, can’t afford to maintain them? Staff at the City of Miami Services Office became concerned about this issue and partnered with Home Depot to provide grants to renovate vets’ homes that badly need it.
The first to benefit from this program is Army veteran George Carswell. Disabled due to his service in Vietnam, Carswell lived with his mother Minnie Lee Spann in the home she purchased in 1964. Since her death, Carswell hasn’t had the funds to keep up with the maintenance, completing no significant repairs since 1978; the home was in danger of collapsing.
That’s when Home Depot stepped up and donated $20,000 to make the necessary improvements. Local Home Depot store manager Alberto Contreras even came out to work and personally oversee the renovation. “The house was in deplorable conditions and not livable,” Contreras told Carma Henry of the Westside Gazette. “If the house wasn’t repaired it would’ve been demolished.”
Not only did the volunteer workers stabilize the home, they beautified it, with new paint, windows, doors, sod, and a rose garden planted in the memory of Carswell’s mother.
The partnership between Miami’s Veterans Services Office and the Home Depot aims to help four more veterans with similar repairs this year. Miami mayor Thomas Regalado said, “My goal is to ensure that our Veterans are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve. We are trying to get them the services they need.”
One way to reduce the number of homeless veterans is to prevent vets from becoming homeless in the first place, and the generous people behind this home repair effort in Miami are doing their best to achieve that.
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Veterans Receive Donations From an Unlikely Source: A 12-Year-Old Girl
Whereas most teenagers want clothing or a new smartphone for their birthday, Katy Sell wanted something, well, let’s say, quite different, for her 12th birthday. She wanted to help U.S. veterans.
After Katy’s mother challenged her to do something kind for others on her birthday, Katy, who lives in Deubrook, South Dakota, came up with a bigger idea than her mom ever imagined: She decided to donate all of her presents to the California-based Big Paws Canine Academy and Foundation, a nonprofit that trains service animals for veterans and has a Midwest branch in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
According to the Big Paws website, Katy and her mother Julie Sell, a Navy veteran, were homeless seven years ago. It was that tough experience that gave them extra motivation to help others.
When people heard about Katy’s generosity, her school friends and many others chipped in additional donations to help the nonprofit. At Katy’s birthday party, several veterans brought their service animals to meet the generous teen and her friends. Ricky Crudden told Denise DePaolo of KSFY, “I lost the use of my legs due to a stroke because of COPD.” Big Paws matched him with his service dog Tracer. Crudden said, “He saved my life. He woke me up in the middle of the night.”
During the party, one veteran received the dog he’d been waiting for — giving Katy the experience of seeing the first moments of a new relationship. “It gives me a good, tingly feeling inside because I know I’m helping a lot of people,” Sell told DePaolo.
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