Nearly seven months into a targeted effort to house homeless veterans in Lee County, the initiative is making strides. The Lee County Homeless Coalition, Veterans Affairs, the American Red Cross and other agencies joined a nationwide effort back in April to find homes for 100,000 homeless vets around the country.
“Our first goal was to house 50 veterans by the end of June and we housed 52,” said Kim Hustad, Program Manager for Family Self-Sufficiency with the Lee County Department of Human Services. “So we set a new goal to house 100 veterans by the end of December and right now we’re at 75.”
One of the initial challenges is simply finding homeless veterans. “A lot of the veterans are in the woods because they want to be,” said Hustad.
“They don’t want to be found,” she said. “They want to be isolated and now they’re getting the point where they can’t be there anymore; especially the ones that are getting to a certain age. It hurts to sleep on the ground.”
The effort is funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program along with county and private dollars. Donations of gently used home furnishings can be donated to the American Legion post 38.
