Forgotten, left to wander the streets that become their home, this sadly is the fate of thousands of U.S. veterans after they return home from Afghanistan or Iraq. But real estate developer Matt Heslin and his partner are doing something about it.
Their Seal Beach, CA non-profit firm has purchased and renovated three apartment buildings in the Los Angeles area and is continuing to expand its operation. With an estimated 7,400 homeless vets in Los Angeles County alone, it may seem like a drop in the bucket, but not to those who have been rescued.
"It's all mine," said a proud and thankful Thomas Simmons, a 35 year old veteran who had wandered the streets from Georgia to California, a journey of over 2,000 miles since returning from Afghanistan in 2003, his life shattered. Most recently,he had been living in his car, his clothes stuffed in the trunk. Now he has a home and from a part-time job, he has furniture in that home and he has high hopes for a better future.
Other units are occupied by an Iraq veteran who is a mother with two children who had been sleeping with her family in a shelter and a man in his 20's who returned from Iraq and was soon lost in a world of drugs. There is even a 60 year man, a veteran who has been periodically homeless since the Vietnam War.
To learn more about this valient effort being made on behalf of these troubled veterans, which also includes counseling and job assistance, please see from the Los Angeles Times http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/10/local/la-me-0310-homeless-veteran-20120310
Dick
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