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GIVING HOMELESS VETERANS HELP AND SHELTER --
New Wheaton, Illinois facility serves vets who
have fallen on hard times.
Story here...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/
news/local/west/chi-0701090220jan09,1,7416932
.story?coll=chi-newslocalwest-hed
Story below:
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Giving homeless vets help, shelter
New Wheaton facility serves ex-military men who
have fallen on hard times
By Russell Working
Tribune staff reporter
There are any number of ruts in the road when you are homeless and
addicted to cocaine. But if Robert Mills were to pick out one low point,
it would be the late November day he was released from Kendall County
Jail dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.
After a friend put him on a train to Chicago, he discovered his Chevy
pickup had been stolen. So, having been arrested in warmer weather, he
found himself wandering the downtown streets in the chilly fall dressed
for the beach. Lucky for him, a man in a passing vehicle stopped and
gave Mills his coat.
On Monday, Mills was the first resident to check into the Midwest
Shelter for Homeless Veterans' Nicholas Larson Home, a new five-bed
transitional facility for down-and-out vets. Mills was among three
residents to arrive at the comfortable four-bedroom in Wheaton. Two more
men are expected soon.
The home for men is among few community-based shelters exclusively for
veterans in the Midwest, according to a shelter official.
Mills, an Army veteran who served in Germany and the United States, said
he found himself going downhill a few years ago because of alcohol and
drug abuse. Eventually, he said, he was arrested on forgery and
drug-related charges. But he says he has been trying to turn his life
around, and the discovery of the shelter on North West Street was a
godsend.
"I turned down this road on accident and seen the sign out in front ...
and I said, `Why didn't anybody tell me about this place?'" said Mills,
45.
He learned that the shelter wasn't yet open and began asking about how
to enter.
With an operating budget of about $400,000 a year, the home runs with
the help of Veterans Affairs funds, a DuPage County grant and money from
charitable foundations and private individuals.
The organization formed in 2000 to offer outpatient therapy such as
post-traumatic stress counseling and group sessions for vets through its
office in Lombard. It began planning to buy a home for the shelter two
years ago and hopes to expand the facility. The shelter is working with
Hines VA Hospital, which will be referring men to the center, said
Executive Director Robert Frank.
The shelter draws from the experience of a staff that includes a number
of veterans, among them co-chairman Bob Adams, a Vietnam veteran. One
staff member returned from Iraq last year, and a board member who is in
the Navy Reserve was just called up to active duty, Frank said.
"We wanted to be very deliberate, start small and do very well," Frank
said. "My goal is to be the model community-based program for veterans
housing."
The shelter is named for a 19-year-old Marine lance corporal and Wheaton
resident who was killed in Iraq. Nick Larson's mother, Ann, said she and
her husband, Dave, were moved by the recognition.
"You don't want other people to forget your child," she said Monday.
"But it just naturally happens as time goes on--the memory fades. I
would say to his friends, `Don't forget him, don't forget him.' Now
there's a place in Wheaton that will always bear his name."
In the six counties that make up the Chicago area, there are 18,000
homeless veterans, Frank said.
He said Adams had long dreamed of providing services for homeless vets.
But it took several years to come up with the funding that allowed the
shelter last summer to buy a $600,000 house a block off Front Street,
with its restaurants, coffeehouses and shops. They also had to fund a
staff of eight, with people located in the house around-the-clock.
After buying the house, organizers reached out to neighbors, hoping to
allay any fears they might have about a shelter opening nearby, Frank
said.
"Last summer we did a coffee for our neighbors and businesses so they
have an understanding of what we're doing," he said. "And not only did
they support us, they volunteered to come and work with us. We thought
we'd meet some opposition, and we really haven't had that."
One board member, Kevin Murray, is a captain in the Merchant Marine who
was recently called up to active duty and is now stationed on a patrol
boat in the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. His wife,
Pat, who is serving on the board in his place, said he celebrated his
20th year in the Navy recently and had been expecting to retire.
Murray did a lot of repair work in the shelter before going abroad, and
he knows the issues returning vets go through. But his experience with
homeless veterans goes much deeper than that.
"Kevin had an uncle who was in a shelter, and Kevin was close to that
uncle and helped him out," Pat Murray said. He and his brothers used to
take Christmas dinner to the shelter, she said.
The residents will make their own meals and dine together. They can
participate in counseling services, substance-abuse assessments and job
training. The board and staff include social workers, psychologists and
attorneys.
rworking@tribune.com
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Larry Scott
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