Major U.S. City To Eliminate Homelessness Among Veterans In the Next 3 Weeks
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/12/12/3602148/nola-homeless-vets/
While serving with the Army in Afghanistan, Donald C. recalls, he narrowly missed the explosion of a suicide bomb because his unit was running behind schedule. If he had been on time, the 28-year-old veteran said, he would have died. Instead, he and his unit helped to put Afghan nationals who were killed into body bags.
The experience compounded the post-traumatic stress disorder he was already suffering during his two deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2011, he made the difficult decision to leave the military and return to New Orleans, a city less than 25 miles from his hometown of Destrehan, Louisiana....
But this week, Donald may be able to store some of those possessions in a safe, dry space. He is slated to move into a new apartment development when it opens this Saturday. The building, a former Catholic school on Canal Street which has been shuttered since Hurricane Katrina, is a project of UNITY of Greater New Orleans, a coalition of 63 organizations which provide housing and services to the homeless.
Although there are still approximately 2,000 homeless men and women in New Orleans, Donald was prioritized for a one-bedroom unit in the new building because of the citys push to house all of its homeless veterans by the end of 2014, a year before the goal established by Michelle Obama in her Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness announced in the spring.
Who dat say dey gonna house dem vets? Who dat?