Homeless Veterans Find Refuge

By David Pittman
david.pittman@amarillo.com

On any given night, 200,000 veterans are homeless, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
Those who have worn a uniform in the armed forces account for nearly a quarter of the nation's homeless.

That problem doesn't escape Amarillo.

"The mentally challenged veterans, there really wasn't a place for them in Amarillo," said Sandy Fenberg, executive director for Another Chance House, the area's only homeless shelter solely for men.

Another Chance recently dedicated a 10-bed house for homeless veterans with mental illness. The housing program is paid for by a grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

VA psychologists are screening potential residents for housing, and a social worker will visit weekly to monitor the men.

"What they're doing now is screening," said Fenberg, who has headed Another Chance for 12 years.

Fenberg said money from the VA grant, what will be about $50,000 if Another Chance keeps its beds full, will benefit the organization's other services as a homeless shelter.

"We're broke," Fenberg said when asked of the shelter's financial health. "Last month I didn't know how we were going to make it."

The two-story house on South Van Buren Street is Another Chance's 12th - all of which are contained within two city blocks in the neighborhood.

When the veterans program begins accepting residents, Another Chance will serve 55 men.

"When I first got here, we housed 39 men," said Bobby Nixon, resident manager for Another Chance.

Nixon, who arrived in February 2007, is himself a success story.

He hopped on a Greyhound bus in Hereford with a one-way ticket to Amarillo. His wife had kicked him out of their house while he was fighting a losing battle with alcoholism. He's now been sober for 22 months.

The tough-love guidelines of Another Chance and its employment requirement, Christian love, and mandatory Alcoholics Anonymous meetings tend to push men away from substance abuse and homelessness to a fruitful life.

"We're kind of like the teeth on the back of a guy's butt getting them back on track," Nixon said.

Veterans face a higher risk of unemployment, substance abuse and other emotional and mental disorders, said John Driscoll, vice president of operation and programs for the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

Uniformed personnel separate from their families and support structures only to face years of intense training and battle that can lead to physiological damage.

"But they are usually on a different level from when they left home," Driscoll said.

For the 2 million who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 3,000 have sought homeless assistance, Driscoll said.

"It's really a very small percentage that have difficulties to the point where they go down that path," he said.

Every VA medical center now has a coordinator for homeless veteran services.

"Thirty years ago there was virtually no recognition of the needs of veterans returning from service," Driscoll said.