In America, about 154,000 Veterans are homeless on a typical night.

Veterans are at a greater risk of becoming homeless due to a number of factors including having uniquely military skills not needed in the civilian sector, major stress, PTSD and other combat-related health issues, minimal income due to unemployment, and a shortage of safe, affordable housing.

This being our first attempt at running a transitional housing shelter, we learned much about helping at-risk veterans including the fact that we could not help every homeless, addicted or needy veteran that passed through our door. The good news is, "with a special thank you to a few of our local churches who are operating food pantries", we were able to help most of them... at least to some degee.

One marine Sergeant who was hit with an IED in Iraq and upon his release from military hospital, moved-in with us, and over a period of months while working with local state child support services, was able to gain full custody of his eight year old son from his estranged drug and alcohol addicted spouse. We were also able to accomodate his son.

Another marine Sergeant, who had also been hit by an IED and belly-shot with an AK47, came to us after his release from military hospital with severe pain and psych med problems. He appeared to us as making improvement, but unfortunately died from a unintentional self-inflicted drug overdose. We were very hurt by his death but did see to it that he received a proper burial with full USMC military services.

Two other veterans were referred to us by a local shelter who at the time were filled to capacity. It was January 2010, and these two veterans, one Army, one Navy, were living in a tent in the woods, in over a foot of snow with wet blankets.

Another, a 62 year old Vietnam veteran came to us on a Saturday immediately upon release from incarceration in need of showing his parole officer proof of permanent residency on Monday morning or face returning to lock-up. We took him in and made it all happen in one day.

There were others, who stayed temporarily and then moved on.

Another, a Vietnam era Air Force veteran, was chronically homeless, headstrong and too proud to accept help from his mother, his brother and wife. We had him for a few days here and a few days there when the snow was bad, we treated him to a fantastic Christmas dinner and other meals, a place to shower, some comradeship with other veterans and a nice pair of arctic boots and clean dry socks to replace his soaking tennis shoes.

Another, a USMC Vietnam vet, who after being unemployed for some time ended up being evicted from his apartment and finding himself homeless. He found a place with NROTC to hang his hat and continue to look for employment. After some time he did find an out-of-state job paying more than he had earned previously and moved on.

Another, a local homeless fellow known to us as a person who helps other people even though he is for the most part, unable to support himself, came to us with a medical emergency of sorts. He had just had a hernia operation. Upon his release from the hospital his doctor said to him, "You must have bed rest for seven days or else you could die". He had been sleeping in cars and on park benches. Although he was not a veteran, we had a bed available and took him in for 10 days.

Another homeless person we have sheltered on a longer term basis from time to time, is also not a veteran but lost his brother in Vietnam. Typically we demand a DD214, proof of military discharge, as part of intake, but we have made a few exceptions for those who were desperate, with no alternative except the streets or woods, and we could not turn away.

There have been others and it has been NROTC's honor and pleasure to help those who we could.

The main result of NROTC opening our shelter is that, four of our veterans have gained employment and are now LIVING INDEPENDENTLY!

Our former shelter, is now two separate apartments and our veterans are managing quite well splitting expenses and living on their own.

NROTC pulled-out leaving all the apartment furnishings we had provided to them when they were down and out. This was our goal at the beginning and we accomplished it!... A success story that we are very proud of!

We intend to open another shelter at another location, when winter weather comes upon us and in keeping with our plan of action, hope to hand-it-over, to any future veterans as they rehabilitate and get back on their feet again.

LEARN MORE ABOUT VETERAN HOMELESSNESS

Many individuals donate $10 - $15 - $25 - $50 and some for more... Every donation is still a million dollars to us!

We have also recently been active seeking funding in the form of Private, Governmental and Corporate Grants.

To any individual, business or organization who donates $100 or more, NROTC will be pleased to provide you with a page one link from our website to yours if you have one. (Scroll down on the left frame here on our website to see our list of donors) The more you contribute, the higher on our donor list you go. If you do not have a website, no problem, we will still list you as a treasured donor.

As a further show of our sincere appreciation for any kind donation over $100, NROTC will also be pleased to provide you with exposure in our new publication, REMEMBERING YOU, OUR AMERICAN MILITARY, based on the size of your donation, in our next issue, as another way of saying, "Thank You For Your Donation!"

We want you to know that, (and as a discloser/disclaimer of sorts), that we have been receiving donations of over $100.00 for nearly seven years now, from donors who have made their contribution with NO expectation of any advertising value at all. We just want to make it clear to every donor/advertiser that REMEMBERING YOU, other than our printable online EBook, because of book printing costs, is typically distributed in quantities of only about 2,500 printed copies per issue. REMEMBERING YOU donation dollars are also used to fund NROTC's Other Charitable Programs.