For many returning women vets, fight not yet over

For many returning women vets, fight not yet over
By HOWARD ALTMAN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 29, 2011
Last month, Josefina Reyes went to work for Tampa Bay Crossroads, a rehabilitation and counseling center that came into being in 1977, the year she was born.
DAVE KRAUT/STAFF

Josefina Reyes was a homeless veteran until she found help and a new career with Tampa Bay Crossroads. Now she counsels women with more stress than she had.

Reyes serves as an intake counselor for women veterans, most of them homeless or headed that way, and helps assess their problems and begin to find solutions.

For Reyes, who served three years with the Army, leaving as a corporal in 1999, this is familiar territory.

Until recently, she, too, was homeless, unable to translate her military experience as a truck driver and vehicle fueler into the civilian world.

Now, instead of being on the receiving end of counseling, Reyes helps guide women out of the downward spiral.

There's no shortage of need.

There are about 300 homeless women veterans in Hillsborough County, according to Sara Romeo, chief executive officer of Tampa Bay Crossroads.
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