Homeless veterans get place to call home and help

New transitional apartments for veterans opens in Clearwater
Tampa Bay Times
By Keyonna Summers
Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, October 21, 2012

CLEARWATER — Bruce Fyfe flits about the Homeless Emergency Project's newest apartment complex, chattering excitedly about this week's grand opening.

The apartment building's white and red facade with brown trim was finished ahead of schedule. The pungent smell of paint clings to the air as a contractor applies a fresh white coat to a stairwell while another worker tends a plush lawn.

Fyfe, the chairman of HEP's board, runs a hand across one of the new couches that await their first owners along with beds, kitchen appliances and other furniture lining the neutral-colored walls.

But Fyfe isn't focused on the material things inside HEP West — a new $3 million transitional apartment complex aimed at rehabilitating Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Rather, Fyfe is speaking excitedly about the onsite case managers and communal atmosphere that will steer life for these young men and women who are either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
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