Disabled Veteran and Family Face Homelessness

Veterans receive needed help during stand down event
Herald Review.com
Theresa Churchill
November 15, 2014

DECATUR – Confusion about how Jay Carlson was wounded in Iraq and whether as a National Guardsman he qualified for veterans benefits precipitated a downward spiral.

Now, he and his wife and her daughter face eviction from their two-bedroom house over what they describe as a dispute with their landlord over a broken water heater.

But dark clouds began to lift Friday as the Decatur couple found help they needed at the Salvation Army during an annual Veterans' Stand Down, co-sponsored by the Decatur Coalition for Veterans' Concerns and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Carlsons began the process of obtaining emergency housing until they can move into a handicapped-accessible apartment at North Street Commons for homeless military veterans.

“Thankfully, we got connected through our mental health counselor,” Ginger Carlson said. “With his (post-traumatic stress disorder), my husband definitely gets a little overwhelmed trying to sort through everything.”

Jay Carlson has been unable to walk since suffering a MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) infection after a bullet grazed his left leg.

Carlson, 43, was one of about 90 veterans who stopped by Friday's stand down, an event begun in 2009 in a church parking lot in conjunction with the community's Box City observance of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.
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