Wichita Eagle
BY KELLY MEYERHOFER
July 3, 2015
“These men and women were coming back to nothing, no help whatsoever,” said Jennifer Garrison, Moellinger’s daughter and another founder of Passageways. “It really bothered us to the extent where we had to do something.”
Which is worse: nightmares or no place to sleep?
Army veteran Bobby Rico said he has experienced both.
After serving for four years in the military – including 18 months in Iraq, he said – Rico returned to the United States and worked in the oil fields of Oklahoma. The company for which he worked began to falter, he said, so his workweek was reduced to two hours.
He couldn’t pay his rent, and his landlord evicted him.
Enter Passageways, a faith-based nonprofit that provides homeless and near homeless veterans with a temporary safe haven – at no cost – in an effort to get them re-integrated into the community.
“There’s this misnomer that these guys come home and everything’s hunky-dory,” said Susan Moellinger, one of Passageways’ founders.
Many veterans, including Rico, live with the lingering effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. Some struggle with alcohol or substance abuse, which is exacerbated if the veteran has no family or social support system.
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