Homeless and unemployed veterans stop attacker

Rescuers: Helping robbery victim 'a reward in itself'
Two jobless veterans jumped in to stop attack, chased after suspect
Jan 2, 2013
Written by
Jennifer Edwards Baker

DOWNTOWN — David Hale was walking to the main branch of the public library downtown about noon Monday when he saw a man approach Gary Wagner at an ATM at the corner of Central Parkway and Vine Street.

“He put his arm around his neck and took him to the ground,” Hale said. “He started punching him. That’s when I ran over and got in between them, trying to separate them.”

Chad McClain heard Wagner scream for help and joined Hale’s efforts.

Together, the two men – one homeless and one who was recently homeless, and both military veterans who didn’t know each other before the incident – wrestled Wagner free. Hale stayed with Wagner while McClain, 38, ran after the suspect and stood in front of his car to keep him from leaving.

“I told him, ‘You’re not going to get away with this,’” McClain said. “The police were there within seconds.”
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linked from Army Times

Chicken soup for a complex problem, homelessness

Maybe you're like I was at a time in my life when I thought the homeless people received enough help so they didn't need me. I was actually afraid of them when I was walking around. My excuse, well I was just a teenager at the time. When I grew up, my attitude did too.

I started to see them as people that once had families and friends, jobs, places to live and bank accounts. After all, my father did. He was a Korean War veteran and 100% disabled. He was also an alcoholic. My father never ended up homeless but spent about a year in a project living in a tiny apartment. Because of him, I understood how families could turn their backs on one of their own. Having a parent come home drunk with half the neighborhood talking about him was not something to be proud of. There were constant fist fights and shouting matches. He stopped drinking when I was 13 and joined AA. My parents separation ended and he moved back home.

His alcoholism and recovery changed my mind about homeless people. I understood that my father could have been one of them. Then as I grew older, they captured my heart.

It was not until my husband's PTSD got so bad that I was considering sending him to the homeless shelter in Boston that my eyes were fully opened. Homeless veterans also walk the streets with all the others. Imagine being willing to lay down your life for the sake of the other people in the country only to be left abandoned by them, homeless and walking the streets for the rest of you life. Fighting for a bed to sleep in or someplace out of the snow, rain and freezing temperatures. Wondering when you'll eat next or when you have taken your last chance. While all homeless people mattered to me, the veterans being homeless broke my heart. Considering I almost had two of them in my own life, it isn't hard to understand why that is.

Some use drugs and alcohol to the point where their lives fall apart but others see hard times come into their lives and they cannot cope with them. There are as many reasons for homeless people as there are homeless people. Some never had a close family to take care of them. Some have mental illness and there are no jobs for them even if they could work.

What really go to me is that there is the most famous homeless person in the history of mankind. His name is Jesus. Remember He didn't really have a home to go to at the end of working a long day spreading the word of God. He didn't have a stock of food to eat whenever He wanted to or clothes in suitcases. He had to rely on the kindness of strangers to take care of His needs. His Disciples gave up their homes, families and livelihoods to follow Him. They were taken care of by the people in the towns they traveled to. No one asked them why they didn't have a place to live. No one asked them why they couldn't find real jobs to take care of their own needs. No one judged them. They just took care of them.

Think about it the next time you find nothing wrong with homeless people walking our streets with not enough people to take care of them, feed them, shelter them and clothe them.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
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"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Chicken soup for a complex problem

By Cristina Silva and Austin Bogues, Times Staff Writers
In print: Sunday, November 30, 2008

Laura Lanciotti was hooked on cocaine and liquor, unemployed and living under a highway overpass in downtown St. Petersburg when advocates for the homeless told her about Pinellas Hope.

She moved into the outdoor tent shelter in unincorporated Pinellas County in October, quit the booze and drugs and got a job as a security guard at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Pinellas Hope "helped me put my life back together," said Lanciotti, 55.

Once regarded as an experimental, quick fix to the area's growing homeless problem, Pinellas Hope has quickly become Pinellas County's leading social service provider since the shelter opened 12 months ago.
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Another way troops end up homeless

If you cannot understand why there are so many more veterans ending up homeless, here is another reason, aside from wounds, aside from PTSD. This is just one more reason. National Guardsmen being taken away from their jobs and businesses over and over again. Who is paying their bills? Look at the difference in the income this National Guardsman has to deal with in order to serve this nation.

Beard recounted several nightmares: a veteran whose mortgages on three properties have doubled to $8,800 a month; a National Guardsman and father of three facing foreclosure on his home after his $60,000 income dropped to $20,000 while he deployed for a third tour; a military wife who hadn’t yet broken the news to her husband in Iraq that their $1,200 monthly mortgage just doubled to $2,500.

Mortgage crisis hits home for troops, vets

By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 29, 2007 20:12:40 EST

CHULA VISTA, Calif. — Air Force veteran Nellie Cooper thought she was following good advice when she refinanced her home’s mortgage with an adjustable-rate loan. For the self-employed real estate agent, it seemed smart.

But her mortgage payments ballooned while local property values dropped, sinking her prospects of refinancing into a more secure, fixed-rate loan. With lenders nationwide tightening eligibility rules, Cooper is finding few that are willing to refinance or rework the loan into something financially manageable for her.

“Nobody will finance 92 percent value of a house, and I am getting more in arrears,” Cooper, who is juggling three part-time jobs to keep her home, told a Nov. 27 public forum led by Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif. “I’m still … trying to see if I can do something with the lender.”

Cooper, who lives in Oceanside, Calif., found no help from the Department of Veterans Affairs: Except in very rare cases, VA does not refinance mortgages it didn’t sell. She didn’t buy the house through VA because she was told repeatedly she didn’t qualify and the paperwork was “too cumbersome.”

“I was dissuaded by many to take the conventional way” with bank-backed loans, she said.

Filner, who chairs the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, planned the field hearing on the sub-prime market and its effects on veterans.

“Home ownership is one of the great aims of the American dream,” Filner told a crowd of about 75 in Chula Vista, a suburb south of San Diego.

“We also know this dream can become a nightmare, especially for our veterans who are on deployments,” Filner added.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_subprime_071129w/

Overwhelming Response to Vets Helping Vets

Overwhelming Response to Vets Helping Vets
By: Steve Nicoles, Reporter
By Steve Nicoles
Story Created: Nov 26, 2007
Story Updated: Nov 26, 2007
IOWA CITY - Friday KCRG-TV 9 News reported on a group of veterans trying to raise money to help other veterans. The group hit a bit of a snag Monday. But the initial response has been overwhelming. The employees at Wells Fargo Bank say thy have received a lot of calls from people wanting to help. One man from Dubuque is even donating a three-bedroom apartment.Some people might think this group came together following the death of Sonny Iovino a couple of weeks ago. Iovino was a homeless veteran.

But the idea for “Vets Helping Vets” came weeks before Iovino's death under an Iowa City bridge. The group wants to be able to help veterans with their needs. They are asking for donations. They need money, coats, shoes, hats and blankets. “Vets Helping Vets” met with Wells Fargo Bank Monday to work on becoming a non-profit organization. But the members say they found a problem. They want to help now and the process can take a few weeks. Len McClellan said, “People have responded and we need to get our stuff in order so they can help. All we want to do is help our fellow vets." The group is trying to speed through the process. And anyone wanting to donate should contact the downtown Iowa City Wells Fargo. For more information call Michelle Reuss at (319) 887-7461.
Email Steve Nicoles at Steve.Nicoles@kcrg.com
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/11838971.html

Once-homeless veterans get medals at Mount Vernon ceremony

"Neither of these guys even knew that they were highly decorated soldiers," Dubose said.

Once-homeless veterans get medals at Mount Vernon ceremony

By AMAN ALI
THE JOURNAL NEWS


(Original publication: November 23, 2007)
MOUNT VERNON - The lupus that has eaten away at nerve endings in Larry Cammon's body caused him to quiver as he pointed to Vietnam War wounds on his arms and legs.


The veteran spent the past two years of his life homeless on the streets of Mount Vernon, trying to make ends meet with the $235 a month he receives for having served his country.


"I've been sick for a long time," Cammon, 61, said this week. "The (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) hasn't been giving me the best of care. It's hard, man. It's really, really hard."


Cammon and another formerly homeless Vietnam veteran, Teddy Sanders, 61, found themselves lifted up by their home city on Wednesday, however, when the men were honored by Mayor Ernest Davis at an awards ceremony, during which they were presented with the military medals they had earned for their service -including Cammon's Purple Heart.


The city first learned about Cammon and Sanders through its homeless outreach program. After learning last month that the men were veterans, caseworkers notified Will Dubose, director of the city's Veterans Service Agency.


Dubose looked into their service records and said he was "surprised" at what he found.

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I hope this answers some questions on the kind of veterans who end up walking our streets, sleeping wherever they can and eating when they can.