1st female-only veteran village

Habitat for Humanity building its 1st female-only veteran village

FOX 10 News
POSTED FEB 26 2019

The Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs reports that there are about 144,229 female veterans in the state of Florida. The Sunshine State has the third largest veteran population, just behind Texas and California.

COCOA, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - Habitat for Humanity is giving women a place to call home by building the first female-only veteran village in Brevard County.

The organization broke ground Monday on the new community in Cocoa.

According to Habitat for Humanity's Facebook page, there are six, single-family homes under construction on Whaley Street "providing affordable housing in a typically underserved community."

The hope is that these houses will help reduce the homeless female veteran population.
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Marine is Semifinalist in Ms Veteran America

Woman Beyond the Uniform: DeLand nurse competes for Ms. Veteran America title
Daytona Beach News Journal
By Linda Weaver / Correspondent
May 9, 2017

“It’s about supporting our sisters in arms and the women in homeless situations. This competition hits close to home for me. It’s very important to me because of that.” Traci Walker

Traci Walker, 29, is a registered nurse at Florida Hospital DeLand. On her off hours she does her part to help homeless women veterans and their children.

Walker, who is a U.S. Marine veteran, is a semifinalist in the Ms. Veteran America 2017. The competition showcases “The Woman Beyond the Uniform” and highlights the strength, courage and sacrifice of the military women, while focusing on the fact that the women are also mothers, daughters, sisters and wives.

Proceeds from the event will be used to provide housing for homeless women veterans and their children through Final Salute, Inc.

Walker served for four years as a field radio operator in Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina, including one year in Iraq.

She felt the frustration and challenge of returning home after spending time in the military.
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Shelter for Homeless Female Veterans Under New Management

New management seeks clean slate at troubled Fayetteville home for female vets
WRAL News
December 7, 2015

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The woman who founded a Fayetteville nonprofit that houses homeless female veterans has been removed from management of the operation after several years of questions by state regulators over how money is raised and spent.

Jubilee House was built on Langdon Street in 2011 for the ABC reality show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Cumberland County deputies escorted Barbara Sumney Marshall off the property last week after the nonprofit's board voted to keep her away.

Marshall, who resigned from the nonprofit after the vote, initially agreed to discuss the situation Monday but then backed out of an interview.

The North Carolina Attorney General's Office and the Secretary of State's Office last summer accused Marshall of soliciting charitable contributions without a license and other violations of state law.
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After 10 Years of Service, Veteran with 3 Children Homeless

COURAGE: Army vet, 3 children join ranks of hotel homeless in Brockton 
Cynthia Cast knows this Thanksgiving will be different for the family because of the difficult situation, but she is thankful and grateful for the help she has received.
Enterprise News
By Marc Larocque Enterprise Staff Writer
Posted Nov. 26, 2015

Before that, Cast served in the Army for 10 years. She enlisted as a senior at Brockton High School, following in the footsteps of her father, who was a veteran. She was the first woman in her family who joined the military, she said.

BROCKTON – In the Holiday Inn Express overlooking Westgate Mall in Brockton, an Army veteran has been living with three young children. Cynthia Cast found herself without a home in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.

Her apartment lease ended and she was financially unable to secure a new one. Cast joined the ranks of roughly 50,000 homeless veterans around the country. “It’s been very discouraging,” said Cast, 42, who is trying to use a veterans rental assistance program to find a new apartment. “And it’s definitely stressful. You don’t want to be in a hotel. You want your kids to live a normal life.”
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Once homeless, female veteran builds homes for others

Once homeless, veteran builds homes for others
WTOP News
By Thomas Warren
June 3, 2013

WASHINGTON - It's just before noon on an overcast and humid Sunday on the National Mall. Regina Best is down on her right knee, a screwdriver firm in her right hand, the nose held steady by her left. As she's done countless times in the past couple of hours, she gives a strong squeeze of the trigger to drill another screw into the frame of what soon will become a home for a family without one.

But, for Best, it's really how she's spent many a Sunday the past two years: building homes so others have a roof over their heads. Up until a month ago, she did so while not having a home for herself.

Life for Best, 40, started to unravel in 2011. By November, she lost her job as an assistant caterer.

"And then I was just in a really horrible relationship, and I ended up homeless," Best says.

Best was born in 1973 on March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County in Southern California, although it was known as March Air Force Base when she came into the world.

She is a former staff sergeant in the Air Force, working as a chef during four years of active duty and serving three years as a reservist. She left the military in 2003.
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Army veteran can't run for office in Alaska

Army vet disqualified from running as election candidate... because she was HOMELESS
By CHRISTINE SHOW
PUBLISHED:13 July 2012
Daily Mail UK

A U.S. Army veteran was disqualified from running for a seat as a state representative because she was homeless.

Barbara Bachmeier, a Republican from Anchorage, Alaska, was told she was ineligible to run for a seat in the state's District 13 because she didn't meet residency requirements.

The woman had lived in her truck for a time while she struggled to find a permanent home.
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Transitional Home For Female War Veterans Facing Closure

Transitional Home For Female War Veterans Facing Closure
Lack Of Funding, Donations Mean The Great Spirit Lodge Will Close Permanently

Christine Dinh - 23ABC East Bakersfield Reporter
April 12, 2012

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Many female war veterans are coming back from combat zones only to end up on the streets.

"They do have a place to come, to run to. They don't need to be out there. We give them all love and support," said Great Spirit Lodge volunteer Nancy Grijalva.

Grijalva is talking about the Great Spirit Lodge -- a six-bed, transitional home for Native Americans and female veterans in central Bakersfield.

"They're coming back with PTSD and sexual trauma. Some have Purple Hearts so they served and they deserve," said the Great Spirit Lodge CEO James Leon.

Leon says the home offers services such as help with job searches, resume skills and veteran resources.

But this home, which has helped more than a dozen veterans since opening its doors two years ago, now needs your help.

"We're always at risk of closing our doors," said Leon.
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Ex-homeless Air Force mom backs Federal Way women's shelter

Ex-homeless Air Force mom backs Federal Way women's shelter
By ANDY HOBBS
Federal Way Mirror Editor
Oct 01 2011
A brain injury from a Mack Truck accident led to Sheila Sebron becoming a homeless single mother of two children.

Sebron had an eight-year career in the U.S. Air Force before her medical discharge. Long an advocate for the homeless, she suddenly saw things from the other side.

“I went from hospital bed to homeless,” said Sebron, a Seattle resident. “Even though I never slept on the street, I had no control of my housing.”

Homelessness affects women in a deeper way than it affects men, she said.
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Tampa Facility Ready To Help Homeless Women Veterans

Tampa Facility Ready To Help Homeless Women Veterans
By SHERRI ACKERMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2008

TAMPA - Tampa Crossroads celebrated its new transitional housing program for homeless women veterans today with a tour of its 100-year-old boarding house facility and a ceremony honoring women who served their country.

The former Cueto-Sierra Boarding House at 1301 E. Columbus Ave. served as a temporary home for soldiers returning from war in the early 1900s and will soon house 16 female veterans.

The women, who are among an estimated 400 female homeless veterans in the Tampa Bay area, will receive treatment for substance abuse, mental illness, domestic violence, post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues.

They also will take part in job training and educational opportunities designed to help them back on their feet, said Sara Romeo, executive director of Tampa Crossroads, a social service agency that made a name for itself locally by working with ex-offenders.
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