Blog: Solutions

Eight communities gathered in Los Angeles this month to participate in the first Acceleration Boot Camp, a 3-day training event designed to reinvent the way local organizations move their homeless neighbors into permanent housing. The event builds on the success of previous Housing Placement Boot Camps, which targeted housing systems for homeless veterans.

Maybe it’s the woman on your block who sometimes asks you for spare change, or the homeless veteran you walk past every day on your way to work. Everyone has a story about a homeless neighbor, but too often we feel like there’s nothing we can do to help.

Ernie served in the Navy for seven years during Vietnam before returning to Arlington, VA. He worked for a defense contractor for many years, but was eventually laid off and forced to seek sporadic work as a day laborer. When he threw his back out, even these temporary jobs became impossible. Two years ago, with no income and limited ability to work, Ernie began sleeping under a wooded overpass in Arlington County.

Calvin, a 72-year-old homeless veteran, lived on the streets of Bethesda. MD for decades. Suffering from heart disease, liver disease and chronic frostbite, research shows that Calvin was unusually vulnerable to death, yet somehow, he continued to beat the odds.