thedrifter
04-23-09, 06:52 AM
April 23, 2009
Mims man gives homeless vets a hand
BY R. NORMAN MOODY
FLORIDA TODAY
If it were left to George Taylor, homeless veterans living in wooded areas around Brevard County would be in one large "tent city," where they would tend vegetable crops until they could move into a home of their own.
It may sound like a daunting task, but Taylor is undeterred. His motivation to make this vision a reality is the growing number of homeless veterans.
According to county officials, there are an estimated 600 military veterans among the nearly 2,300 homeless people living in wooded areas behind shopping centers, off secondary roads and isolated lands in Brevard County. It is estimated that on any given night there are about 154,000 homeless veterans in the United States; 17,000 in Florida.
It's an issue Taylor hopes to address this week during Florida's 22nd annual Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion, which gets under way today in Melbourne. Opening ceremonies are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Wickham Park. The event, expected to draw as many as 100,000 veterans and visitors from around the country, ends Sunday. The reunion, which also includes display of the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, is the largest annual gathering of veterans in the nation.
Taylor, of Mims, said there is not enough help for the men and women who served. Others are homeless because they don't know how to access the benefits they've earned or they're unaware of assistance that's available to them.
"As long as there are conflicts people think that the veterans are being taken care of, but they're not," he said. "I believe that when a young man of woman goes out and fights for their country, there should be some resources to help them."
Since 1991, Taylor and his children have reached out to homeless veterans. Last year they formed the National Veterans Homeless Support, Inc., an advocacy group to help homeless veterans and assist them in accessing their benefits. Taylor's son, George Taylor Jr., is the organization's executive officer.
VA Health Care for Homeless Veterans has outreach social workers who try to find homeless veterans at soup kitchens, pantries and shelters to try to get them health care or into transitional housing.
Most of Taylor's work starts in the woods.
"He is one of our community partners," said Ernest Dunklee, a VA social worker. "He's been a good resource."
Dunklee said that lots of veterans have earned medical benefits but don't know that they are entitled to them. Many times they think the benefits are available only for veterans with war injuries, he said.
Seeking the needy
Earlier this week, the 58-year-old Taylor, dressed in western boots and shirt, jeans and hat, slipped behind a fast-food restaurant, ducked under bushes and followed a trail into thick woods. He called out, "Johnny, Tony," and the men and women sitting quietly around tents greeted him as a friend.
"By helping homeless people it's better for my heart," said Taylor, who after returning from the Vietnam War found himself homeless and living in the woods. "It continues to help my heart for the damage that was done in the war."
Growing up in West Virginia in a family that had served in the military and in a community with veterans, Taylor, then 19, didn't hesitate to join the Army.
"It was part of the culture," he said.
He soon saw the horrors of war while serving as a paratrooper in Vietnam with the Army's173rd Airborne Brigade and came home suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Heavy drinking led to Friday night fights and other troubles.
"When I came home my family didn't know me," he said. "It got to the point where I couldn't deal with people. I went in the woods."
After six months living in the woods and about 15 years wandering from place to place, with help from his brother Taylor sought treatment for PTSD at a VA center in Miami.
For more than 15 years, he has turned his attention to helping homeless veterans he knows are facing the same struggles he once faced.
He takes them packages of food and personal hygiene products. If they need it, he'll find them a backpack, a sleeping bag, a tent or a bicycle they can use for transportation.
For many of the homeless veterans, the assistance he gives them is to help them while they try to claim their veterans' benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He counsels them, he wants to help them overcome substance abuse, find jobs and rebuild their self-esteem.
"They want to be talked to," Taylor said. "They don't want to be looked down on."
Lost in the woods
Waylon Crooms said he's been trying to claim his benefits after returning from Afghanistan in 2005. The 28-year-old who served in the Marines, lives in a tent in the woods near Titusville and walks with a cane. He said an explosion left him with shrapnel in his right leg. Marital problems after returning home to Plant City left him on the streets. He later came to Brevard County.
"I just gave her everything and left," he said.
When Crooms became emotional while telling his story, Taylor stepped in.
"I know where you've been without your telling me," he said to Crooms.
Taylor also knows that despite being hidden in the woods, the homeless are often kicked off properties where they camp. Almost weekly he hears from homeless veterans who tell him that police have given them hours or a day to vacate their camps.
Disobeying orders
Some veterans, like Elizabeth Todd, go far into the woods and try to keep a low profile. She was arrested for not moving out quickly enough.
"They called it disobeying a direct order," she said. "I'm not in the military any more. I'm a homeless vet. I was a refugee from Katrina."
Todd, 48, who served in the Navy, was in Biloxi, Miss., in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit. She headed to Florida in what was to be a temporary stay, but ended up camping at different location in the woods. Two dogs, Goose, a Jack Russell mix, and Pirate, a shepherd mix, are her guards.
Because she does not want to abandon her animals, she cannot get into any kind of transitional housing because most won't allow pets.
Todd said she received medical help from VA, but because she is unemployed she needs and appreciates the help Taylor offers.
He sometimes takes her bags of food and other items she needs. She calls him with specific needs.
"People fall on hard times," she said. "People end up out here. I think people are selfish. I think people don't want to understand."
At her campground, a hammock of large trees deep in the woods in North Brevard, Todd's belongings are neatly stacked, and jugs of water sit at the edge of a table made of crates.
"This is my home," she said. "I kid around. I say I'm not really homeless, I just have a really big back yard."
Contact Moody at 242-3651 or nmoody@floridatoday.com.
Additional Facts
How to help
National Veterans Homeless Support, Inc. 725 S. DeLeon St. Suite 118, Titusville, 615-8871
Ellie
Mims man gives homeless vets a hand
BY R. NORMAN MOODY
FLORIDA TODAY
If it were left to George Taylor, homeless veterans living in wooded areas around Brevard County would be in one large "tent city," where they would tend vegetable crops until they could move into a home of their own.
It may sound like a daunting task, but Taylor is undeterred. His motivation to make this vision a reality is the growing number of homeless veterans.
According to county officials, there are an estimated 600 military veterans among the nearly 2,300 homeless people living in wooded areas behind shopping centers, off secondary roads and isolated lands in Brevard County. It is estimated that on any given night there are about 154,000 homeless veterans in the United States; 17,000 in Florida.
It's an issue Taylor hopes to address this week during Florida's 22nd annual Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion, which gets under way today in Melbourne. Opening ceremonies are scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Wickham Park. The event, expected to draw as many as 100,000 veterans and visitors from around the country, ends Sunday. The reunion, which also includes display of the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, is the largest annual gathering of veterans in the nation.
Taylor, of Mims, said there is not enough help for the men and women who served. Others are homeless because they don't know how to access the benefits they've earned or they're unaware of assistance that's available to them.
"As long as there are conflicts people think that the veterans are being taken care of, but they're not," he said. "I believe that when a young man of woman goes out and fights for their country, there should be some resources to help them."
Since 1991, Taylor and his children have reached out to homeless veterans. Last year they formed the National Veterans Homeless Support, Inc., an advocacy group to help homeless veterans and assist them in accessing their benefits. Taylor's son, George Taylor Jr., is the organization's executive officer.
VA Health Care for Homeless Veterans has outreach social workers who try to find homeless veterans at soup kitchens, pantries and shelters to try to get them health care or into transitional housing.
Most of Taylor's work starts in the woods.
"He is one of our community partners," said Ernest Dunklee, a VA social worker. "He's been a good resource."
Dunklee said that lots of veterans have earned medical benefits but don't know that they are entitled to them. Many times they think the benefits are available only for veterans with war injuries, he said.
Seeking the needy
Earlier this week, the 58-year-old Taylor, dressed in western boots and shirt, jeans and hat, slipped behind a fast-food restaurant, ducked under bushes and followed a trail into thick woods. He called out, "Johnny, Tony," and the men and women sitting quietly around tents greeted him as a friend.
"By helping homeless people it's better for my heart," said Taylor, who after returning from the Vietnam War found himself homeless and living in the woods. "It continues to help my heart for the damage that was done in the war."
Growing up in West Virginia in a family that had served in the military and in a community with veterans, Taylor, then 19, didn't hesitate to join the Army.
"It was part of the culture," he said.
He soon saw the horrors of war while serving as a paratrooper in Vietnam with the Army's173rd Airborne Brigade and came home suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Heavy drinking led to Friday night fights and other troubles.
"When I came home my family didn't know me," he said. "It got to the point where I couldn't deal with people. I went in the woods."
After six months living in the woods and about 15 years wandering from place to place, with help from his brother Taylor sought treatment for PTSD at a VA center in Miami.
For more than 15 years, he has turned his attention to helping homeless veterans he knows are facing the same struggles he once faced.
He takes them packages of food and personal hygiene products. If they need it, he'll find them a backpack, a sleeping bag, a tent or a bicycle they can use for transportation.
For many of the homeless veterans, the assistance he gives them is to help them while they try to claim their veterans' benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He counsels them, he wants to help them overcome substance abuse, find jobs and rebuild their self-esteem.
"They want to be talked to," Taylor said. "They don't want to be looked down on."
Lost in the woods
Waylon Crooms said he's been trying to claim his benefits after returning from Afghanistan in 2005. The 28-year-old who served in the Marines, lives in a tent in the woods near Titusville and walks with a cane. He said an explosion left him with shrapnel in his right leg. Marital problems after returning home to Plant City left him on the streets. He later came to Brevard County.
"I just gave her everything and left," he said.
When Crooms became emotional while telling his story, Taylor stepped in.
"I know where you've been without your telling me," he said to Crooms.
Taylor also knows that despite being hidden in the woods, the homeless are often kicked off properties where they camp. Almost weekly he hears from homeless veterans who tell him that police have given them hours or a day to vacate their camps.
Disobeying orders
Some veterans, like Elizabeth Todd, go far into the woods and try to keep a low profile. She was arrested for not moving out quickly enough.
"They called it disobeying a direct order," she said. "I'm not in the military any more. I'm a homeless vet. I was a refugee from Katrina."
Todd, 48, who served in the Navy, was in Biloxi, Miss., in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit. She headed to Florida in what was to be a temporary stay, but ended up camping at different location in the woods. Two dogs, Goose, a Jack Russell mix, and Pirate, a shepherd mix, are her guards.
Because she does not want to abandon her animals, she cannot get into any kind of transitional housing because most won't allow pets.
Todd said she received medical help from VA, but because she is unemployed she needs and appreciates the help Taylor offers.
He sometimes takes her bags of food and other items she needs. She calls him with specific needs.
"People fall on hard times," she said. "People end up out here. I think people are selfish. I think people don't want to understand."
At her campground, a hammock of large trees deep in the woods in North Brevard, Todd's belongings are neatly stacked, and jugs of water sit at the edge of a table made of crates.
"This is my home," she said. "I kid around. I say I'm not really homeless, I just have a really big back yard."
Contact Moody at 242-3651 or nmoody@floridatoday.com.
Additional Facts
How to help
National Veterans Homeless Support, Inc. 725 S. DeLeon St. Suite 118, Titusville, 615-8871
Ellie