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Along a busy Atlanta residential road, a nonprofit that started in 2008 with a single two-bedroom house has expanded into a campus dedicated to both transitional and permanent housing for dozens of previously homeless veterans.
There are classrooms for veterans to learn about financial literacy, securing benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs and getting on a path toward employment and housing independence. There’s a common area for reading and a gym for working out.
The organization houses veterans and their families across five buildings. And a huge patch of dirt marks where a two-story structure is to be built with 20 single-occupancy bedrooms. “Landlords probably won’t be as generous as we are,” Tony Kimbrough, CEO of the Veterans Empowerment Organization said.
It’s a time of huge growth for VEO, one that Kimbrough said would not be possible without The Home Depot Foundation. The Atlanta-based group has given the nonprofit more than $2.3 million since 2011.
The Home Depot Foundation’s partnership with VEO is just one piece of the company’s national strategy to partner with organizations and tackle veterans’ housing problems. The foundation said it has invested $500 million in cash in veterans causes since 2011 and announced a commitment to giving an additional $250 million by 2030. So far, about $140 million of that money has gone toward combatting veteran homelessness and increasing veteran housing stock, the foundation said, with another $125 million going toward making critical home repairs so veterans could stay in their homes.
“Housing is very important, but without the wraparound services, it’s not enough for the veterans to be back into the workforce and back into civilian life,” Shannon Gerber, executive director of the Home Depot Foundation said.
The number of veterans experiencing homelessness in the U.S. has fallen by 11% since January 2020 and more than 55% since 2010, according to the 2022 Point-in-Time count conducted by the VA and Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. More than 33,000 homeless veterans were identified during the 2022 count.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.