Vets Need to Reintegrate Into Civilian Life With Jobs and a Place to Live

For the past 5 years we have been working with the VA Medical Center at Lake Nona. The persistent problem experienced by Lake Nona Social Workers is that they are charged with the responsibility of helping discharging vets find jobs and places to live after being discharge from the Medical Center. The problem is that they are ill-equipped to do either, and there are 82 such medical centers in the state of Florida alone. So, there are vets who languish at the Domiciliary not being able to find housing and a place to live. We have been offering rooms for vets and short term and longer-term rooms for veterans. We will have a website where disabled Vets can sign up for Vets Village.

We get calls weekly from such vets who have been told that they have to move out, but have nowhere to go. Now, the problem has been made larger by gets who are coming out of recent US military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through our relationship with Gerry DeLeon of Tesla, we have designed the Vets Village Program that provides job training and employment through Tesla, however, we have to provide the temporary and permanent housing solution. That’s where Vets Village comes in. We will initially offer scattered site housing locations during the employment training experience at one of 3 10 bedroom homes in the Windsor at Westside Resort, which has great amenities, spacious rooms, 24 hour security, and a waterpark and fitness center for the vets. At Vets Village there will be the Barn, which will have a 48-unit hotel-like structure for short term housing for vets. Also, at Vet Village we will have Palm Harbor homes or other developer to build 48 Two, Three and Four-bedroom homes on the property so that they may be purchase by the participating vets using their VA Eligibility Certificates.

The business model of providing housing to disabled Veterans:

We have been providing rooms for vets for over 5 years. These vets are recommended to us by the Social Workers at Lake Nona medical center because their jobs require them to find transitional housing for vets, which is a very difficult task for them because rooms in the civilian world are market driven and most vets who have been in the military for a long time have no experience securing a lease in the private market. For years the government has taken charge of their living situation so many don’t know where to begin. Further many of the social workers themselves have no experience in securing housing for vets.