Once-homeless veterans get new lease on life;
SON HOANG Journal Staff Writer. The Providence Journal. Providence, R.I.: Aug 11, 2005.

WEST WARWICK - To the six men who moved into a three-story colonial on Providence Street, their new home isn't just walls and a roof over their head.

The men, all disabled veterans, were previously homeless and spent time in temporary shelters. Now they have a place to call their own, at 790 Providence St.

They moved in in May thanks to the efforts of Operation Stand Down -- a nonprofit organization that provides services to disabled veterans -- and there is no limit to how long they can stay.

"Our main objective is to get the homeless veterans off the street," said house manager Ernest Teixeira. Once renovations are completed to the third floor, he said, three more veterans will be able to move in.

The home is Operation Stand Down's first in West Warwick. The organization also manages seven one-bedroom apartments in Johnston.

According to Teixeira, it cost nearly $925,000, raised from grants, donations and fundraising events, to buy and renovate the house. This includes furnishings, a new roof, fire alarms, and a fire sprinkler system.

Each resident has a bedroom; a dining room, kitchen and living room are shared.

The residents pay 30 percent of their income, either from a disability check or from employment, to Operation Stand Down. In return, they receive housing, access to laundry machines in the basement, dinner Monday to Friday and 24-hour supervision.

Some of the veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or other psychological problems from their time in the military, Teixeira said. "Those are the guys who need our protection," he said.

Teixeira, 45, a disabled veteran who served eight years in the Army, said that helping homeless veterans get housing is the first step in making them productive in society again.

Harold Curtis Jr. said he likes living in the home. "I want to get back into life. Maybe lose some weight."

Curtis, 60, an eight-year veteran of the Army National Guard, has been hospitalized for a number of medical problems with his legs, and also for asthma and diabetes.

When he returned from fighting in the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, Curtis said, he took a job as a truck driver when his old job at a manufacturing plant in Warwick was filled while he was overseas. For the next 30 years, he said, he drove trucks and buses in Rhode Island and Florida. In 1999, after two divorces, he returned to Rhode Island broke and homeless but found a helping hand from Operation Stand Down.

Before moving into the West Warwick home, Curtis had spent time at an Operation Stand Down home in Johnston as well as in an apartment with a girlfriend. Tragedy struck when his girlfriend died.

"One morning I woke up and she didn't," Curtis said.

Falling into a depression, Curtis once again needed the assistance of Operation Stand Down and moved back into one of its Johnston apartments and then into the West Warwick home. He is now trying to get his life in order again.

"I'm trying to get my bills paid," Curtis said. "It's hard but I'm doing it, slowly but surely."

Administrators from Operation Stand Down supervise the veterans in the home and three of the veterans serve as resident assistants, Teixeira said. "It gives them a sense of pride and purpose that they're doing something and it gives them a sense of structure."

Operation Stand Down has plans to build an academic training school behind its West Warwick home. Teixeira said the organization is applying for the building permits. Once built, it will provide GED preparation classes, and computer skills and other job training for veterans.

"Some of these guys have a sixth- to eighth-grade education. With the school, we're going to give them skills to make them more productive in society," Teixeira said.

Curtis said he is looking forward to the new school. "I want to get in there and get retrained to do something."

With a new home and the prospect of schooling, life looks promising for the veterans at 790 Providence St. Teixeira said none of it would be possible without the support of the community. He asked that any donations of money, food or clothing be sent to Operation Stand Down at 1010 Hartford Ave., Johnston, R.I. 02119. For more information call (401) 383-4730.