“It is about cities having faith in all of their citizens.”
These words remind an Army veteran Bill Bruick not only of how he has learned to deal with his own past but also how the only city in California helps homeless veterans, the city of Riverside.
Around 40,000 homeless veterans in the United States were reported by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and more than 11,000 of them live in California. One of these homeless veterans roaming around California is Bill Bruick.
The 51-year-old Bill Bruick spent 10 years living outside the shopping center. He even suffered depression and alcoholism had hobbled him since leaving the Army in 1996. As his experiences began to haunt him more and more, he could no longer bottle up with alcohol abuse. A letter from his two daughters in Germany expressing a desire to visit diverted him.
Despite that alcoholism succumbs him he still had to find a way to deal with his demons. He joined Riverside program’s as one of their early beneficiaries. He went to rehab for the eighth time and today, he lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Riverside with his fiancée.
Fortunately, the City of Riverside embraced the idea of ending veteran homelessness around the same time. The City of Riverside Homeless Services Program was established to connect homeless individuals with their first approach, Housing First, before engaging social services.
The “Housing First” approach which emphasizes services to support housing stabilization and retention. The Housing First approach is a significant way that focused on homeless prevention, housing as quickly as possible and home-based case management to facilitate homeless veterans in achieving self-sufficiency.
This program has become a part of reality with mayor’s nationwide effort of taking the challenge- ending veteran homelessness. Through collaborative efforts with community partners they were able to provide permanent housing interventions for 89 homeless veterans identified in the city on 2016.
The Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey said that housing first is the right policy for ending homelessness. He was proud how the city has found success with the Housing-First model in helping individuals exit life on the streets and transitioned those individuals to self-sufficiency.
Riverside has created a centralized environment to provide emergency shelter, coupled with a range of complimentary supportive services that are necessary to assist and end homelessness amongst our honored veterans. And your attention in supporting and continuing this good fight- Riverside ending homelessness- is very much appreciated.
Goodgear.TV is intended to be a comprehensive video based resource for Veterans, Service Members and their families. We hope that you will find the information easy to navigate and enables you to understand more of the difficulties and challenges our veterans face during their service in the military as well as when they return to civilian life. Whether you are a veteran, related to a veteran or are seeking to understand and honor our country’s veterans we believe Goodgear.TV is a great place to be.
– by Jey Gee Layno
