By Deb Burkart, VP Supportive Housing, NEF

In honor of Veterans Day this year, Deborah Burkart, founder of the LISC-NEF veterans housing initiative Bring Them HOMES, relects on the extraordinary strides that have been made toward creating safe, affordable, supportive homes for veterans—progress in spite of the pressures and set-backs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current moment, she writes, demands we intensify our efforts to provide healing homes for the men and women who have sacrificed so much on behalf of this nation.

In honor of Veterans Day this year, we are highlighting Perry Point Veterans Village, an extraordinary supportive housing community for homeless vets created by HELP USA in tandem with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, NEF and many other dedicated partners. The development was 10 years in the making and involved a veritable high-wire act of aligning bureaucracies and funding sources and overcoming political opposition. The result is worth the struggle: 75 safe, affordable homes for veterans who'd been surviving on the streets and now have a bona fide new lease on life.

The Power of Partnerships

From the unprecedented $1.5 billion we invested last year in people and communities across the country, to our burgeoning collaborations with sectors ranging from tech and healthcare to sports and local government, the LISC 2018 Annual Report is chock full of good news, good numbers, and good ideas. These resources and strategies propel us on our journey to shape a brighter future for all our nation's residents. And that, in a nutshell, is the heart of LISC's mission. Read on!

An article in The Washington Post details a new kind of partnership between affordable housing developers and the American Legion, a vets’ organization, to turn an old legion hall into 160 apartments, half reserved for homeless and at-risk military veterans. Says Deborah Burkart, of LISC/NEF’s Bring Them HOMES initiative, “this could be an example others follow”—under-used American Legion facilities across the country might provide a similar resource for creating safe and much-need homes for our ex-servicemen and women.

In honor of Veterans Day, we are sharing the story of Gerald Hurt, a formerly homeless veteran who recently moved into a new supportive housing community in Danville, Illinois. Together with the National Equity Fund and Bring them HOMES, LISC is working to make sure every veteran has the home he or she needs.

A poignant photography exhibit honors veterans whose lives have been touched by Bring Them HOMES, our housing initiative for homeless and at-risk former servicemen and women. All photos by Gus Powell/Courtesy Lee Marks Fine Art