11/12/2022
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KXLY
Posted: November 11, 2022 6:42 PM by Brontë Sorotsky
SPOKANE, Wash. — “It’s hard to explain what veterans go through because only veterans know”.
Daniel Colony served in the Air Force as a firefighter for almost ten years.
“The families are so affected, wives are so affected, especially now it seems like we have more wars now Than we’ve had in a long time,” Colony said.
During his time serving, he developed PTSD, which made life outside of the military a challenge.
“I’ve been struggling for a very long time with some things that happened when I was in the military,” Colony said.
Now, he stays at a transitional housing unit for veterans through Volunteers of America.
“There’s a variety of reasons why people end up homeless, we do find that with veterans oftentimes it does come down to mental health issues, there are just not a lot of services out there for them to be able to access the care that they need,” said Beth McRae with Volunteers of America.
At this veteran housing, they are able to receive mental health services and other tools they need to be successful in the world.
“The data last year was we typically got 60-70 percent of veterans housed within the first 90 to 120 days that they were in our housing which is great because it is a two-year program and for some of them it does take two years and that’s totally okay,” McRae said.
Daniel said he’s not quite ready to leave the housing yet, but he’s looking forward to eventually starting over.
“I’m excited. I’ve lost a lot of years and now it’s like, you can’t go back and start over but you can start today and make a beginning. And that’s what I’m after. I wanna go live in Mexico and just kick back.”
He said the housing VOA has given him and other veterans has him feeling the best he has in over twenty years.
If you’d like to help veterans in need in the Inland Northwest, you can donate interview clothing for men, hygiene wipes, and cat and dog food to the VOA main office.