Cherokee County Homeless Veterans Program

At what point do Veterans get help from our Elected officials -

I have been working with a 100% SC Permanent and Total disabled Veteran, one of many, who is fighting our Government to get a benefit that he earned through his time in service.

That Government I am talking about is the Social Security Agency. The SSA has determined that the VA is not capable of determining when a Veteran who is 100% SC disabled is really disabled and is fighting just about all of those Veterans who are fighting for what is due them called SSDI - Social Security Disabilty.

The SSA believes that 100% SC Veterans need to have job, regardless of being disabled. I have witnessed them tell a 100% SC Disabled Combat Veteran with a Traumatic Brain Injury, TBI, that he could get a job folding napkins. Seriously do restaurants hire anyone to fold napkins? Also this Veteran was put through the SSA evaluation process by sending this Veteran to a pediatrician for disability evaluation. You cannot make this up. And lastly this same Veteran had to hear a Federal SSA Judge tell him that he does not trust VA Doctors? Zero for Three.

This brings me to the role of our Elected Officials. We have asked one of our State Federal Senators to help out in this case, and of course since he has never served, has pushed this Veteran off

I just sent that Senators office the following view of how our Veteran are expected to get help:

Let me understand how our Government and our Elected Officials work

We sign up to serve our County - We then serve our Country as a Volunteer - We leave Military service (hopefully in one piece) -We file for benefits, get denied so that we can make the stats look good, we then have to grovel to get the Government we served to provide the benefits we earned and promised - When that fails we have to pay for an attorney to fight the government we served for what we were promised?

There are Millions of Veterans who get treated this way. This is not the same State Senator that told me "Why should the state of Georgia pay any money to help our Veterans"

Interesting that this Senator soon will tell us how he got Millions for homeless Veteran housing? Well ask them why the VA denies over 50,000 Veterans housing or why the Government has over 33,000 unused housing Vouchers.

Our Politicians love to spin it only positively in their favor - here attached are the counterpoints to this spin using the numbers they do not want reported.

I cannot turn my back on our Veterans and hopefully you can't either. Veterans are no longer going to plead for scraps from our government we are taking the fight to them with our story of what we provide to this state and country.

Remember when Los Angeles and Atlanta said that they had solved the Homeless Veteran issue... Research again shines a light on Data that is there but not reported - Federal Veteran Housing programs deny more Veterans than the house

Over the past couple of days, I have been haunted by the fact that I have a number of Low-income senior Veterans that have been denied housing due to the fact that they do not make enough via Social Security to (1) afford the 30% required of them to qualify for SSVF housing and (2) do not make enough monthly income to overcome the 3:1 income to rent ration required of today's apartments

I took to task to find out how many Veterans, both Srs and under 60, are being denied by our two Federal Housing programs, SSVF and HUD-VASH. The Data came back worse than I ever thought. It would appear that these programs deny more of our Veterans than they house.

I was also shocked by the number of unused HUD-VASH vouchers there are each year. Maybe this supports the fact that HUD-VASH is only available in what the AJC called "Dangerous Dwellings" in their newspaper series where Crime, Drugs, and Prostitution are.

Veterans deserve better.

Why is our Government Not supporting our disabled and homeless Veterans with housing programs that work?

I just saw this case of California Homeless fraud and it makes my blood boil. Recent federal investigations in California have uncovered large‑scale fraud involving homelessness funds, including a $23 million swindle by charity director.

This goes with the fact that under our last administration housing costs have gone up up and up. https://www.hud.gov/news/hud-no-25-146

Our 2026 housing study that will soon be released shows two issues for Veterans that we are facing mostly due to our Federal government since the State of Georgia has been hands off on this issue. The issues are (1) Low income Senior Veterans over 62 years old and making less than $1,500 per month are being systematically put out on the street by our Federal government Veteran housing Program, ie HUD-VASH and SSVF and (2) 100% SC Disabled Veterans are being excluded from obtaining apartments due to the COVID post era 3:1 rent to income ratio.

So where are Veterans who are homeless or are low income supposed to go for help?

The answer is nowhere - for instance our program is dealing currently with almost 10 senior Veterans who all make less than $1,500 in monthly SSA, many making less than $1,000. We have put them into the Federal SSVF program that now only covers 3 apartment complexes here in Cherokee County, we had 8 two years ago. After our program stabilized these Veterans we promoted them to the SSVF program where they were given 60 days of hotel and case management to secure housing. Well after the 60 day period we found that these Veterans were dumped back on the street as none of them could support the 30% income requirement to be placed in an apartment. I now have three of these 10 under care as we did not know this was happening.

The answer to the low income solution is "Move them to HUD-VASH". Well HUD-VASH does not exist in Cherokee County so in order for any of these senior Veterans to get HUD-VASH this has to happen (1) see if they are eligible for the program and must go to Ft Mcpherson to register, (2) agree to relocate to one of the three Housing Authorities that support the program, ie Decatur, Carrolton, or Rome (3) hope that vouchers are available and our three (4) Quit the job they have currently to move to these sites (5) Leave the community many have been part of for many years and (6) move to areas that are dangerous with Crime, Drugs and Prostitution as noted by the AJC in their article "Dangerous Dwellings"

At roughly $500-$600 per week for hotel stays and food, our program is taking on these Veterans so that we might be able to find other housing solutions.

The other issues that we have put forward before is that 100% SC Veterans cannot get past the 2nd question on an apartment application as they do not meet the current 3:1 rent to income ration. Basically a 100% SC disabled Veteran can only earn $3,983 per month from the VA. For an Apartment that costs $1,600 per month they have to qualify at an income level of $4,800. Not going to make it.

The data is there and we are now moving to get our deaf and dump state and federal politicians to listen to us that there is a problem. The annual homeless Point in Time count that is done every January on one night is a bogus number. How do I know this - the State of Georgia only gets about 20% of the 159 counties to take part in actually going out and counting homeless. So if our state only does 20% I would suggest that other states don't do much more. So the number the VA quotes, 32,495 which is what was counted in 2025 is off by a lot.

We need to overhaul and look at the housing for our Veteran as there should not be one homeless Veteran in this country. It is not just an affordability issue it is a government program failure at State and Federal Level.

Our program is doing our best to make sure our homeless and low income Veterans are taken care of, but it is now costing us more as we have uncovered these issues. Our funding does not come from the State of Federal Government, nor do any of our staff take a salary for what we do. Can other non-profits say this. We are Veterans helping Veterans.

Affordable and available Senior Veteran Housing and Veteran Federal Housing programs do not exist in North Georgia

Recently I have been faced with several Senior Veterans, who make less than $1,500 per month in Social Security Income, and are trying to find housing.

I thought that the Federal Government Veteran housing programs such as HUD-VASH, SSVF, or Per Diem would be the place to start, but upon investigation they do not exist. What this means is that if we want to get some type of Federal Housing program for Senior Veterans they are going to have to move to a location that supports these programs.

Why should a Veteran living in Cherokee County, who has a job, roots to the community, but who does not make enough through Social Security have to be uprooted and moved to a location that is (1) not local to his/her job ,(2) has high crime, drugs, or prostitution or (3) less favorable area to live in.

This is the plight that over 110,000 Veterans who live in the I75/I85 corridor face as they age. Something has to be done to fix this or we are going to have a Sr Veteran homeless crisis on our hands. Just recently we have run three (3) 62+ Veterans through the SSVF program and after their 60 days looking for housing are put back on the street and told they cannot afford the 30% of their funds to pay for an apartment. They are then fed to HUD-VASH to consider their housing locations and they soon find our that there are no HUD VASH programs local.

Do they stay here and try to eek out some type of solution or do they pack up and move never again to be part of the community they may have lived in for years.

This is not what Serving our County should come to as a Veteran. Take a look at what they face and how our government handles them.

Value of Veterans - Employment in Geogia

Have you ever thought how many Georgia businesses are started by Veterans, or how many people Veteran owned businesses hire and provide jobs for. Not that any of our elected officials at the local, state, and Federal know this, but just in Cherokee County the last Census noted that there are over 300 Veteran owned businesses in the county. As I mentioned after my comments with a state representative, it is time that we put a value on what Veterans do for this state. Please find our new Veteran employment flier that we created pulling data from multiple sites.

Next time you run into a Veteran don't just say, "thanks for your service' , but maybe "thank you for hiring me and helping me afford a house and feed my family."

What is the Value of Veterans in Georgia

I recently attended a focus group that talked about various topics about our government and what should be changed or what is important to us. As one of the Veterans attending this session I talked about several issues facing our Veterans today. During this session I was asked "Why Should the State of Georgia spend money on our Veterans". I was somewhat taken back by this since it was an elected official that asked me this question. I did have some quick data to share, but I realized that Veterans needed a better set of talking points on what we do for the State of Georgia. After much research and data collection using reliable data sources, I thought you might like to see the impact that we bring to the State.

You can replace the American Legion logo with our other Veteran groups, but did anyone ever think that we make such an impact. I will be creating more of these posters showing other Veteran impacts on the State of Georgia in the coming weeks.

Veterans can be proud of what we have done to secure and defend this great country, and we should not shy away from what we bring to Georgia. The issue now is "What is Georgia going to do for Veterans knowing what we bring to the table"

What is a donate vehicle worth to Veterans who need one and do not have one.

CBS Atlanta did a follow-up news piece on the 4 vehicles that we donated last week and rather than just put it out there that we donated them to Veterans, Brian Unger the reporter wanted to get more in depth into the program and how it helped Veterans.

His questions were probing, a lot more that I have had in the past, but we are not just giving an old vehicle to Veterans in need, but we are giving them a lifeline and some level of freedom for them and their families.

This is just a short segment,

Cherokee County veterans receive donated vehicles, gaining a new sense of independence Reliable transportation is often one of the biggest barriers to ensuring access to services, so an organization is stepping in to help some of Georgia's veterans get their own set of wheels.

Local Veterans and Team Depot clean up Homeless Veterans Statue ahead of July 4th

Thanks to a Home Depot Foundation grant and the volunteer labor from local Veterans and area Home Depots the nations only Homeless Veteran Statue is cleaned and ready for visitors of the Cherokee Veterans park to sit and enjoy the statue and flags that are on display.

Funded by the local Veteran community and Joe Hickey of Canton Funeral Home this statue is the only one of its kind in the Nation depicting a homeless Male and Female soldier. It is a reminder that even with our 250th anniversary of our country that there have been homeless Veterans throughout our history. Veterans have pledged their lives to protect the freedoms we enjoy and take advantage of each and every day.

We are proud to partner with the local Home Depots and the employees called Team Depot. This company has over 38,000 Veterans as employees throughout their footprint in America.

On behalf of the team that was there on Monday the 29th I would like to say have a great 4th of July.

Happy 4th of July

Ahead of the 250th Anniversary of our Nation, our program wanted to provide special donations to some of our Veterans in need of transportation. Yesterday, our program donated not three vehicles but with our partner Cherokee Mitsubishi we donated four (4) vehicles to Veterans in need of transportation. Three of the Veteran s are 100% SC VA rated as disabled and the fourth Veteran is struggling to keep up with three jobs.

Unlike other car donation programs, our program delivers Vehicles, 86 of them so far in 9 years, to those who need them. Here is the link to the Cherokee Tribune article that was done on donations 83, 84 and 85. So far we have had 122 vehicles donated to our program with only 86 making it to being donatable. The others were sold at auction and used to fund the repairs we have had to do on the 86 vehicles. Of the 86 road ready vehicles we have 78 of the ones donated still in operation. After Vetting of the Veterans to make sure they fit our program we donated the vehicle and sign over the title for $1 to make it a legal transfer.

If you have an older vehicle or a spare not doing anything we can provide you a tax deduction for your vehicle and make sure your vehicle goes to a Veteran in need in Georgia.

Are you 100% VA SC P&T Disabled? Have you filed for SSDI? You need to know this and take action.

For Years we have been fighting for the VA and SSA to come together to let 100% VA SC P&T Disabled Veterans know that there additional benefits that may be available to them from the SSA. The VA is never going to tell you that this benefit exists as it is not in their interest to help Veterans. With the financial issues that are caused by disabled Veterans living on just VA disability you would think that they would want to tell you about an additional financial benefit this could bring in as much as another $2,000 a month.

We first brought this up to our Congressman five years ago and also testified before the VA Congressional office three years ago, but nothing has moved on putting a single sentence on the VA Award letter that states "that you may be eligible for additional benefits from the SSA". The reason is that there has been no Republican or Democrat push to pass an appropriations bill that would move funds from the SSA to the VA to pay for the ink.

This is how stupid our elected officials are. They are happy to have Disabled Veteran's not get our owed benefits and save the government funds that could help a Veteran and his family apply for housing, a home and other needed items that are out of their reach do to lack of financial stability. You cannot live on $3900+ for the rest of your life when the apartments are requiring that you pass the 3:1 rent to income ration. With the additional funds you can get approved quickly

Don't be fooled by reading this flyer and thinking that you can get expedited assistance as I have 32 Veterans that I am currently working on getting SSDI and many are being told it can take up to 8-10 months for approval.

This is Government BS - to file you need your VA Award letter and your DD214. Take this flyer with you and walk into the SSA office and see if they take you in..... Not seen this either. Once you do file immediately contact your local Senator or Congressman. This will put a fire on the SSA ..hopefully. Most of you will get a denial letter. In the letter it will tell you why you were not approved - many times it is due to the VA not providing access to your medical service records. If you get this letter again file with your congressman or Senator and demand they fix this.

Lastly, when you finally get approved - cash the check first then file for back pay. When you were awarded 100% VA SC P&T disability status this award was sent to the SSA waiting for you to file for SSDI. You may be able to get backpay from the SSA going back to the original date of your VA disability rating.

If you have questions, contact me as we have helped hundreds of Veterans get the benefits they deserve.