Redding Veteran receives permanent housing after being homeless for over 16 years
REDDING. Calif. — Shasta County is home to a huge veteran community but, unfortunately, there are a lot of them that are homeless. KRCR spoke to one man, David Cox, who is finally off the streets for the first time in over 16 years.
Cox is a military veteran who returned here to Shasta County after things took a turn with his health. Cox had to undergo open heart surgery amongst other medical procedures that set him back after he returned from the military.
“I bounced around from home to home to my grandparents, my father, my brother, and my mother, which have all deceased and I ended up being a chronic homeless person.” That is when Cox met Nation's Finest, a Veterans Organization in Redding.
Nation's Finest, they stood there for me,” Cox recalled when Nation’s Finest came into the picture. “They got me emergency housing when I needed it when I got out of the hospital. they gave me emergency housing and they gave me different things to do like give me an id and gave me things to do.
Nation’s Finest Supervising Case Manager Rebecca Daricek spoke to KRCR about what they do, “helping many local veterans get connected to housing and resources. We help them catch up on rent if they are behind on utilities. For the veterans that are completely homeless, we will help them find permanent housing.”
Case Manager at Nation’s Finest, Jeff Green, said the moment they get to help a veteran into permanent housing is truly an amazing accomplishment. “It's an amazing process when they come in here and transform from being extremely stressed on where to sleep and then see the end result of when they get housed and how excited they are.” Green added, “it's just amazing!”
Cox is just one of the many veterans that Nation's Finest helped in Shasta County, who have already helped seven other veterans, get into permanent housing this month.
