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Helping One Veteran at a Time Self-sufficiency is key to reducing homelessness.
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lack of affordable housing can lead to a less than glamorous lifestyle. However, what’s even more disturbing is that men and women who have sacrificed so much by serving their country find themselves in a precarious position. Homelessness continues to be a nationwide problem, but the thought of our veterans not having a place or purpose resonates powerfully, with its echo calling for change. One organization doing its part is the Veteran Housing Corp., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, which came into existence when its founder Reydel “Sonny” Santos was serving in a different capacity while being based in south Florida. A veteran himself, serving in the U.S. Navy from 1972–78, his decision to found the organization came about as a labor of love. “When I was the affordable housing director for Miami Rescue Mission, one of the first things I did was to take a survey to see how many of the population we were serving at the mission,” said Santos. “The Miami Rescue Mission is an organization that’s been around for about 90 years. They started out
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| JAN 2020 | OCALAMAGAZINE.COM
BY BEN BAUGH as a soup kitchen in the early 1900s.” But it was much to Santos’ surprise that he found out that between 25 to 30 percent of the homeless population in shelters were veterans. “One of the things I wanted to do was make sure that the housing component was addressed,” said Santos. “Veteran Housing Corp. is different from a lot of veterans organizations in that we tend to partner with a lot of organizations.” Veteran Housing Corp. has partnered with more than 20 different nonprofits, for-profit developers, and landlords in an effort to help veterans find affordable housing, said Santos. “Many of these veterans we’ve helped were actually sleeping in cars or were at risk of losing their homes,” said Santos. “A lot of them were homeless or at risk of losing their homes because of their family situation, divorces, and separations.” However, there has been one variable veterans have relied on, something that has been far from a panacea, creating additional problems over time. “One thing that really struck me over the years working with veterans is that many
veterans get stuck in a circle,” said Santos. “It’s a vicious circle of rental subsidies. There is a place in addressing the homeless issue by providing rental subsidies to individuals. Unfortunately, a lot of the veterans go through the VA or HUD. What happens is, they almost end up being addicted to that rental subsidy and forego using their VA benefits to purchase a home.” A program is being developed by Veteran Housing Corp. to get veterans off the rental subsidies and to provide an avenue for them to be able to become self-sufficient, said Santos. The cost of property in south Florida has skyrocketed, making it extremely difficult for the program to acquire affordable parcels for housing alternatives. Veteran Housing Corp. turned their attention toward north central Florida. Santos is familiar with the area as he comes from a large family, where he has 10 siblings, with most of them relocating to the Ocala and Gainesville market. He has lived in south Florida since 1962. “Basically, all of my family’s up there, and they’ve been telling