VA staff helps homeless Veteran reunite with family after 22 years
German A. Leon was born in Panama. He moved to the U.S. as a teenager with his mother and two sisters, and enlisted in the Army at the age of 18. According to Leon, much of his life following military service is hazy, and he can’t recall details other than he had lived with his mother and sisters as a young adult.
Patrice Green, a social worker at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, took an interest in Leon’s case.
Veteran German Leon at the Gateway facility in Atlanta, which provides temporary shelter for homeless Veterans.
“I asked him how long he had been wandering around homeless, and he replied ‘years and years’,” Green said.Now 53, Leon had been homeless for nearly half his life and for 10 years in the Atlanta area. He’d been living in parks, wooded areas, under highway overpasses or in temporary homeless shelters. He had no identification of his own, which was needed to apply for benefits, housing or for him to receive assistance of any kind.
Leon had not had contact with his family for at least 22 years, and couldn’t begin to guess where they might be. He knew their names, which he shared with Green. It was a start.
A group of VA social workers from Atlanta began the search for Leon’s family using sites like People Search and through contact with the U.S. Immigration office. When they hit a dead end, one of them suggested turning to social media — in this case, Facebook — as a resource.
With Leon’s permission, they used fragments of information from People Search to craft a Facebook post, including the names of Leon’s two sisters.
The next day, Green received a phone call from one of the sisters. She’d seen the post and asked Green if it was a joke. Green assured her that it was not; her brother was being cared for by VA. The sister said that the family had been looking for Leon, and expressed that she wanted to come pick him up so they could be together.“I’ve been a social worker for 30 years and I’ve never experienced a case like this,” Green explained, saying it reminded her of “why I do what I do and why I choose to work for the VA.”
With help from the sisters, VA staff was able to collection missing information about Leon, including his original immigration documents and reunite him with his sister. Unfortunately Leon’s mother passed away earlier in the year.
Veteran German Leon with his sister Marta Judge Sallie.
The sisters say their mother “never gave up hope” that Leon would come home someday.Leon now resides with his sisters in Charleston, South Carolina.
The care VA provided Leon was arranged through the Healthcare for Homeless Veterans program (HCHV), which aims to provide temporary shelter for homeless Veterans. The goal of the program is to reduce homelessness among Veterans by conducting outreach to those who are the most vulnerable and not currently receiving services and engaging them in treatment and rehabilitative programs.
If you know a homeless Veteran in need of help, dial 1-877-4AID-VET to reach the National Homeless Veterans Call Center.
Editor’s note: Eric A. Brown, public affairs specialist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, contributed to this story.
For whatever reason I think we have a higher propensity to wander. I find myself being regulated back into homelessness force through the indifference and incompetents of the VA. I would have never imagined that a program designed to rescue Vets from the streets. I came to Las Vegas with nothing; broke and homeless. Stayed at a Veterans homeless shelter then found a job while paying for my bunk bed. Moved on to another veteran facility where paying for my own studio while awaiting a voucher for HUD VASH and after a year and a half, I received the voucher and move into an apartment. I’ve been given up on having a career as I worked at an airline as a baggage guy. I only worked part-time because I had 2 back surgeries even before the military and I didn’t want to take a health risk so I saved money and traveled through my benefits but I also had prostrate cancer that I fought through, then numerous throat surgeries.
ReplyDeleteMy luck ran out because I injured my back. The VA sent me to San Diego constantly to prepare for possible spinal fusion. But the housing program began making me pay rent without income, they took away my utility stipend and this has lead to me filing for bankruptcy and closing out my 401K to pay basic bills. I’m totally broke and this alone will send me to the streets. Vets are used like animals in experimental labs.
I began being homeless when I left for college and had to sleep on the stairs of a church till I got a job at a hotel in exchange for a room for 2 years.
Most Vets get disillusioned by the overwhelming process, the humiliation and the patronizing. I lived in 6 different cities; multiple times in a couple as I looked for a decent job that my degree never seemed sufficient enough to attract. You lie, stay way or just wander from family out of embarrassment, vanity or just wanting to be a man but many just have no family or friends.
My brother asked me to check up on his buddy who was an older man like our father. He was in a veterans home and was becoming senile but because of confidentiality the search went nowhere and we assume he’ll die alone. I been homeless in every city and it wears on you, the VA hospital has always been my sanctuary for medical help but this HUD VASH program is just a job creator for government workers and goldmine for property owners. This country take poor kids, tell them to be all they can be and then discard them like toilet paper, delete their benefits while enriching the rich.