Homeless veteran is put thru the hoops, trying to get housing in a system that is ran by idiots.

Dave got kicked out of the veterans home in November. Since then hes been staying with friends.Few days here, few days there, a week with relatives, etc..  But not any place of his own. Hes living out of 3plastic totes he carries with him in his car.

Dave uses his uncles address as a "contact point", since he got laid off from his job of 12 years, in 2009.  Just one problem with that. It is in Big Rapids, another county. Not Kent county (Grand Rapids) where the veterans clinic is.

Even though Dave is there, in Kent county, and his cell phone is the same area, because his drivers license says another county, the local homeless system will not help him.

Dave is a veteran, disabled after leaving service. At age 55 he can join a retirement community as an independent living person. but until he reaches 55, he is stuck out in the regular population and he has 6 more years to go.

His Social security payment is less than 1200 a month, and that means Dave lives below the poverty line for a single person.

Dave wants to be near to the VA Clinic where he gets his health care, and not in some town 80 miles away.

So Dave went to the Homeless veterans center over on Century Ave. And they sent him to the Salvation army housing assistance office, in the city building on Monroe. They do in person interviews there MWF from 1 to 4pm.

The first time he went there, they had a problem with his address being in Big Rapids, but that they might be able to work around it. The 2nd time he went there, they said he absolutely had to have a GR or Kent county address.


So he got a friend who lives in a suburb of Grand Rapids, to let him use his address.

Next Dave went back and told them (and verified) that he had an address in Kent county.  Now the place has yet another problem

Dave is staying with friends for 2 weeks, helping them finish a basement. because of that, this place does not consider him to be homeless!

He has to call someone named Lynn at the Salvation Army Booth family srevice office, and she supposed to be an expert on these kinds of cases.

How hard is this? He has NO HOME. he is HOMELESS. He needs low income housing for about 6 years so he can get into a retirement home.  Its not that difficult but the idiots running the program over there, that uses taxpayer dollars, are making it difficult.