KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Despite cutting back on homelessness among veterans by almost 70% since 2010, the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida is still finding people who have served our country living on the streets.
So far this year, the organization has moved at least 547 formerly homeless military veterans into stable housing.
Michael Spivey works as a Veteran Peer Support Specialist at the Transition House in Kissimmee.
“This is the happiest I’ve ever been,” Spivey said.
The Transition House is an organization that provides those who have served our country the support and help they need during their transition from homeless life into stability in employment and housing.
"We can move veterans in, cover security deposit, utility deposit. We can cover all that, furnish it, and get them in. Everything, completely housed, if they meet the requirements for it," Spivey said.
Spivey served in the U.S. Army Military Police from 2005 to 2008 as a military police officer. Right before his unit was deployed to Iraq, he says his appendix erupted out on duty, and after undergoing medical exams he found out he had cancer. Spivey was put on rear detachment while he received cancer treatment, but he says his brother Matt took the spot that was originally supposed to be his and ended up costing him his life over there.
“It was a struggle going through all the stuff that I went through alone,” Spivey said.
He says coming back home was a struggle too.
"I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't sleeping in the military, but then I really wasn't sleeping when I returned. And I didn't understand why. … I was tied very tightly around. … And I didn't understand that I needed help," Spivey said. That's when he turned to drugs, and things got out of control. "I became homeless."
Thinking back, Spivey remembers when he first got to the Transition House to receive their services.
“When I got there, I had nothing but the clothes on my back and body, no driver’s license and nothing because the state suspended it because I had drug charges,” Spivey said.
“Because I know what it’s like to be in that situation and not have anything or anybody to count on and how hard it is. And I just want to try and be that help I wish I had,” Spivey said.
Every day he gets in his car and drives around Kissimmee, looking for specific areas where he knows homeless veterans gather.
“They see me as a peer, and they know I know what they’ve been through. I know they know. And they will open up to me,” Spivey said.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress, Florida has 7% of the nation’s homeless veterans — roughly 2,279 veterans, either sleeping on a friend or family’s couch, or living on the streets.
So far this year, Spivey said the Transition House has helped more than 580 veterans find a home in Central Florida. But he says there’s still a lot more to be done to help those who have given everything for our country.
“Every day is busy here. We are always running around because, unfortunately, the homeless population amongst veterans, and in general, isn’t shrinking. Not fast enough,” Spivey said.
Homeless Services Network of Central Florida’s CEO Martha Are says that’s due mostly in part to the rising cost of rent and lack of affordable housing.
“That’s resulted in more people losing their housing and becoming homeless. Our veterans, on top of that, have some unique needs many times related to their service they have provided to our country,” Are said.
In October, the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida announced a $6.7 million grant in federal funding which will go toward helping veterans at imminent risk of homelessness.
If you are a veteran who is homeless or at imminent risk of experiencing homelessness, please contact the national call center at 1-877-4AID VET (877-424-3838).