Homeless veterans who manage to make their way off the streets into their own apartments are usually challenged to provide themselves with furnishings for their new residences. A recently incorporated group, Homeward Vets, has been able to help many of them make their new apartments into comfortable homes.
Homeward Vets is the brainchild of David Felty of Southampton.
Felty, a U.S. Navy veteran who served in the Gulf War, said that, although he and his wife Lisa have been collecting furniture for veterans since 2009, the group was formally incorporated in March.
The organization works to help veterans who have received assistance from the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, and other housing assistance programs, to move from homeless situations to their own apartments. The vast majority of these veterans have no furniture or housewares to furnish their newly acquired homes but Homeward Vets has been able to help in many cases.
He said that, when homeless veterans get vouchers for apartments, he and other volunteers “go right in behind that and fill up the apartment with furniture.”
Felty said that his wife, who is the director of housing programs for the Northampton Housing Authority and also the treasurer of Homeward Vets, started the effort with him, picking up useable furniture found on treebelts, tag sales and items donated by friends and relatives.
Lisa Felty said “Dave’s pretty handy so he’d fix it up and we’d give it away.”
She said that the furniture would be stored in two sheds at their home and she would then find vets who needed the items by contacting the case workers helping homeless veterans making the transition to the own homes.
“It’s a little sad” she said that “after they’ve found a home there’s nothing in it.” She said that the veterans don’t complain but are happy to have a roof over their heads.
She said of her husband, “He’s a veteran, so he understands” and said the veterans “connect with him.”
The couple incorporated their project as a non-profit corporation in March and Homeward Vets has continued and expanded since then.
The program now stores furniture in a space donated by Autumn Properties in Easthampton.
In addition, Lisa Felty said that she is excited by an offer of a “huge” storage space by a company in Ludlow, Mass Development. Her husband said “it’s a good spot. It’s probably almost 5,000 square feet of space.”
As more veterans are helped, more and more people are becoming aware of the program and make donations.
The group recently received two tractor-trailer loads of furniture donated by Disabled Veterans National Foundation based in South Carolina. He explained that the foundation receives donations of furniture earmarked for veterans from motels and hotels which have renovated their properties and need to dispose of used but very serviceable furniture.
That furniture has gone to good use in Western Massachusetts.
Felty said that the organization is helping “anywhere from three to five (veterans) a week” and said that his employer, Five Star Building Corp., in Easthampton, allows him to use a company truck to make deliveries to veterans.
He said that he has a crew of about 25 volunteers (many of them veterans who have previously been helped and are eager to “give back”) he calls on to help with deliveries. “We’ve got kind of a little network” he said.
“We have busy lives,” Lisa Felty said. “It’s a little crazy but its working.
Her husband certainly keeps busy, not only with his “other full time job” as director of project development for his company, but also serves on the board of directors of the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce and works with the Ambassadors of the Northampton Chamber of Commerce.
Felty said “We’ve got a long way to go but were making pretty good progress.” He said that currently his group is “covering all of western Massachusetts right now” where he said there are hundreds of vets eligible for assistance.
He has also had inquiries from veterans in New York, Maine and New Hampshire.
He is optimistic and said that “more and more people reach out (to help) every day” and offer donations.
He said that furniture and housewares are needed and cash is always helpful. “We use money to fill gaps” he said and added that he hopes to get a box truck or trailer which could be used for deliveries.
Persons who would like to help the project may contact the Feltys through the Homeward Vets web site, www.homewardvets.org.
