History
A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards - President Theodore Roosevelt
In 2009, what started as a dream between father and daughter became a reality in Lacey’s House, Oregon’s first and only privately funded, full-service home for homeless veterans.
While early hopes were dashed by promises with bureaucratic strings attached, Mike and Lacey weren’t about to give up. So with little more to offer than a caring hand and a warm bed, they welcomed their first resident. Further encouraged by a community willing to donate their time, resources, labor, material and furnishings, Lacey’s House staff focused their efforts on finishing renovations and repairs, and getting their residents the medical and mental health services they were desperately in need of.
In 2010 Lacey’s House broke ground on a second home that would allow them to serve 30 full-time residents. That same year, Washington County Veterans Service Counselors started working with house staff to coordinate services and apply for benefits due to their residents. Other community based organizations were pulled in to provide career counseling and to assist with job placement. Generous corporate sponsors and private donations made it possible to complete and furnish the new home, and a successful raffle raised enough money for the first full year of operation.
As 2010 came to a close, the pressures of the recession hit Lacey’s House hard and they were forced to downsize to 11 full-time residents. At the same time, however, something wonderful started to happen as the work of this couple in a small community in Oregon gained national attention when they were featured on the NBC Today Show’s Getting to the Heart of Christmas series. This validation brought corporate gifts and support from WalMart and the University of Oregon’s Alumni Association as well as countless local businesses and personal donations.
2011 is shaping up to be an amazing year as we kick off with the 2011 Raffle and pull hundreds of hours of planning and effort into raising $250,000. This money will allow Lacey’s house to re-open the available 19 beds as well as work on opening another home to serve even more.
FACTS & STATISTICS
- There are approximately 25 million veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces alive today
- Since October 2001, approximately 1.6 million members of the U.S. Armed Forces have served in Afghanistan
- Vietnam veterans make up the largest segment of the veteran population at about 7.9 million
- Approximately 7.2 million of those veterans are enrolled in the VA system and of those, approximately 5.5 million receive healthcare and 3.4 million receive benefits
- On any given night 150,000 and 200,000 veterans are homeless
- Approximately 40% of homeless men are veterans
Sources:
PBS
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/526/homeless-facts.html
National Healthcare for the Homeless Council http://www.nhchc.org/Publications/HomelessVetsHealthCare.pdf
National Alliance to End Homelessness http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2797
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
http://www.nchv.org/background.cfm
National Coalition for the Homeless
Fundraising Dinner