VFAF’S CHAPLAIN CORPS PARTNERS TO HOUSE HOMELESS VETS with Celestine CJ James and Annie’s Legacy. The Chaplain corps will operate as an independent business model based on the VFAF Faith Pillar. The Corps will be a partner to Veterans for America First. In addition to the faith operations (which has its own mission statement) the corps will also operate in a nonpartisan way on helping the homeless, protecting our children and other charitable efforts that in turn help our veterans and first responders with their families across the nation.
Stan Fitzgerald lays the foundation for Celestine James to partner with Veterans for Trumps chaplain corps to work together on housing the homeless. James , from Georgia , is a longtime advocate and field director on housing homeless vets. Fitzgerald has arranged for the partnership where VFAF founder Josh Macias will take the lead on the project with James and move forward under her direction.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, on any given night, 610,042 people across the U.S. experience homelessness. About 9 percent of homeless adults, or 57,849, are veterans.
These homeless veterans often suffer from mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and other conditions that make adjusting to civilian life difficult.
Being homeless, or being at risk of homelessness, is one of the most difficult problems any Veteran can face.
In its 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment report to Congress, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that just over 40,000 Veterans were experiencing homelessness (including those living on the street or in a shelter, temporary safe haven, or any place unfit to reside in) on a given night in January 2017. Of those Veterans, 91 percent were men and 9 percent were women. That number stands in comparison to a total population of more than 18.5 million living Veterans. These numbers represent a 45 percent decline in Veteran homelessness between the years 2009–2017.