‘I’m not going through it alone’ How helping Navy homeless veteran was team effort
August 31, 2018
Home Depot Foundation makes improvements to HVAF’s home for homeless veteran
October 31, 2018‘HVAF gave me hope’ How our case managers housed a homeless veteran in 24 hours
In 2011, Lianna Spencer enlisted in the United States Air Force.
After serving for two years, Lianna got out and went back to her home in
Arizona, where she went back to school and work. She also spent one year on the reservation taking care of her grandmother after she broke her leg.
Once her grandmother was doing better, Lianna needed to decide what her next steps would be.
“It was either go back to Arizona or move to Indy and stay with a friend,” she said.
After moving to Indianapolis, it was definitely not what she expected.
She said the friend abused substances and it was not a safe
environment for her. When the landlord said he was going to kick both of them out, she realized she needed to get out of this situation and live on her own.
But she didn’t have any money— she had spent all she had on the plane ride to Indiana. After looking up organizations that help the homeless, she discovered HVAF and came in to receive food and
assistance.
After talking with some of HVAF’s case managers, Will— HVAF’s housing specialist— found an
apartment and took her to see it. She liked it and the very next day, she signed the lease and moved in.
She said for the case managers to move so quickly and find her a place meant so much to her.
“The fact that everybody was coming together so quickly for me, in a place that I don’t even really know. That really gave me hope,” Lianna said. “This is a new area, and new beginning.”