HAMILTON, Ohio — Helping heroes stay in their homes is one of the primary missions of USA Cares. It's one of the small stressors the organization is able to relieve for veterans, improving their quality of life and limiting any factors that might contribute to veteran suicide.
"We are keeping people in their homes the last 10 years, we've kept more than 4,500 veteran families ... from losing their homes," said Matt Castor, VP of Outreach and Development for USA Cares. "That's keeping kids together with their parents. That's keeping the family system together and tight."
For so many veterans, the war doesn't end when they return home.
"It's still going on in their head," Castor said. "And we need to be we need to come together as a community, we need to come together as a people and support these, these men and women who served our country so well."
The Ohio chapter of USA Cares hosted its first "American Heroes Breakfast" — part fundraiser, part celebration of service — in Hamilton Wednesday morning. The chapter, led by James Clark, started about a year ago and has already seen success.
"The passion of people like James Clark, who will step up and say I've had enough of losing men and women to suicide have had enough, I'm going to do what it takes, and they put their messages out on social media, and they let the world know," Castor said. "The Cincinnati community, people are joining him, people are following him. They understand what he's saying and they want to get behind it."
What USA Cares is providing is needed now more than ever, Castor said. They get 100 requests a week, double what they were last year.
"The hard part is the cost to keep somebody in their home right now is up about 250% from where it was a year ago," Castor said. "So we're it's not slowing down, it's speeding up and the cost to assistance is going up."
You can find more information about USA Cares here. If you need assistance or want to help, you can click the links at the top right of the homepage.
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