Copyright Live 5 News WCSC
JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - More than 100 veterans in South Carolina are homeless, but a Lowcountry nonprofit is helping veterans with more than just putting a roof over their head. Lowcountry Veterans helps homeless veterans in the Charleston area with transitional housing for 90 days. Lowcountry Veterans provides help to homeless veterans in Charleston, providing transitional housing. “The gentlemen that we receive here, a lot of them have like mental health issues, PTSD, that stems from their time in the military or just from their past that’s not military connected,” case manager Cheryl Jamison said. “And they find themselves in not a good situation,” Cheryl Jamison, case manager.“ Veterans struggle with civilian adjustment Many military veterans come out of years of war and don’t get prepared for what they encounter when they come back. “We come from a very regimented type of environment to a more business type of environment,” U.S. Army veteran Rudolph J. Oremland said. “Adjustment to civilian society was my biggest fault or plight, if you will. I struggled for years to adjust,” Oremland said. He said he had trouble adjusting, but Lowcountry Veterans has provided him with what he calls relief. “That I have a warm place to stay, a place, a shelter, a safety zone,” he said. Individualized support approach Lowcountry Veterans also provides food and other accommodations for these veterans. “We meet the veteran where they are. If we know that they’ve been out living in their cars for a very long time, we talk to them, we get their story, and their story tells us how we need to provide them assistance,” Jamison said. Jason Michael Sommers, who served in the Air Force, realized how hard the adjustment was soon after he returned. “I think I had an issue until about three weeks after I came out. I tried to go into Walmart and there’s too many people,” Sommers said. Sommers said he kept all his PTSD to himself, the stories he lived in his head, something that hurt him. “You think you’re, you get it in your head that you’re broken, right? And you’re, when you’re broken, it makes you feel weak and we’re not allowed to be weak. You know, not only as a soldier, but as a man,” he said. Peer connection provides healing Lowcountry Veterans allows him to connect with others who have had similar experiences, people just like him. “Guys that can sit down and have done some of the exact same things I’ve done to be able to get it off your chest, right? Carrying that thing around is a death knell. It’ll eat you alive slowly, but be able to just voice it is worth its weight in gold,” Sommers said. Lowcountry Veterans has helped these veterans but the main goal is to get them ready for the real world and find them a stable job and home before they leave.
