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El Paso Organization Works To House Homeless Female Veterans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwmT9DiwAuw&feature=youtu.be

In an eastside neighborhood in El Paso work is being done to make a home for female veterans who are homeless. The home will be part of the H.O.P.E. Institute, whose mission is to rebuild lives of homeless female veterans through Healing, Optimizing, Perfecting, and Empowering, (H.O.P.E.).

The organization’s Founder/CEO is a female veteran herself. U.S. Army Lt. Colonel (Ret.) Hope Jackson says homelessness and hard times can happen to anyone, even her.

“What has happened to these ladies could have very well happened to me. I could be in that situation, and I would pray that someone would be there who has the kind of heart and understands the sacrifice that these women have made so that we can enjoy the liberties that we have today,” says Jackson.

A 2014 Assessment Report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to Congress says that female veterans account for 10 percent of the nearly 50,000 homeless veterans.

According to Jackson, the H.O.P.E. Institute will be offering basic needs and classes to help build soft skills for those veterans who reside in the future home. Jackson says that the institute’s model is to not think of the future house as facility or shelter, but simply a home.

“We want to integrate these women into communities like you and I live in, so that when they look out the window they see children going to school, they see adults going to work. It’s not something that is foreign to them. They have just fallen off the beaten path,” says Jackson.

Through generous donations from corporations and local businesses, and countless hours of labor from Soldiers stationed at Ft. Bliss, along with many veterans in the region, the home is nearly finished, and soon could welcome female veterans in need of shelter. The organization also has also acquired a home for female veterans with children.

Jackson says that the organization hopes to eventually have more residential homes to help those women who have served our country and have fallen on hard times for various reasons.

“It really doesn’t matter why, because we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper, and we have a responsibility and obligation to help people who are in need,” says Jackson.

For more information this organization you can visit it’s website at www.the instituteofhope.org.