August 11, 2025 • 25 mins
What happens after veterans return home? For many, it’s a silent struggle filled with isolation, trauma, and lack of support. Jeff Upton shares how We Are Building Lives is stepping in to change that by offering housing, hope, and second chances. He and Morgan talk about the veterans behind the statistics, the challenges of rebuilding from nothing, and how one act of kindness can ripple into life-changing impact.
More information on We Are Building Lives: www.wearebuildinglives.org
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Thanks personally.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
With Logan Feldman, we are continuing the spotlight on our military.
Last week, Scotti Hastein shared his experience in the service
and all of the events that followed after he was
shot ten times in an ambush. This week, Jeff Upton
joins me of We Are Building Lives. It's an organization
helping to combat veterans dealing with homelessness and bring awareness
(00:36):
to their lives after serving. I'm joined this week by
Jeff Upton. He is the executive director of We Are
Building Lives. Jeff, thanks for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Thanks for having me, Morgan, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I'm really excited to talk about everything it is that
you guys do because we are focused on veterans and
hearing veterans stories, but ers and foremost, how did you
get into this line of work and why.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I transitioned out of twenty seven years in full time
ministry before I started working in this particular line of work.
And it just basically got to the point where one
day I came to realization that here in Nashville, you know,
just literally like the buckle of the Bible belt, that
anyone that's in a homeless situation could show up at
(01:27):
any given church, and most churches across Nashville, and people
just put their hands up in the air and not
know what to do with an individual in that type
of need. And so I just decided to put my
personal faith into action and that's what led me to
the organization that I'm running now.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Okay, and we are building lives. You guys are helping
veterans essentially stay off the street. That's the goal.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Correct. We do two things. We house transitionally veterans who
are completely homeless, so they don't have anywhere else to go,
anywhere else to turn. They may not have family, or
family may live across the country, or they just may
be alone. And then we also have what we call
Project Advance, where if a veteran and their family contact
(02:11):
us and they're behind on their rent, they're behind on
their utilities, mortgage, whatever it may be due to a
loss of job or illness and leth of things that
could happen, then we will step in and assist them
to help keep them housed.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
That's really important. Working a lot of I mean even
just driving around Nashville, you see a lot of signs
that it's a lot of veterans that are often the
ones experiencing this.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So the most recent statistics about here in let's just
say Middle Tennessee, and what I mean by that is
David's County and basically the counties that touch Davidson County.
You're going to have, on average, and these statistics are
a little bit older, but you're going to have on
average about twenty three hundred homeless individuals in the area
(02:57):
to begin with, in about seventeen days. Eighteen percent of
those are veterans.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Wow, when you were in the ministry where and you
were seeing this happen? How often was it that people
were coming in and it was just kind of we
don't know what to do with you?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Was that a common occurrence that actually happened at the
last church that I worked with? That actually happened several times,
and we could use some of our resources. Several times
we just stopped service and just passed the tray and
took up a collection and did what we could or
helped put them up in a week long stay hotels
(03:32):
for two or three weeks at a time, and you
just kind of did what you could. But then after
that you kind of would lose contact and you never
really knew what happened to.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
That person, so you felt like coming into this organization
you could really help them over the course of time
versus just a band aid fix.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Absolutely, and even the name of the organization we're building lives.
I mean literally, we're helping these veterans build their lives
back in a lot of times art from scratch, from
ground zero. When I say that, I mean sometimes they've
lost their birth certificate, a solid security car, driver's license,
and we're literally taking them to the Social Security office,
(04:11):
the DMV, everything, getting their identification, just trying to get
their life back together.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I don't think we think about those things when it
comes to people experiencing homelessness, right you just see them
and think, oh, well, they ended up on the street
and their belongings are somewhere or something like that. So
what other kind of misconceptions is there of whether it
be veterans who are homeless or homeless in general. But
I think more of the experience here as veterans dealing
(04:38):
with homelessness.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I think some of the misconceptions might actually surprise people.
There are four veterans, there are a lot of there's
a lot of resources out there for veterans. Generally across
the board more resources for veterans than for just civilians
that have never served. The difference is that you're probably
dealing with a higher level of mental illness among veterans,
(05:02):
much higher levels of PTSD, and even among the veteran community,
veterans are two times more likely to commit suicide than
non veterans. In fact, each day across America, there's actually
an epidemic where seventeen veterans across America per day commit suicide.
So there's a lot of the mental issues, the social issues,
(05:24):
and just across the board that you have to take
everything and everything into account.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, that's so tough, and we do see it. And
we have this interview with Scottie Hastin and he was
really talking about his experience, and I think firsthand, we're
starting to learn a lot of the things that they
go through not we think about when they're over there,
but when they come back, it's a battle just not
the same, and they go through a lot of things
that we forget about. It's like they serve they come back.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Okay, yay, Well, it's interesting that you say that because
my dad was a Vietnam veteran. I was actually born
in insterl Turkey, in Air Force Base. And he told
stories because he served from sixty five to seventy seventy six,
somewhere right around there. And he told stories of coming
back from service and especially during that time in American history,
(06:15):
wearing his uniform and people saying bad things and baby
killer and so on and so forth. And that was
in My mom and dad were both from Alabama, and
that was in the Deep South.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Wow, And so was that connection kind of with your
father played a role and you also wanted to do
the thing it did.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It did, it played a big role. My dad died
of a massive heart attack when he was forty four.
I was nineteen. I think it's a little bit for me,
a little bit of a way to connect back with him.
But then also I just really enjoy the tangible aspect
of being able to assist people. Yes, but that being
connected to the men and women that have served this
(06:54):
country very important. Like I said, my dad was in Vietnam,
my grandfather was in World War Two. My great grandfather
was a dough boy in World War One. My niece
was just recently stationed right up the road in Clark School.
So it runs deep in my blood and the DNA
of who I am.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
With having so many generations having served. Was that ever
something you wanted to do or did you feel you
wanted to serve?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I did at one time when I was little, and
then I discovered I watched a lot of John Wayne
movies or Clint Eastwood war movies growing up, and then
I realized one day it hit me. It was like
in the movies, they get shot, they fall down, and
they get back up. In real life they In real
life they don't. But in all seriousness, when I was
growing up, I was much more into sports personally, and
(07:39):
then actually wanted to go into be a high school
history teacher or archaeologist. How I got into ministry as
a whole different other story, but I still had that
thing inside of me that just really wanted to assist people.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, well, ministry is serving, It's just a different type
of service.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
It is a different type and you can of taking
care of the emotional, spiritual, physical well being. But I
really have enjoyed my last going on six years of
being able to transition into doing what I do now
and helping the organization grow and grow toward who I
think that we're supposed to become in the future.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
What has that been transitioned like, because that's six years.
Has the organization been around for longer than that?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Great question? Yeah, the organization was actually formed in Franklin, Tennessee,
in a United Methodist Church men's Bible study and all
the men in the Bible study where they were sixty
plus years old in two thousand and six, two thousand
and seven, and they're doing what men do when we
get together. They're complaining about government and politics in the
(08:46):
world around them, and then they start talking about how
homelessness is growing in the area and they see the
signs we're a homeless veteran, please help. And then they
stopped and they realized that there weren't that many. But
every guy in that room at some point point have
been in the military. And one guy in that group,
but Tim Gregorth, who was the founder of the organization,
(09:07):
he still works alongside of us in an advisory capacity.
I love Tim. He's like a father figure to me.
And Tim just said, you know what, somebody's got to
do something, and that's going to be me. And so
he started the organization, did all the heavy lifting, getting
the five oh one C three, doing all the legalities,
getting the first board together, and he did that for
(09:27):
quite a few years, and then I started on board
in twenty twenty and that was an interesting time, but
that's when I came on board.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And have you seen a change in the things that
are needed for veterans over the course of that time.
I imagine when you first started, they first created the company,
that there was a different need, and now it's.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Evolved over time there has been a much larger need.
The probably two areas that I would three areas that
I would specify first and foremost. One would be the
growing presence of females in the military, So we're seeing
a lot more of the needs homeless issues amongst female
(10:08):
veterans that are getting out that fall into the sum
of the same traps that the male veterans do. We
can circle back to that later because that's some of
our future plans. I think another issue that we see
are some of the mental aspects of it. A lot
of these soldiers coming back with PTSD issues and they
(10:29):
turn to substances to try to help placate the mental
issues that they're going through. And the other that everyone
is around here, in this area, here in the national area,
keenly aware of, and really across the entire country. In
the last five years, property values and rents have just skyrocketed.
So even with public Assistant Section eight HUD all those
(10:52):
things that are available, it's still near impossible to define
adequate housing at an affordable price for veterans that may
have physical limitations. Maybe they're even drawing their full amount
that they can get in there, but it's still not
enough to survive. You've got one bedroom apartments here in
(11:12):
Nashville that are going for sixteen seventeen hundred dollars a month,
and if you're drawing three thousand dollars a month in disability,
it's not leaving a lot of wiggle room for anything.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, And when you talk to these veterans about trying
to make these changes for them, what is the thing
that you see from them where I think one of
the questions that a lot of people have often when
they see homeless veterans is how can we help them
in the best way? So what do you see from
them that could potentially have an answer.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Offering them hope. One of the first things we do
when a veteran comes to us in our academy house
where we actually house the veterans that are completely homeless.
Is we just say, look, for your first thirty days,
we want you to just collect yourself. You know, you've
been scrounging for where your next bed is going to be,
sometimes your next meal, wondering when your next shower would be.
(12:02):
We're going to take care of all of that for
you for thirty days. We just want you to take
a deep breath, we want you to relax, and then
after that we're going to slowly start helping you build
a build or rebuild a resume, work skills. We're going
to give you drug and alcohol counseling. We're going to
provide you food, clothing, shelter, provide all those wrap around
(12:25):
services to help you slowly see that there are people
and organizations that do care and you can do this.
When you have these guys in the military. We had
one guy, a very interesting scenario. One guy. The man
drove a Bradley tank, so a million plus dollar vehicle.
The government was trusting him to do that, but once
(12:47):
he got out of the military, he just lost his way,
lost where he connected in society and things fell apart,
and he was like, they used to trust me to
drive these million dollar vehicles, and now now I can't
even get up in the morning to find purpose, and
that's really hard.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
What you often hear from a lot of veterans is
that coming back to civilization, it's almost like there's this
forgotten space that happens where they just feel like they've served,
whether it be what they experienced over there or whether
they served, and they come back and they've lost things
that were here before they were there. There's so much
(13:26):
of this reconnect that doesn't happen when they come back.
And I think that's what you're talking about a little
bit here too.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
It's very difficult to transition from the military, where you're
told you know what time to wake up and what
you're going to be doing and what you're going to
be wearing, and you've done that maybe for ten, fifteen,
twenty years, when now suddenly you have to begin to
do all of these things on your own. The vast
majority of people in the military transition out easily, but
(13:56):
it's going to be that you know ten percent that
are going to have the more difficult time, who have
put in the time, who have done all these things
and they thought it was going to be easy, but
then they just struggle with it when they get out,
and it may lead to a pallethora of other things,
not always homelessness, of course.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Oh yeah, well that's just a big one, because I
think it's really difficult to see someone who's served the
country and done so much to help to then not
receive help in return. It's really hard.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Oh, it's extremely difficult. Whether you saw combat or not,
you were willing to put your name on the dotted line,
and if called upon, then yes, you would be putting
your life online. Bullets would be flying by your head.
And of course we've seen both. We've seen we've served
veterans who saw no combat when the maybe late seventies
(14:47):
throughout the early eighties, and we also deal those that
did multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. And what people
tend to forget, that rush that came after September eleventh.
Those veterans are now in their forty the early forties,
all the way up into their early fifties now.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
And you mentioned wanting to look towards the future, and
you're talking about female veterans, but also I imagine there's
more you guys want to do and help and being
able to do that, what can that look like?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
We've got big plans. We've got big plans. It were
up to us as an organization, there wouldn't be a
single homeless veteran here in Middle Tennessee whatsoever. However, we
just purchased a second property back in February over in
the Whites Creek area where we will be able to
house in additional fifteen veterans. And then after that, our
three year plan down the road is we're going to
(15:37):
actually begin either working with a builder or some other
the Housing Fund or the Barns Fund here in this
area where will either start building or purchasing affordable long
term housing for veterans, where it'll be income based so
it won't be any more than ten to twelve percent
of your income. So if you make two thousand dollars
(15:58):
a month, then you know it's not going to exceed
a little over two hundred and something dollars a month,
but we're going to help keep you housed in an
affordable manner. That's really what we're doing, that's really where
we want to go. But our first step is going
to be able to provide that for female veterans, specifically
those with children. So in all of Middle Tennessee, there's
(16:22):
basically three organizations that provide beds for homeless veterans, and
of those three organizations, it amounts to about eighty to
eighty five beds somewhere right around there for approximately three
hundred plus homeless veterans at any given time. Of those
beds provided just for veterans, only seven of those are
(16:42):
designated for females, and those are single females without children.
There's nothing for single females with children. And with females
becoming more and more predominant in the military, we're seeing
we get phone calls, several phone calls a week for
female veterans needing assistance to stay housed. And so that's
(17:03):
something that we would like to do. My problem is
that I'm too picky because I will only purchase a
property for a female veteran with children in a school
district that I would be willing to put my children in.
So that's going to kind of make the prices go up.
But it's just something that is important to us as
an organization.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Well, you're trying to respect them and you're not trying
to just do the bottom right. You're not saying, hey,
we're going to put you somewhere, and yeah you'll be
in a school district, but it'll come with other problems.
You're trying to give them the best step up possible.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
We would much rather focus you hear it all the time,
quality versus quantity. But you know, we would really want
to provide the best quality services that we possibly can.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I love that you guys are doing this and I
never knew, especially those statistics, and just even the gender
side of things as well. Jeff, I would love for
you to share. I like to end my podcast with
always a piece of advice or inspiration or motivation, maybe
something we didn't talk about yet that you feel on
(18:07):
your heart, whatever that may be, some handing the reins
over to you.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Sure, I have several things. One I would just encourage
your listeners people that are interested in serving veterans, whether
if it's here local in Nashville, just look us up.
We are building lives dot org. See if it might
be something that you might be interested in. If you
want to donate, volunteer, whatever, you can look us up
and see where all the money goes. We're of small
(18:32):
staff that's decentralized. We would love to hear from the
people that are out there that may be listening. But
I would also encourage people to think about it this
way to they think that you have to do some
grandiose type of thing. And I've always told people that
I don't think that we should ever ask God that
we should do something great. You know, people get caught
(18:55):
up and I've got to make this huge gesture, I've
got to do all these incredible things. We should never
ask God that we should do great things. Instead, we
should ask God that we can do small things with
a great amount of love. And I think that's what
we need to focus on when it comes to assisting
people that are veterans that are homeless, or civilians that
are homeless, or anyone that's just in need. It's not
(19:18):
always the grandiose thing, but it's what you said earlier.
It's about meeting that person where they are, respecting them
where they are, and showing them that love in the
truest and most pure form that will make our community
around us much better.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
That's a really good thing to hear because I think
one of the struggles people often have with volunteering their
time or doing stuff with nonprofits. Is they feel like
it's not enough or that they're they could be doing more.
And one of the biggest things I've always leaned on
is if I can change one person's day, or one
(19:53):
person's life, or just one person feels impacted by something
that I'm doing, I'm doing something that matters. And I think,
to your point, we often fall into this habit of well,
it's not going to matter in the grand scheme of things,
and it really does.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
It makes an impact, it does well well, I can't
tell you how many times where we've seen where it's
been one person's that told one of our veterans, hey,
thank you for your service, or one person that was
in the business industry that offered one of our veterans
who had no hope but offered him or her the
(20:29):
first job that they've had in a long time that
has really changed their life. WED we get some of
our veterans come to us out of the Department of Corrections,
and a few years ago, my operations director Kevin Wilkinson,
wonderful guy. He's actually a desert storm vet himself. He
was one of the first graduates of our program in
two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, and he
(20:52):
went and got his business degree from MTSU and he's
been our director of operations ever since. But Kevin's got
a passion for or veterans, period, no matter where they're
coming from. And one individual came to us from the
Department of Corrections. He showed up Kevin's like, can you
come to meet the new guy? Said sure, and I
go to meet the new guy and he's still in
(21:12):
his prison grays. We'd picked him up upon his release.
It's prison grays. He had been locked up for fifteen years,
so we didn't fit in any of the clothes that
he went in with. Hey's still wearing his prison crocks.
And while he was there, he had torn a moniscus
playing basketball that he never had, that he never had fixed,
had no hope, no nothing, and he didn't think anyone
(21:34):
beyond those walls would care for him. And he found
a group of people that cared, gave him hope and
gave him time, and within six to eight months he
had gotten a job, saved every penny because we don't
charge program fees. So when you come to us like
we don't charge. Many organizations will charge program fees to
(21:55):
which is insane to me, but will charge program fees
to their clients. We don't do that. He saved every
time that he made. He worked as a roofer out
in Murphy Spurre and ended up buying a house with
his sister and they still live out there today. Wow. Yeah,
just wonderful stories like that. We've had that guys come
in and they given time and space. Guys that have
(22:18):
started their own businesses, became handyman. We had one guy
that came and got a ton of certifications. He now
works for a large construction company out in Franklin. I'm
working with another sister organization. Just today, I filled out
a form to get a vehicle donated to one of
our veterans who is working at Target now, and he
saved up money and he's about ready to move on
(22:40):
to his own full time place. So it's just tangible
things that we love to see and be a part of.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
It's really beautiful to think about how just one action
can create this entire ripple effect for somebody. And I
feel like that's what your entire organization is doing, is
just starting the one action to create that effect to
continue going down.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
It's little by little, it's taking people exactly where they are.
And I'm sorry, I'm going to revert back into my
ministry role past just for a moment. But in the Bible,
there's a story when a woman who was a woman
who went out to the well to draw water in
the heat of the day, Like, why would you draw
water from well to the heat of the day. It
was because that she was a known woman around the
(23:21):
village in town that no one else would have anything
to do with, because she had been with multiple men
and so on and so forth. But at the end
of the day, when the townspeople and even Jesus's closest
friends were looking at this woman, going who does this
woman think she is? They saw her as a dirty woman,
as a sinful woman. But Jesus met her at a
well and just simply saw her as a woman who
(23:43):
was thirsty. And there's so many men and women, whether
they're veterans or not, that we come in contact with
that aren't evil. They're not bad, they're not dirty, they're
just thirsty. They're looking for something more, and they're looking
for another chance. They're looking for another opportunity, and that's
(24:03):
what we want to do. We want to provide that
second chance and that second opportunity and do what we
do with the great amount of love.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Well on how cool would it be if everybody started
meeting each other where they were. I think the world
would be a better place.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I think it would. But you know, we also have
to be grounded in realism at the same time and
know that's most likely not going to happen, but the
way we can try to do it ourselves as often
as possible.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yes, and you'd be the change that you want to
see in the world. That's very much a part of this.
So Jeff, thanks for being here and sharing your story,
a story of what you guys are doing. Go check
out we are building lives even if you're not in Nashville,
and maybe if you're so inspired, you can start your
own and work with them to do one in your
city if that can happen.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Quite honestly, if there's somebody no matter what state you're in,
if you're listening what we do here in Nashville, we
can literally pick up and do in another state at
any time. We can replicate it. We've been talking about
it and We would love to do that. If anyone
would like to just get on our website, call it,
and you're not going to get like an administrative assistant.
(25:05):
It's going to be me that calls you back, So
just feel free. We would love to partner with anyone
or if there's a veteran right here in Middle Tennessee
that needs any assistance, please get on our website, please
call us. We would love to what We would love
to help you as much as we possibly can.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I love that well, Thank you, Jeff, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Thank you Morgan.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
If you like the series, make sure you like and
subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and follow the podcast
Instagram at take this personally. If you ever have any
input or guests you may want to hear, send in
my way. I love getting to talk about all different
types of things that just bring awareness and help us
feel less alone. That's the entire goal of this podcast.
So I appreciate you being here and I will talk
(25:44):
to you guys next week
Thanks personally.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
With Logan Feldman, we are continuing the spotlight on our military.
Last week, Scotti Hastein shared his experience in the service
and all of the events that followed after he was
shot ten times in an ambush. This week, Jeff Upton
joins me of We Are Building Lives. It's an organization
helping to combat veterans dealing with homelessness and bring awareness
(00:36):
to their lives after serving. I'm joined this week by
Jeff Upton. He is the executive director of We Are
Building Lives. Jeff, thanks for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Thanks for having me, Morgan, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I'm really excited to talk about everything it is that
you guys do because we are focused on veterans and
hearing veterans stories, but ers and foremost, how did you
get into this line of work and why.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I transitioned out of twenty seven years in full time
ministry before I started working in this particular line of work.
And it just basically got to the point where one
day I came to realization that here in Nashville, you know,
just literally like the buckle of the Bible belt, that
anyone that's in a homeless situation could show up at
(01:27):
any given church, and most churches across Nashville, and people
just put their hands up in the air and not
know what to do with an individual in that type
of need. And so I just decided to put my
personal faith into action and that's what led me to
the organization that I'm running now.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Okay, and we are building lives. You guys are helping
veterans essentially stay off the street. That's the goal.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Correct. We do two things. We house transitionally veterans who
are completely homeless, so they don't have anywhere else to go,
anywhere else to turn. They may not have family, or
family may live across the country, or they just may
be alone. And then we also have what we call
Project Advance, where if a veteran and their family contact
(02:11):
us and they're behind on their rent, they're behind on
their utilities, mortgage, whatever it may be due to a
loss of job or illness and leth of things that
could happen, then we will step in and assist them
to help keep them housed.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
That's really important. Working a lot of I mean even
just driving around Nashville, you see a lot of signs
that it's a lot of veterans that are often the
ones experiencing this.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So the most recent statistics about here in let's just
say Middle Tennessee, and what I mean by that is
David's County and basically the counties that touch Davidson County.
You're going to have, on average, and these statistics are
a little bit older, but you're going to have on
average about twenty three hundred homeless individuals in the area
(02:57):
to begin with, in about seventeen days. Eighteen percent of
those are veterans.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Wow, when you were in the ministry where and you
were seeing this happen? How often was it that people
were coming in and it was just kind of we
don't know what to do with you?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Was that a common occurrence that actually happened at the
last church that I worked with? That actually happened several times,
and we could use some of our resources. Several times
we just stopped service and just passed the tray and
took up a collection and did what we could or
helped put them up in a week long stay hotels
(03:32):
for two or three weeks at a time, and you
just kind of did what you could. But then after
that you kind of would lose contact and you never
really knew what happened to.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
That person, so you felt like coming into this organization
you could really help them over the course of time
versus just a band aid fix.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Absolutely, and even the name of the organization we're building lives.
I mean literally, we're helping these veterans build their lives
back in a lot of times art from scratch, from
ground zero. When I say that, I mean sometimes they've
lost their birth certificate, a solid security car, driver's license,
and we're literally taking them to the Social Security office,
(04:11):
the DMV, everything, getting their identification, just trying to get
their life back together.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I don't think we think about those things when it
comes to people experiencing homelessness, right you just see them
and think, oh, well, they ended up on the street
and their belongings are somewhere or something like that. So
what other kind of misconceptions is there of whether it
be veterans who are homeless or homeless in general. But
I think more of the experience here as veterans dealing
(04:38):
with homelessness.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I think some of the misconceptions might actually surprise people.
There are four veterans, there are a lot of there's
a lot of resources out there for veterans. Generally across
the board more resources for veterans than for just civilians
that have never served. The difference is that you're probably
dealing with a higher level of mental illness among veterans,
(05:02):
much higher levels of PTSD, and even among the veteran community,
veterans are two times more likely to commit suicide than
non veterans. In fact, each day across America, there's actually
an epidemic where seventeen veterans across America per day commit suicide.
So there's a lot of the mental issues, the social issues,
(05:24):
and just across the board that you have to take
everything and everything into account.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, that's so tough, and we do see it. And
we have this interview with Scottie Hastin and he was
really talking about his experience, and I think firsthand, we're
starting to learn a lot of the things that they
go through not we think about when they're over there,
but when they come back, it's a battle just not
the same, and they go through a lot of things
that we forget about. It's like they serve they come back.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Okay, yay, Well, it's interesting that you say that because
my dad was a Vietnam veteran. I was actually born
in insterl Turkey, in Air Force Base. And he told
stories because he served from sixty five to seventy seventy six,
somewhere right around there. And he told stories of coming
back from service and especially during that time in American history,
(06:15):
wearing his uniform and people saying bad things and baby
killer and so on and so forth. And that was
in My mom and dad were both from Alabama, and
that was in the Deep South.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Wow, And so was that connection kind of with your
father played a role and you also wanted to do
the thing it did.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It did, it played a big role. My dad died
of a massive heart attack when he was forty four.
I was nineteen. I think it's a little bit for me,
a little bit of a way to connect back with him.
But then also I just really enjoy the tangible aspect
of being able to assist people. Yes, but that being
connected to the men and women that have served this
(06:54):
country very important. Like I said, my dad was in Vietnam,
my grandfather was in World War Two. My great grandfather
was a dough boy in World War One. My niece
was just recently stationed right up the road in Clark School.
So it runs deep in my blood and the DNA
of who I am.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
With having so many generations having served. Was that ever
something you wanted to do or did you feel you
wanted to serve?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I did at one time when I was little, and
then I discovered I watched a lot of John Wayne
movies or Clint Eastwood war movies growing up, and then
I realized one day it hit me. It was like
in the movies, they get shot, they fall down, and
they get back up. In real life they In real
life they don't. But in all seriousness, when I was
growing up, I was much more into sports personally, and
(07:39):
then actually wanted to go into be a high school
history teacher or archaeologist. How I got into ministry as
a whole different other story, but I still had that
thing inside of me that just really wanted to assist people.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, well, ministry is serving, It's just a different type
of service.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
It is a different type and you can of taking
care of the emotional, spiritual, physical well being. But I
really have enjoyed my last going on six years of
being able to transition into doing what I do now
and helping the organization grow and grow toward who I
think that we're supposed to become in the future.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
What has that been transitioned like, because that's six years.
Has the organization been around for longer than that?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Great question? Yeah, the organization was actually formed in Franklin, Tennessee,
in a United Methodist Church men's Bible study and all
the men in the Bible study where they were sixty
plus years old in two thousand and six, two thousand
and seven, and they're doing what men do when we
get together. They're complaining about government and politics in the
(08:46):
world around them, and then they start talking about how
homelessness is growing in the area and they see the
signs we're a homeless veteran, please help. And then they
stopped and they realized that there weren't that many. But
every guy in that room at some point point have
been in the military. And one guy in that group,
but Tim Gregorth, who was the founder of the organization,
(09:07):
he still works alongside of us in an advisory capacity.
I love Tim. He's like a father figure to me.
And Tim just said, you know what, somebody's got to
do something, and that's going to be me. And so
he started the organization, did all the heavy lifting, getting
the five oh one C three, doing all the legalities,
getting the first board together, and he did that for
(09:27):
quite a few years, and then I started on board
in twenty twenty and that was an interesting time, but
that's when I came on board.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And have you seen a change in the things that
are needed for veterans over the course of that time.
I imagine when you first started, they first created the company,
that there was a different need, and now it's.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Evolved over time there has been a much larger need.
The probably two areas that I would three areas that
I would specify first and foremost. One would be the
growing presence of females in the military, So we're seeing
a lot more of the needs homeless issues amongst female
(10:08):
veterans that are getting out that fall into the sum
of the same traps that the male veterans do. We
can circle back to that later because that's some of
our future plans. I think another issue that we see
are some of the mental aspects of it. A lot
of these soldiers coming back with PTSD issues and they
(10:29):
turn to substances to try to help placate the mental
issues that they're going through. And the other that everyone
is around here, in this area, here in the national area,
keenly aware of, and really across the entire country. In
the last five years, property values and rents have just skyrocketed.
So even with public Assistant Section eight HUD all those
(10:52):
things that are available, it's still near impossible to define
adequate housing at an affordable price for veterans that may
have physical limitations. Maybe they're even drawing their full amount
that they can get in there, but it's still not
enough to survive. You've got one bedroom apartments here in
(11:12):
Nashville that are going for sixteen seventeen hundred dollars a month,
and if you're drawing three thousand dollars a month in disability,
it's not leaving a lot of wiggle room for anything.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, And when you talk to these veterans about trying
to make these changes for them, what is the thing
that you see from them where I think one of
the questions that a lot of people have often when
they see homeless veterans is how can we help them
in the best way? So what do you see from
them that could potentially have an answer.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Offering them hope. One of the first things we do
when a veteran comes to us in our academy house
where we actually house the veterans that are completely homeless.
Is we just say, look, for your first thirty days,
we want you to just collect yourself. You know, you've
been scrounging for where your next bed is going to be,
sometimes your next meal, wondering when your next shower would be.
(12:02):
We're going to take care of all of that for
you for thirty days. We just want you to take
a deep breath, we want you to relax, and then
after that we're going to slowly start helping you build
a build or rebuild a resume, work skills. We're going
to give you drug and alcohol counseling. We're going to
provide you food, clothing, shelter, provide all those wrap around
(12:25):
services to help you slowly see that there are people
and organizations that do care and you can do this.
When you have these guys in the military. We had
one guy, a very interesting scenario. One guy. The man
drove a Bradley tank, so a million plus dollar vehicle.
The government was trusting him to do that, but once
(12:47):
he got out of the military, he just lost his way,
lost where he connected in society and things fell apart,
and he was like, they used to trust me to
drive these million dollar vehicles, and now now I can't
even get up in the morning to find purpose, and
that's really hard.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
What you often hear from a lot of veterans is
that coming back to civilization, it's almost like there's this
forgotten space that happens where they just feel like they've served,
whether it be what they experienced over there or whether
they served, and they come back and they've lost things
that were here before they were there. There's so much
(13:26):
of this reconnect that doesn't happen when they come back.
And I think that's what you're talking about a little
bit here too.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
It's very difficult to transition from the military, where you're
told you know what time to wake up and what
you're going to be doing and what you're going to
be wearing, and you've done that maybe for ten, fifteen,
twenty years, when now suddenly you have to begin to
do all of these things on your own. The vast
majority of people in the military transition out easily, but
(13:56):
it's going to be that you know ten percent that
are going to have the more difficult time, who have
put in the time, who have done all these things
and they thought it was going to be easy, but
then they just struggle with it when they get out,
and it may lead to a pallethora of other things,
not always homelessness, of course.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Oh yeah, well that's just a big one, because I
think it's really difficult to see someone who's served the
country and done so much to help to then not
receive help in return. It's really hard.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Oh, it's extremely difficult. Whether you saw combat or not,
you were willing to put your name on the dotted line,
and if called upon, then yes, you would be putting
your life online. Bullets would be flying by your head.
And of course we've seen both. We've seen we've served
veterans who saw no combat when the maybe late seventies
(14:47):
throughout the early eighties, and we also deal those that
did multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. And what people
tend to forget, that rush that came after September eleventh.
Those veterans are now in their forty the early forties,
all the way up into their early fifties now.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
And you mentioned wanting to look towards the future, and
you're talking about female veterans, but also I imagine there's
more you guys want to do and help and being
able to do that, what can that look like?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
We've got big plans. We've got big plans. It were
up to us as an organization, there wouldn't be a
single homeless veteran here in Middle Tennessee whatsoever. However, we
just purchased a second property back in February over in
the Whites Creek area where we will be able to
house in additional fifteen veterans. And then after that, our
three year plan down the road is we're going to
(15:37):
actually begin either working with a builder or some other
the Housing Fund or the Barns Fund here in this
area where will either start building or purchasing affordable long
term housing for veterans, where it'll be income based so
it won't be any more than ten to twelve percent
of your income. So if you make two thousand dollars
(15:58):
a month, then you know it's not going to exceed
a little over two hundred and something dollars a month,
but we're going to help keep you housed in an
affordable manner. That's really what we're doing, that's really where
we want to go. But our first step is going
to be able to provide that for female veterans, specifically
those with children. So in all of Middle Tennessee, there's
(16:22):
basically three organizations that provide beds for homeless veterans, and
of those three organizations, it amounts to about eighty to
eighty five beds somewhere right around there for approximately three
hundred plus homeless veterans at any given time. Of those
beds provided just for veterans, only seven of those are
(16:42):
designated for females, and those are single females without children.
There's nothing for single females with children. And with females
becoming more and more predominant in the military, we're seeing
we get phone calls, several phone calls a week for
female veterans needing assistance to stay housed. And so that's
(17:03):
something that we would like to do. My problem is
that I'm too picky because I will only purchase a
property for a female veteran with children in a school
district that I would be willing to put my children in.
So that's going to kind of make the prices go up.
But it's just something that is important to us as
an organization.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Well, you're trying to respect them and you're not trying
to just do the bottom right. You're not saying, hey,
we're going to put you somewhere, and yeah you'll be
in a school district, but it'll come with other problems.
You're trying to give them the best step up possible.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
We would much rather focus you hear it all the time,
quality versus quantity. But you know, we would really want
to provide the best quality services that we possibly can.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I love that you guys are doing this and I
never knew, especially those statistics, and just even the gender
side of things as well. Jeff, I would love for
you to share. I like to end my podcast with
always a piece of advice or inspiration or motivation, maybe
something we didn't talk about yet that you feel on
(18:07):
your heart, whatever that may be, some handing the reins
over to you.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Sure, I have several things. One I would just encourage
your listeners people that are interested in serving veterans, whether
if it's here local in Nashville, just look us up.
We are building lives dot org. See if it might
be something that you might be interested in. If you
want to donate, volunteer, whatever, you can look us up
and see where all the money goes. We're of small
(18:32):
staff that's decentralized. We would love to hear from the
people that are out there that may be listening. But
I would also encourage people to think about it this
way to they think that you have to do some
grandiose type of thing. And I've always told people that
I don't think that we should ever ask God that
we should do something great. You know, people get caught
(18:55):
up and I've got to make this huge gesture, I've
got to do all these incredible things. We should never
ask God that we should do great things. Instead, we
should ask God that we can do small things with
a great amount of love. And I think that's what
we need to focus on when it comes to assisting
people that are veterans that are homeless, or civilians that
are homeless, or anyone that's just in need. It's not
(19:18):
always the grandiose thing, but it's what you said earlier.
It's about meeting that person where they are, respecting them
where they are, and showing them that love in the
truest and most pure form that will make our community
around us much better.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
That's a really good thing to hear because I think
one of the struggles people often have with volunteering their
time or doing stuff with nonprofits. Is they feel like
it's not enough or that they're they could be doing more.
And one of the biggest things I've always leaned on
is if I can change one person's day, or one
(19:53):
person's life, or just one person feels impacted by something
that I'm doing, I'm doing something that matters. And I think,
to your point, we often fall into this habit of well,
it's not going to matter in the grand scheme of things,
and it really does.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
It makes an impact, it does well well, I can't
tell you how many times where we've seen where it's
been one person's that told one of our veterans, hey,
thank you for your service, or one person that was
in the business industry that offered one of our veterans
who had no hope but offered him or her the
(20:29):
first job that they've had in a long time that
has really changed their life. WED we get some of
our veterans come to us out of the Department of Corrections,
and a few years ago, my operations director Kevin Wilkinson,
wonderful guy. He's actually a desert storm vet himself. He
was one of the first graduates of our program in
two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, and he
(20:52):
went and got his business degree from MTSU and he's
been our director of operations ever since. But Kevin's got
a passion for or veterans, period, no matter where they're
coming from. And one individual came to us from the
Department of Corrections. He showed up Kevin's like, can you
come to meet the new guy? Said sure, and I
go to meet the new guy and he's still in
(21:12):
his prison grays. We'd picked him up upon his release.
It's prison grays. He had been locked up for fifteen years,
so we didn't fit in any of the clothes that
he went in with. Hey's still wearing his prison crocks.
And while he was there, he had torn a moniscus
playing basketball that he never had, that he never had fixed,
had no hope, no nothing, and he didn't think anyone
(21:34):
beyond those walls would care for him. And he found
a group of people that cared, gave him hope and
gave him time, and within six to eight months he
had gotten a job, saved every penny because we don't
charge program fees. So when you come to us like
we don't charge. Many organizations will charge program fees to
(21:55):
which is insane to me, but will charge program fees
to their clients. We don't do that. He saved every
time that he made. He worked as a roofer out
in Murphy Spurre and ended up buying a house with
his sister and they still live out there today. Wow. Yeah,
just wonderful stories like that. We've had that guys come
in and they given time and space. Guys that have
(22:18):
started their own businesses, became handyman. We had one guy
that came and got a ton of certifications. He now
works for a large construction company out in Franklin. I'm
working with another sister organization. Just today, I filled out
a form to get a vehicle donated to one of
our veterans who is working at Target now, and he
saved up money and he's about ready to move on
(22:40):
to his own full time place. So it's just tangible
things that we love to see and be a part of.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
It's really beautiful to think about how just one action
can create this entire ripple effect for somebody. And I
feel like that's what your entire organization is doing, is
just starting the one action to create that effect to
continue going down.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
It's little by little, it's taking people exactly where they are.
And I'm sorry, I'm going to revert back into my
ministry role past just for a moment. But in the Bible,
there's a story when a woman who was a woman
who went out to the well to draw water in
the heat of the day, Like, why would you draw
water from well to the heat of the day. It
was because that she was a known woman around the
(23:21):
village in town that no one else would have anything
to do with, because she had been with multiple men
and so on and so forth. But at the end
of the day, when the townspeople and even Jesus's closest
friends were looking at this woman, going who does this
woman think she is? They saw her as a dirty woman,
as a sinful woman. But Jesus met her at a
well and just simply saw her as a woman who
(23:43):
was thirsty. And there's so many men and women, whether
they're veterans or not, that we come in contact with
that aren't evil. They're not bad, they're not dirty, they're
just thirsty. They're looking for something more, and they're looking
for another chance. They're looking for another opportunity, and that's
(24:03):
what we want to do. We want to provide that
second chance and that second opportunity and do what we
do with the great amount of love.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Well on how cool would it be if everybody started
meeting each other where they were. I think the world
would be a better place.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I think it would. But you know, we also have
to be grounded in realism at the same time and
know that's most likely not going to happen, but the
way we can try to do it ourselves as often
as possible.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yes, and you'd be the change that you want to
see in the world. That's very much a part of this.
So Jeff, thanks for being here and sharing your story,
a story of what you guys are doing. Go check
out we are building lives even if you're not in Nashville,
and maybe if you're so inspired, you can start your
own and work with them to do one in your
city if that can happen.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Quite honestly, if there's somebody no matter what state you're in,
if you're listening what we do here in Nashville, we
can literally pick up and do in another state at
any time. We can replicate it. We've been talking about
it and We would love to do that. If anyone
would like to just get on our website, call it,
and you're not going to get like an administrative assistant.
(25:05):
It's going to be me that calls you back, So
just feel free. We would love to partner with anyone
or if there's a veteran right here in Middle Tennessee
that needs any assistance, please get on our website, please
call us. We would love to what We would love
to help you as much as we possibly can.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I love that well, Thank you, Jeff, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Thank you Morgan.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
If you like the series, make sure you like and
subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and follow the podcast
Instagram at take this personally. If you ever have any
input or guests you may want to hear, send in
my way. I love getting to talk about all different
types of things that just bring awareness and help us
feel less alone. That's the entire goal of this podcast.
So I appreciate you being here and I will talk
(25:44):
to you guys next week
Host
Morgan Huelsman
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