- [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(gentle music) - [Barrie] To think that there's a homeless veteran out there, somebody that fought for this country, was willing to put their life on the line for this country and when they get home, have to live in the street or in a homeless encampment, or in a gutter, I believe is inexcusable.

We've got about 300,000 veterans in Minnesota and as many as 10 to 30% have PTSD, so I mean it could be as many as a hundred thousand.

- [Steve] Service means giving up something that you want to do to serve someone else and that means sacrifice.

- [Barrie] I believe what the public gets wrong about veteran homelessness is they don't even stop to ask if that guy they see on the park bench is a veteran or where he came from.

They don't want to understand that they're too busy living their lives, which is a good thing.

That's why we as veterans went and fought to keep this country free, but to not take the time to look at a situation and ask, are you okay?

A lot of veterans won't take the help when offered.

You almost have to force it, but eventually, hopefully, they'll come around and they'll say, thank you.

Most veterans will say thank you even if you open a door for them.

Do I think veterans think differently than any other American?

In general, no, and that's what I think the public misreads about veterans.

We are you, you are us.

(gentle music) - I guess I had this sense that I wanted to do something more than just kind of what I was doing small town Minnesota, so I joined when I was 17 by my mom signing a waiver so that I could enter the service at 17.

After joining and going through all my training, I left for Iraq in 2005 at 20 years old.

- My name is Barrie Allen Skweres.

I'm a veteran of the US Air Force.

I was a 631XO navigational age equipment specialist.

- I spent two years in in Vietnam.

As a kid when I was in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, I always liked airplanes, always liked the military.

My goal at one time was to go to the Air Force Academy and become a fighter pilot.

- I pre-enlisted in the US Air Force my junior year in high school.

My dad had never hugged me.

When I came home and told him I had enlisted in the US Air Force, he gave me a bear hug that I will never forget.

No matter how much my memory goes, I'll never forget that and I knew I'd done the right thing.

(gentle music continues) I joined the military, not just to honor my father, but to honor my country and to be a part of the next generation that allowed freedom to ring loudly.

- When you join the military, you sign a blank check payable the United States of America up to including the cost of your life and that never goes void and what they don't mention is there's a co-signer to that check, your spouse, your family, the people in your community.

- First time I went overseas and we came home and we just didn't have the resources and we weren't provided a lot of information, it was kind of like, hey, we've been gone for two years, we went through some reintegration stuff, but quite frankly we were gone for two years and nobody cared about the reintegration stuff.

We just wanted to get home and we didn't think about the long term of that.

It was mostly like, yes, we're home, we get to get back with our family and friends and then seven, eight months down the road, that's when we were like, oh, I should have listened at that reintegration event.

- If your mind isn't switched over to DC, do you be able to get along with the civilian sector of our nation?

You're out of there.

I know guys that are probably still in the woods right now.

They'd rather be out there than live around civilization.

(gentle music continues) - There was no fanfare and I'm not sorry for that.

There were times in my life, still during my active addiction, I was hurt by it.

There were no parades for us there, so what, that's not why I signed up.

I signed up to serve my country and I did so.

(gentle music continues) People that weren't there don't know that men were walking in the desert and stepping on mines.

They didn't know what they were going into.

As a human, we're afraid of the unknown.

As a soldier, you run into the unknown.

- [Sadie] When you get out of the service, you may not have the skills or resources that you had when you were in the service 'cause if you're stationed on a base somewhere, everything is there, right?

It's a community where you have all the things you need and when you're on those bases, services are free to you, where we come out back into civilian life, those services are different and maybe you don't know the resources as well in that community that you're at and I think a lot of times with the extensive circumstances that veterans go through to deal with that, they end up diving into alcohol, diving into drugs, creating high levels of drug and alcohol issues, which then also mental health issues and on top of that they don't know how to get back out of that situation, so it just kind of spirals down and to the point where they can't come back and they end up homeless or at risk of homelessness.

- When I first came back, I didn't feel like I had any support because I hadn't become able to admit that I needed the help, much less able to accept the help once I found it.

So at first, no, I didn't think I had enough support and I was wrong and if you don't know you're lost, you don't look for a way to find your way and I was so lost and didn't even know it and my journey started with the VA and they got me into a drug and alcohol treatment program, which once my mind was clear, we could look at where I was wrong up here and how to fix it.

- You know, what do you learn in the military ethos, to serve, to be here.

I don't get help, I give help and so the idea of I'm supposed to be this stoic, strong person that you just suck it up and move on and I don't talk about those things and within the culture overall, I've talked to a lot of vets who if I had said I have anything like this going on, my career's over and that was very rampant and it's supposedly a little better now, but it still depends upon the unit and the culture and things like this, but the main thing is, again, when I serve, I don't take.

(gentle music) It's like police talk about, they run into the gunfire or the firemen run into the burning buildings and we go into harm's way.

So if we admit that we have a problem, we are admitting we're weak and weakness kills.

- The mental health of veterans was deeply impacted by their time of service and I don't care whether it was during war time or not.

There's something about serving your country, saying yes, sir, even when you don't agree with the orders.

- I think I'd want everyone to know that the reason people join the military is outta selflessness, right?

We're not out there looking for a thank you or a pat on the back or anything like that.

We truly joined because we were called to do something greater than ourselves and we really love this country and wanna be part of the history of what has built this country.

- Being homeless is not a fun thing to be, but I can see where it happens a lot 'cause you just can't get your mind back to living in a civil society.

(gentle music continues) - I'd like for it all to go away.

The difference in public knowledge of veterans and what they went through is not something you can ever convey to another person.

You can read all the books in the world and it's not going to, it's not going to make you feel any better about things and so I have such a better rapport with other veterans than I do civilians.

It's hard to go to a restaurant.

Like I say, I'm one of them hypervigilant types that can't have people walking behind me, so finding a suitable restaurant means a lot.

In Grandma's House, they have an entire room made up in honor of the Korean veterans and they come in once a week and I feel comfortable around veterans.

(gentle music) - [Ron] Well, the only way I can explain it is I'm home.

- It feels like home to you.

- Yeah.

To be honest, I don't know what I'd do without Barrie.

(gentle music) He's my best friend, he's my brother, he's my confidant.

Doesn't ask me anything more than I'm willing to tell.

Doesn't care about my past 'cause the past is a past.

- 'Cause before you came to Ultima, Ron kind of was to himself, kind of quiet just doing his thing and there were other veterans at Ultima, but none that he connected with like he connects with you.

- [Ron] Then Barrie, he shows up in September and I don't know what it was, it was just, we hit it off from day one.

- And that is such a special thing to see because you have really brought out such amazing qualities on each other.

- He blossomed.

I can't take the credit for it.

He did all the work and the NA community and the friends and family we make in our recovery.

- It's a really cool experience to see you guys and I think, as a civilian, I feel like I could learn from that and have learned from it from being around you guys.

- [Barrie] And I honestly believe that that's where my military background, once I got my head on straight, is actually helping me in my recovery.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - There's a lot of unique challenges that create circumstances that lead to homelessness for veterans, but with MACV we have been able to build a unique way of helping veterans out of their crisis, out of homelessness.

- MACV helps me stay in this apartment.

I'm on a very limited, very limited income.

I never worry about rent, I'm able to cover what they don't help me with with my limited Social Security disability income since my injuries aren't service connected, they still help.

- A lot of times when they come to us, they've hit rock bottom, right, so then we're able to help them out of that rock bottom and then now they're smiling and they're enjoying life and we've gotten 'em to a point of maybe they're not even renting anymore, they now own homes.

- What Ultima House has given me is peace of mind.

They've given me freedom like I hoped for for every other American when I went and fought.

- [Sadie] The Ultima house, it's a great community opportunity for veterans to be housed with other veterans.

They can relate to each other, they can understand what someone else is going through and then it's also affordable and it comes with the services that they might need.

- That's the first peace of mind I've had in I can't tell you how long.

(gentle music continues) - [Sadie] Through the network we have built across the state, our homeless veterans are actually going down.

There are still homeless veterans.

However, we have resources in place so that we can quickly get them rehoused and then their potential stint of homelessness is very, very short.

- I was a homeless veteran when I first came here and at my age, that's not an easy pill to swallow, but that's the ultimate part, you have to swallow that pill, you have to humble yourself and ask for help and that's not always easy to do.

Some unfortunately can't do that and I say a prayer for them and I hope that they get the message that Ultima House and programs like it are there for veterans because you've served, you paid it forward, I paid it forward.

That's why Ultima House was here for me and the staff they have at Ultima House prove to us every single day that they are here for us.

- And what we're out there doing is finding vets, helping vets, getting to believe that they're not hopeless, they're not damaged, they're not crazy and creating that hope to where they can then kind of move forward with that and our goal is to move this into the future.

We never say former Marine.

Once a Marine, always a Marine and I know because I joined the Marines in 1955.

(gentle music) - [Wayne] Don, you've had the experience talking with other veterans and you've also had the experience of talking with people like Cliff who was over in Vietnam roughly at the same time that you were in Cambodia.

Explain what it means to be able to talk to a vet as opposed to another civilian.

- I was telling Dr.

Lansing that.

The second day that I ever came into this office, I felt like a hundred pounds lighter.

Stuff just melted off me and then thanks to Doc Lansing, he's progressed me, I guess, but just coming here and just talking to, - Well, fantastic.

Why do you think that is?

Why does it work?

- Well, it's just like everybody else that we've run into everywhere we've gone, people are realizing that veterans are just people that had to do a difficult job.

People with a common background feel more comfortable sharing.

In the case of a veteran, when you've seen some of the things they come back with from combat, it's hard to share some of that and some of it is related to the trauma that's a part of it and you don't really wanna bring it up again because it can be painful, but talking to another veteran, it seems easy to talk about it.

- We've been to grocery stores, I always take at least one book, mostly two books in 'cause we ran into a veteran and we'll give him a book and we'll sit and talk for 20 minutes and he goes several times I said, I haven't talked about my time in the service ever.

The colonel and I are pretty happy and I'm happy with Don.

I see the progress he's made.

He's doing good.

- Hey guys, we're going to the VFWs.

(gentle music) find some fellas, we've got 200 books left.

We've given away 6,000 of 'em and Cliff and I've driven 28,000 miles in the last six months.

- We've stopped at every veteran's organization in how many counties?

- Well, I think 12 counties.

- 12 counties, we stopped at every one of 'em.

(gentle music continues) - His is a remarkably classic story, a success story.

We see him today as we are speaking downtown Rochester handing out books.

MACV put him in an apartment with seven other veterans, so there are eight apartments in this building and he's given books to all of them and they are all going out every day and if they see a vet, they talk to him and what Cliff and I say is that we're sort of like apostles.

We're going out on the street and we're seeing people who struggle and we give them encouragement and we give them a message and that's what Don is doing and he's doing it with seven others in the building that he lives in and then as that spreads, people feel the connection and they see that there is something tangible that these guys have got.

That it's not just something that they're being fed.

(gentle music) - I believe in my fellow veterans.

I come from a long military family.

Unfortunately not everybody gets to come home alive.

A lot of names on there and most of them are 18, 19 years old.

The American people need to understand that freedom is not free.

There's no way to explain war.

It's an immoral thing.

It's not natural and you can't ever get rid of it.

I am so proud of Minnesota for doing what they've been doing for the veteran.

(gentle music) - Don has gone through a true metamorphosis in the six months that we've known him and we hope and pray that he'll continue, that his health will improve, but he's been given the tools by Dr.

Lansing and the VA is giving him the medical care that he deserves and needs.

- [Sadie] Giving some grace and understanding of what veterans have gone through, whether it they have been in combat or not in combat doesn't mean that they haven't been through some sort of trauma and just giving people that grace and understanding that although, yes, we were in the military, we also are still human beings and with emotions and sometimes we're just not okay.

- But what I would say to the public and what we say publicly is thank them.

Is there anything that we can do?

Try to find a way to begin a conversation, dialogue.

It's really important and they'll be open to it I think to a person from my experience.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(gentle music)