‘We didn’t want to leave anyone behind’: Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans plans new housing for those who served, their families

Across the street from one of Wheaton’s oldest churches, a home with a front porch and an American flag in the yard has been a refuge for veterans for nearly 20 years.

“This place is about miracles. It's been nothing but miracles since we began this project,” says Bob “Doc” Adams, the co-founder of the Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans.

That he survived Vietnam and went on to help other veterans heal is nothing short of miraculous.

“I came home with all the problems that most combat veterans come home with,” said Adams, a Navy hospital corpsman embedded with Marines.

He got sober in 1985 and later wrote an autobiographical play, “Place of Angels,” roughly the translation of Con Thien, the Vietnamese name for his Marine base. Ticket sales from the play would help raise funds for the shelter Adams launched with Dirk Enger, a Gulf War veteran.

That mission is now expanding beyond his “wildest imagination.”

The nonprofit’s original home on West Street, named in honor of Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Larson, a Wheaton teen killed in Iraq, provides transitional housing for male veterans of any era.

In addition to that and other long-standing programs, Midwest Shelter plans to grow with a four-story apartment building in downtown Wheaton for veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Of the proposed 20 units of permanent supportive housing, five are two-bedroom apartments.

“This will be our first time building something where not just veterans by themselves, but veterans and their families could live in,” said Deputy Executive Director Rizik Mohammad, who served in the Marines.

The organization’s board is mostly made up of veterans who have formed a unit again. For teacher Jack Erwin, it’s how he honors those who didn’t come home.

“Lance Cpl. Nick Larson was a student in my classroom at Wheaton North High School, and he was later killed in action in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004,” Erwin said. “We have the Larson home serving veterans today. And you know what they say about that place? That it feels like a home.”

‘Holistic approach’

Adams, who became a clinical social worker, made it feel that way.

“It became this terrific place for people to be able to settle down, get themselves together, get all the help that they would need, and that came from a variety of sources,” he said.

Veterans typically live in the Larson home for six months to two years before transitioning to permanent housing. Since its 2007 opening, two other Wheaton homes have provided affordable housing for single male and female veterans, respectively.

“Bob has always reminded us, as if we need reminding, that we're all broken people. We meet people where they're at,” said Christine Lewis, the organization’s chief executive officer. “These are people who have done amazing service for our country and need a hand up in that moment to be restored back to the leadership in our community where they belong.”

Through Midwest Shelter, veterans can access mental health services, case managers and job assistance programs. In the Freedom Commissary in its administrative building, vets can receive clothing and household items.

“It's incredible to see this holistic approach in action,” said Casey Carpenter, another board member who has helped fellow veterans transition to academic life at Dartmouth College.

Clinicians also work with veterans in group therapy sessions at the nonprofit’s headquarters. It's rebuilding a camaraderie that “a lot of us” miss, Mohammad said.

Erwin, who fought in Afghanistan, sees and hears the success stories.

“More often than not, they will come full circle and pay it forward to others in one shape or form or another,” he said at a recent city planning and zoning board meeting.

Marvin Donelson was homeless when he came to MSHV.

“It was like God raising his arms,” he said.

More than a decade later, Donelson, also a board member, spoke in support of the apartment development.

“This project brings our veterans, our homeless veterans, our hopeless veterans … to a point where they can say, ‘I have hope, I have a future, and there is a tomorrow,” he said.

Stable housing

Last year, the Illinois Housing Development Authority announced a grant award for the project. The IHDA Board awarded $10.1 million — 90% of the total development cost — a combination of state and federal funding.

The “Hero Homes” initiative calls for nonprofit New Directions Housing Corp. to develop the building on a vacant corner by the Wheaton Meat Co. butcher shop. All proposed units will be covered by project-based vouchers through the DuPage Housing Authority to ensure affordability for residents.

“Too often we say we support our veterans, but support has to mean more than words. It has to mean stable housing, a safe place to raise a family in a community that values their sacrifice. ‘Hero Homes’ does exactly that,” said Army veteran Peter Stavroplos, who’s also on the board.

Midwest Shelter is asking the city to approve the development plans so “we can get our veterans housed, then they can go on to have a rewarding rest of their life,” said board President Terry Benshoof, an attorney who spent almost 30 years in the Army on active and reserve duty.

It would also allow DuPage County to reach “functional zero” veteran homelessness, Mohammad said.

That means homelessness is rare, brief and nonrecurring, according to the state’s “Home Illinois” plan. Once that milestone is achieved, if someone “reaches out for help, there is a clear path to access resources and the appropriate resource on the other side.”

Midwest Shelter and other providers are part of a DuPage homeless veterans task force that meets regularly and shares data. That’s how Midwest Shelter ended up at the number of apartments in the proposed building — there are approximately 20 homeless veterans in the county.

The building would also have a fitness room, office space for supportive services and a community room. The city council is first set to discuss the plans March 2.

“Doc” Adams invoked his military training when he talked about the spirit and force behind the Midwest Shelter in 2013. He still does.

“We're Marines, so we didn't want to leave anyone behind,” he said. “That's our motto.”