Army Vet Leaves for a New Beginning at Jan Peek House

The apartment was bare when Joe moved in, but was starting to fill with furnishings donated by veterans organizations: a dresser and night stand; living-room rug; kitchen table; and dishes.

For the U.S. Army veteran, the ground-floor space represented something great: the first place he could call home since 2017.

For nearly two years after his wife’s Croton-on-Hudson home was lost to foreclosure, Joe lived a rootless life in a series of shelters in Manhattan and Long Island. There he joined a crowd of other homeless veterans seeking scarce affordable housing in New York City.

His frustrating journey ended when someone suggested he go through Caring for the Hungry and Homeless of Peekskill. One of the organizations five programs is “Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV),” which offers residential, clinical and treatment services.

On December 1, a landlord handed Joe a key to a one-bedroom apartment in Peekskill. He became one of three veterans who recently left Jan Peek after finding permanent housing. Each was helped along by Digna Merchan, veterans case manager for CHHOP.

“I can call some place home,” Joe said just after he left Jan Peek. “I know this sounds trivial, but putting my name on the mailbox the other day was the most outstanding feeling I’ve had in years.”

More than 50 veterans receive services each year from HCHV, a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Assistance is not limited to healthcare. The comprehensive program responds to a range of needs, including housing and employment.

Joe and his wife, who now leaves near him in Peekskill, lost their Croton home in October 2017 when she became disabled and fell behind on mortgage payments. He tried to take out a VA loan to pay off the arrears, but was told the amount they owed was too great.

Stays at a succession of temporary housing programs followed. So did Joe’s struggle to find a suitable apartment. He was forced to delay chemotherapy for bladder cancer because he did not have a safe, sanitary place to recuperate.

“The one place they sent me to in the Bronx, the building had bullet holes,” he said. “Another place they sent me to … the floors were coming up in the place. They were literally coming up. You would have gotten splinters walking around in your bare feet.”

Mike lost his apartment near the Yonkers waterfront in June after falling into arrears while helping his son and daughter-in-law, who were struggling financially and just had their first child.

Social Services approved funding to repay the back rent, but the apartment building’s new owner refused to accept the money, he said. The former Peekskill resident believes the owner wanted to weed out longtime residents in order to get higher rents from new tenants.

Jan Peek House was “the first place” Mike thought of. Like Joe, he now has a new one-bedroom apartment in Peekskill.

“There’s just no comparison to being able to put your own key in your own door,” he said. “There’s no better feeling.”

A U.S. Navy veteran, who did not want his name used, is also celebrating getting the key to a new life.

He entered Jan Peek House on Nov. 2 after a series of stressful events drove him to the VA hospital at Montrose. Two days before Christmas he was moving into a two-bedroom apartment, working at a new job and preparing for classes at Westchester Community College.

“It’s a new year; it’s a new job; it’s a new semester; it’s a new state of mind,” he said.