Detroit Seniors Head Up Homeless Aid
Bea Sacks and Muriel (Murt) Sherbow are two elderly ladies on a mission. Bea, 90, and Sherbow, 85, are mobilizing residents across Detroit to help furnish subsidized apartments for homeless veterans, The Detroit News reports.
After chatting with a social worker at the VA Medical Center in Detroit, Bea learned that while homeless veterans were able to move into long-term housing with government subsidies, none of the furnishings were paid for.
"The first place I went to," Bea says, "he had just cardboard on the floor with a sheet over it, and a wooden chair." Conveniently enough, her daughter had some spare furniture from a house she'd sold, and Bea leaned on the guy who maintains her pool to deliver it in his work van..."It wasn't enough," Bea says, but it was a start. Then she and Murt put the word out at Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park, where Bea chairs the social action committee. What she's learned, Bea says, is that "everybody has more stuff than they need" -- except, of course, for the people with nothing at all.
Bea and Murt were both army wives themselves and have doggedly placed cold calls across the city to get the help of moving companies, church congregations and social groups to help veterans turn their empty apartments into homes.
Murt says that as much as she hates to say it to Bea, "we're a little too old for this stuff." But then she says that she's just heard about a shelter, something new from the VA meant for women and kids. If children are involved, she figures, they'll need toys and stuffed animals. Maybe she and Bea can make some calls.
To read more about Murt and Bea's story and to find out how you can help veterans in the Detroit area, visit The Detroit News.
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First Posted: 04/10/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 04:25 PM ET