Covina Rotary Club’s Field of Valor draws attention to homelessness among veterans
Published: Saturday, January 10, 2013 at 4:59 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 10, 2013 at 4:59 p.m.
It’s a common theme these days in the news: homeless people on the streets, in cities, states and countries.
The stories can be grim, but they don’t always include veterans.
That’s the premise of the story in Thursday’s edition of The Daily News that focuses on homeless veteran issues.
Covina Rotary Club’s Field of Valor draws attention to homelessness among veterans. The story focuses on two men in their mid-20s, both of whom have completed their terms in the Navy and Marine Corps, are veterans themselves and have been homeless for about three months.
Their story is the first of three such reports by The Daily News and appears the first Friday in December in each of the next 30 days.
Field of Valor — the story comes to life through the eyes and voice of Joe Vittorio, a veteran himself and the club’s volunteer program manager.
He speaks in his low, soft voice as he tells the story of the two homeless men: David P. and his brother Chris P., whose names are spelled wrong in the story but who, Vittorio says, are in their early to mid-20s.
They were together briefly three years ago when P. moved back to Virginia for his job in the Navy; his brother stayed behind in the North Carolina area where he was working at the time.
P. has worked multiple jobs, including as a truck driver and on the construction projects. He said he got off and on the streets about six months ago, spending a total of three weeks on the streets in one place and walking from there to his girlfriend’s apartment, on the other side of town, in the mornings.
P. got his social security number from the Navy and used it to register, in April, with the National Employment Service.
“I am unemployed,” he said. “My current unemployment benefits have run out and my other benefits go away Jan. 15.”
Vittorio said he has been working the homeless veteran issue for the past year and a half. He