New D.C. facility offers homeless veterans a fresh start

On any given night, nearly 50,000 veterans in the United States sleep on the streets. But thanks to the U.S. Vets organization, that number is getting progressively smaller.

U.S. Vets chief operating officer Darryl Vincent told CBS News, "Our main mission is to make sure every veteran has the dignity of having a home. We feel it's a dishonor when a veteran is asked to sleep on the streets that he or she at one point was asked to defend."

The group is unveiling its latest project this week: a shelter for homeless and at-risk veterans in the heart of the nation's capital. Vincent said the new shelter has 85 beds, and veterans "will get supportive services around the clock--24 hours a day, seven days a week. Veterans will have access to employment services, mental health services, substance abuse services." And, he added, "We'll partner with folks in the community to make sure that these vets are able to take the next step."

One of those partners is Home Depot, which has contributed more than $80 million to the U.S. Vets fund, and helped turn the skeletal structure into a comfortable living space, where veterans will be moving in during the next few weeks.

The head of Home Depot's volunteer effort in Washington, D.C., Crytsa Norris, said, "Home Depot has made a longstanding pact that we will not allow veterans to live in substandard housing, at all."

The home, in Southeast Washington, D.C. is intended to be transitional housing, that gives veterans in need a way to move forward with their lives outside the military.

Vincent described it for CBS News, saying, "A veteran walks in, and from day one there's a plan, there's a set, there's an agenda, there are courses. We don't want to inundate the vets with things they don't need-- let's just get you what you need so you can move out on your own and become independent."

Though there are other groups whose mission is to help down-and-out veterans get back on their feet, Vincent considers U.S. Vets' effort "one of the better answers" because of the way it's tried to consolidate the services. "They don't have to keep bouncing around trying to find everything they need to get back on their feet," Vincent said. It is, he says, the least he can do for for America's warriors.