Homeless Veterans On The Road To Permanent Shelter With Help From MACV

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A homeless Marine veteran who was sleeping outside is on his way to having his own place, thanks to the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans.

The Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV) found Dale Rumble helping others even when he had no place to call home. WCCO's Reg Chapman caught up with the veteran on moving day, the day 29-year-old Dale Rumble has been waiting for.

Rumble packed up his belongings to continue the next part of his journey to have a permanent place to call home.

"I feel good. I feel like this is a step in the right direction and I will be in my own place pretty soon," Rumble said.

After he served in the Marines, he found himself on the streets of South Minneapolis where he grew up.

"I was staying outside," Rumble said.

George Floyd's death changed his focus. He wanted to help the community and he did by providing security for people who used 38th and Chicago as a place of healing and unity, but that place of peace would turn violent at night.

"It was a really bad place at 38th and Chicago after the first month, heard a lot of gunshots," Rumble said.

It was another veteran who learned Rumble was sleeping outside, who insisted he meet James McCloden from MACV.

"This is a part of a project we started in mid-April with the pandemic, and we had to get people out of congregate housing and the best solution was to partner with places like the Days Inn and move them into hotels and then we can have them in one place so then VA social workers and MACV social workers can actually come and take care of these guys," McCloden said.

Rumble says McCloden got him off the street that night and into a safe place.

"He just got me my sanity back, really in the past couple of weeks. It's really help me being able to get away and not be over there," Rumble said.

Now Rumble and other veterans are loading up their belonging and heading to another location that puts them one step closer to them having a home of their own.

"Our job is to end veterans homelessness. That's it, that's it, that's all were here for," McCloden said.

MACV case workers help veterans like Rumble go through the proper channels to get a voucher for housing. The organization is looking for landlords and other groups to help them place veterans in permanent housing.