Roger Smith, an air force veteran, moves into his new apartment in Butler City.

After living in a homeless shelter for eight months, Air Force veteran Roger Smith took a 2½-hour drive on Wednesday from a shelter in Coalport, Clearfield County, to Butler to move into a one-bedroom apartment being provided by a veteran's housing program in the process of expanding into the county.

Smith is the first veteran to move into an apartment in Butler County as part of The Veteran's Leadership Program of Western PA.

His apartment is the first of 10 units in its possession for housing veterans. The organization is nonprofit and provides an array of services for veterans, which includes subsidized housing. The organization is hoping that all 10 units will be available by March.

This is an excerpt — read more about the program in Thursday's Butler Eagle.