For the Holidays
With Butler County's only house for homeless women veterans up and running, the four inhabitants have wasted no time in making the place their home and decorating it for the holidays.
“Robin's Home is a godsend,” said Loretta Jones-Smith, a 60-year-old veteran and a resident of the house. “I say that because there's no place for women veterans. This place is like a home. It is a home. It's a beautiful thing. I love it.”
Jones-Smith said living at Robin's Home not only keeps the women veterans together, but also provides a comfortable environment in which the women are able to talk about issues.
Since officially opening July 1, Robin's Home has housed seven women veterans, according to Mary Chitwood, the organization's founder and executive director. No Butler County agency provides emergency housing to homeless women veterans and their children.
Robin's Home is a nonprofit launched earlier this year.
Chitwood said the East Pearl Street house is considered a transition home and aims to help women veterans and their children get off the street and into a stable environment.
From there, the house serves as a jumping off point for permanent housing. It is also the first housing program to offer case management. The effort helps veterans access benefits and resources to help them gain skills for independent living.“We're supportive housing,” Chitwood said. “It's a case by case on how long they're here for, but they have to participate in case management to address housing issues.”Chitwood said Butler County has two emergency housing shelters with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, but they are for men only.Chitwood said that as a veteran, it was frustrating for her to see all of the resources available to her male counterparts, but the community lacked the same resources for women. She said Robin's Home led to a lot of positive activity and change.“It's been great. We've had a wide range of ages — from 31 to 72 years old,” Chitwood said. “It's been interesting to learn more about their experience serving and the barriers they've been struggling with and helping them to get over those.”Chitwood encountered a high number of women reporting sexual abuse suffered during their time in the service while working in support services with an area nonprofit.Those issues, coupled with cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, led to her mission of helping an underserved population get stable footing.
“Everyone we've served has had some form of mental illness — PTSD, bipolar, a number of things,” Chitwood said. “So, we take our time with them and get them set up for permanent housing.”And one part of that process, according to Chitwood, involves case management that helps residents reorder their lives.For Jones-Smith, her stay at Robin's Home has provided her with the time she needed to look around and continue her PTSD treatment. More importantly, she's not alone,“I have a problem asking people for things. Army of one, yeah,” Jones-Smith said. “I just feel so blessed to be here. It's hard for me sometimes to even ask for help.”For Thanksgiving, Jones-Smith said she plans on cooking for the house's occupants, although she plans to go to Buffalo to visit her family.“We're like a little family here,” Jones-Smith said. “It's really nice. We've got the stockings hung over the fireplace and a Christmas tree up and decorated. It looks really nice. I love living here. It makes me happy.”
