The compassionate project has been in the works for more than ten years, and it’s finally getting ready to open. It includes a courtyard, a small gym, a computer room, and a lounge with a cozy fireplace. We try to develop spaces in the building that will encourage veterans to spend time together.”īon Jovi’s foundation worked together with the non-profit Help USA to construct the apartment facility for homeless veterans. He explained that many homeless veterans after getting housing can, “close the door, lock it, and never come back out again, because there’s a survival mode they get into. . . “You tend to find social isolation in veterans coming off the streets,” explains David Cleghorn, HELP USA’s chief housing officer. The Walter Reed facility will be a safe haven where homeless veterans can get the psychological help and warm, friendly and relieving environment they need. Many of the very heightened fears and anxieties which come from being involved in war are felt every single day by these poor souls, and Bon Jovi knows it. Providing housing alone is often not enough to fully support a homeless veteran, as their condition of homelessness is usually a result of having experienced traumatic situations. I can close my door-boom-that’s going to be my place,” he said in an interview with the Washington Post. You’re going to have electricity, you’re going to have water, you’re going to have a protected environment. If I do my part, I can’t be told: ‘You’ve got to leave.’ They’re not going to tear this place down. “When I came back here with those pictures in my head and did not know it was called…” Clifton shared, “It took me another 20 years before I could get a handle on that PTSD.”Ĭlifton has experienced a deep sense of relief knowing that he will have a safe place to call home. One homeless veteran who will be staying in the new facility, Clifton Braxton, shared a little bit about his experience with PTSD. “Oftentimes… left to deal with PTSD and the issue of coming back to the workplace after leaving the battlefield…Life as you knew it is going to be different, and sometimes, people need that extra help,” Bon Jovi said. Photo credit: JBJ Soul Foundationīon Jovi’s parents were in the military, and he has taken the time to educate himself on the struggles veterans face after they return home namely Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Bon Jovi’s Soul Foundation currently provides safe and affordable housing options for thousands of lovable people across America. They are committed to rebuilding pride in one’s self and one’s community by creating innovative and long-lasting solutions to hunger and homelessness. “I thought, ‘This wasn’t what our forefathers were thinking,’ ” Bon Jovi said.īon Jovi now runs the JBJ Soul Foundation a non-profit which seeks to break the cycles of poverty, hunger and homelessness through developing partnerships, creating programs and providing grant funding to community benefit organizations. He felt compassion for the homeless man, and as he stood outside of the City Hall, he felt that society was failing this poor soul. When Bon Jovi was just 21-years-old and trying to make it in the music industry, he saw a homeless man sleeping uncomfortably on a grate outside of Philadelphia’s City Hall. Jon Bon Jovi donated $525,000 to help create the Walter Reed facility in Washington, D.C., which will provide safe housing, job training, counseling, substance abuse services and family relationship education for local homeless veterans. With more than 40,000 homeless veterans sleeping on the streets each night, one kind rockstar is doing all he can to make sure they are not left behind and forgotten.
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