When asked what she most appreciated about Nation’s Finest, Michelle laughed and said, “Everything. “It gave me some much needed breathing space.” “That gave me the time to get my situation straight and figure my house things out,” Michelle explained. To help ease this transition, Nation’s Finest and VHDC covered Michelle’s first month’s mortgage payment. We are looking to provide forever homes to three more households in 2024.”Įspecially for a first-time homeowner in recovery with a history of PTSD, moving into a new home can be difficult. “We have assisted two families and have two more households on the horizon. “This program is designed to get Veterans into homes that they are able to make their forever home,” said Torri. Michelle received budgeting opportunities, first time homebuyer courses, DIY courses for simple repairs, and access to a physical home in Oroville flipped by VHDC.
Like many Veterans, she needed a helping hand to guide her.Ī project manager at Veterans Housing Development Corporation (VHDC), a partnering housing subsidiary with Nation’s Finest, Torri Cardilino guided Michelle’s entry into a program for aspiring Veteran homeowners.
A relapse sent Michelle back to a dark place. For many of our country’s heroes, alcohol can temporarily numb or dull their feelings, providing a brief escape from intrusive memories. Distressing symptoms and emotional pain associated with PTSD are heavy burdens to bear. The recovering Veteran found a temporary place to stay, but it wasn’t long before the mental toll of difficult past experiences caught up to her. Things were looking up for Michelle after she completed rehab. This sense of emotional displacement then took a physical form, and Michelle bounced across the Prairie State of Illinois, the cornfield plains of Iowa, and then the golden rolling hills of California where she entered a rehab program. Like many Veterans struggling to find a path home, the former Army Medic turned to alcohol to help navigate through her sense of emotional displacement. Unique to Michelle’s situation, however, is that within six months of returning home, she separated from her husband and her mother passed away. Michelle returned to the States from her 8-year tour as an Army Medic with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a feeling of “uselessness,” and a sense of uncertainty about what the future held for her.Ĭhallenges such as these impact countless Veterans in the months and years following their service. Like an unsettling number of service members, however, she struggled to regain a sense of ‘home’ after leaving the military. A Missouri native who grew up adventuring around the rivers and swimming holes of the Ozarks, Michelle had a clear vision of what ‘home’ meant as a child.
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