“I feel young”: At 77, a Vietnam Veteran gets his fresh start

How one VA social worker’s daily persistence helped Verton Morris go from the sidewalk to a home of his own

Army Vietnam Veteran Verton Morris, 77, slept on the ground outside Houston VA’s Community Resource and Referral Center (CRRC) for weeks. He’d come inside to do his laundry, grab a snack and exchange a few words.

Every morning, Emily Winfield walked past him. Winfield, a licensed clinical social worker and director of the CRRC, kept showing up, working to convince Morris to accept help. But he wasn’t yet ready.

But, “she never gave up on me,” Morris shared.

One week, her persistence, and his, paid off.

Morris was among 18 Veterans who received housing at the CRRC’s Homeless Surge Event, a single-day mobilization that brought together community partners, VA staff and resources under one roof to move homeless Veterans off the streets and into stable housing as quickly as possible. By the next day, Morris had keys in hand and a new place to call home.

A community showed up

The surge event drew a wide network of partners to the CRRC, including Baker Ripley, U.S. Vets, Combined Arms and a range of Veterans Service Organizations. Staff worked rapidly to identify Veterans who were close to housing-ready, connect them with available resources, and complete the paperwork and placements needed to get them housed that same day.

There was music. There were refreshments. There was a palpable sense of purpose.

“VA is deeply committed to making sure every Veteran who needs housing gets it,” said Winfield. “Events like this allow us to accelerate that work and meet Veterans where they are and remove every barrier we can, all at once.”

Survival skills, forged in Vietnam

Morris served in the Army from 1970 to 1978, including a deployment to Vietnam, where he learned to sleep in trees to avoid snakes. Decades later, those same instincts helped him survive Houston’s streets.

“I can sleep on the concrete now,” he said, matter-of-factly. “I don’t bother anyone and, for the most part, they don’t bother me.”

Despite having his backpack stolen, there was no bitterness in his voice… just the quiet accounting of a man who has lived hard and knows it.

Things haven’t been easy, though. After his service, Morris struggled with addiction, serving a five-year jail sentence in the early 2000’s, followed by 15 years of homelessness. It was a long road that led him to Arkansas, where he finally received the treatment he needed. He has since moved back to Houston.

Today, he has been clean for two months and takes full responsibility for his path.

“I made some bad choices, and I blame no one but myself,” he said. “But now I got my head together.”

Ready, finally

Morris had been coming to the CRRC for about a year, doing laundry, getting a bite to eat, staying connected to VA community in small ways. Winfield passed him outside every day. Each morning, she encouraged him to come in, to take the next step.

He wasn’t ready then. But one day recently, he was.

Morris doesn’t talk like a man looking back. He talks about working out. About getting organized in his new place. About taking care of his mind and body. About his love of travel and how he hopes to get back to it.

“I feel young,” he said. “I’m ready for a fresh start.”

He is vocal in his gratitude toward VA staff at the CRRC and the people who kept the door open and the light on.

“If Veterans are ready,” Morris said, “these folks are here for them.”

Coming home

The CRRC serves as a hub for homeless and at-risk Veterans in the Houston area, offering case management, showers, laundry, meals and connections to housing, employment and health services. This weeklong surge event represents the kind of intensive, coordinated push that VA and its community partners are increasingly using to drive down Veteran homelessness.

For Morris, who survived a war, the streets and himself, the numbers are simple: one day, one event, one set of keys.

It took 15 years, but he finally came home.