Hope For Homeless Vets
Ryan And Ruben
Project Goal: To help homeless vets in San Francisco receive housing and services available by providing volunteers that support individuals navigating through the process
“Rather than trying to tackle homelessness as a whole subject, which is really intimidating and daunting. We thought it might be better just to find one person who’s homeless and understand what are the challenges they face and see if we can help them in some significant way and then maybe, from that experience, glean something that would then apply to a larger group of people.” – Ryan Satcher
Ryan Satcher is a mechanical engineer who lives in San Francisco. Ryan and his friend started thinking about what they could do to solve the problem of homelessness in San Francisco. First they started going around talking to people who lived on the street to see if there was someone who could teach them from first-hand experience. This is when they met Ruben, an army veteran with an incredible story. Ryan started hanging out with Ruben and tried to understand what his specific needs were, not just the perceived need. He always wanted to use his background and passion in engineering to help someone so that’s where he started. After trying many different experiments from making a penny stove to a sleeping bag with an attached tarp, he realized that he could help him even more by assisting him with housing.
Ryan making sleeping bag with tarp attachment
This is where PDG started getting involved by helping Ryan navigate the resources available for homeless veterans that have multiple different services to meet Ruben’s needs like housing, drug rehabilitation and medical care. We are currently in the process of helping support Ryan’s project Hope For Homeless Vets. Although many resources exist for veterans, there are issues that can prevent people like Ruben from receiving those services. Some of these include health problems (mental health, disability, chronic disease), drug addiction, transportation, and very little interpersonal support.
