SANFORD (WGME) – Many homeless people in Sanford are now getting help from the Maine Homeless Veterans Alliance.
This group started out as eight Veterans eight years ago. Now the group is down to essentially two people and a car.
The pair of volunteers, Journey and Kevin Nicholson, drive around donating food, clothing and hygiene kits to those living alone on the streets and in the woods.
One of them is Billy, who’s been without a home for three years.
“I was out here last year it was like 24 below. That was crazy,” Billy said.
Billy has severe frostbite all over his body.
“It hurts,” Billy said.
The ultimate goal for the two-person team is to get people shelter. The group has helped find housing for more than 200 people. Nicholson, a Navy Veteran, looks at homelessness like a war.
“If you’re in a trench and one of your guys gets shot, are you going let them just lay there?” Nicholson said. “No, I’m going to put him on a stretcher and have the guys take them out to a place to get them some medical attention, and in the same way I look at these homeless people as a result of a war that’s been going on in our country.”
The other volunteer, Journey, helps because she once needed help, too.
“I was living in a house, but I was having a tough time financially; I met a woman who I never knew and she bought me 100 gallons of heating oil,” Journey said. “It was really, really cold two winters ago, and I started wondering, ‘How are people managing who are outside?’”
The pair has packed several storage units full of donations with help from Sanford-area organizations, like the Harris School of Business, but right now they say the most helpful donation is cash.
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