Milton Brown has been homeless for over 20 years. If it weren’t for programs like the new Veterans Affairs housing contract with Volunteers of America Florida, the 64-year-old U.S. Army Infantry veteran said he wouldn’t have survived.
A new Veterans Affairs contract with Volunteers of America Florida, a nonprofit working to help homeless veterans, will make 18 previously rented beds free for eligible veterans in Gainesville.
The previous program, under a VA Grant Per Diem, required veterans to pay an income-based rent and could house them for up to 12 months. Now, the program is free with a three-month limit. The new program, which operates under a VA Contract Emergency Residential Services, will fund a total of 102 beds across North Florida, including 48 in Tallahassee and 36 in Ocala. The new contract will expire Sept. 30, 2027.
As of 2025, 128 military veterans were identified as experiencing homelessness in North Central Florida, within Alachua, Bradford, Dixie, Levy and Putnam counties, according to Task Force For Ending Homelessness’ 2025 Point-In-Time count. Alachua County accounted for 746 of the 887 people experiencing homelessness in these five counties.
VOA Florida reached out to Rep. Kat Cammack, R-3, for assistance after an outside organization hired to write its grant application didn’t submit it on time. For the last 20 years, the organization used a grant from the VA, but it missed the February deadline this year and lost the funding.
After VOA Florida reached out for financial assistance, Cammack said in a September press release she contacted the VA secretary, and her staff worked with VA leadership to confirm the new contract before the Oct. 1 deadline.
VOA Florida will now operate its 18 Gainesville beds at 3901 NW Seventh St. where the veterans are housed through a VA contract instead of a grant-based program. This allows them to provide immediate, short-term housing and support with less administrative hurdles while staff connect them with longer-term support and resources, according to Barbara Lawton-Freeman, who manages the new program in Gainesville, Ocala and Tallahassee.
“After the military, my whole life has been on the streets,” Brown said. “These programs here save people's lives. They save our lives.”
Brown moved into the new facility Oct. 9 and hopes to eventually find permanent housing, he said.
He has been in similar housing programs in the past, but when the programs ended, he said he relapsed.
“As soon as I leave, I get back on drugs, alcohol, stuff like that, but I've been doing drugs since I was in fifth grade, so it's, like, part of my arm,” Brown said. “If I stop doing it, it's like I'm missing something.”
Like many other veterans, he struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, which triggers nightmares and hallucinations. His worst nightmares are about the men he killed in combat, he added.
“Once you've done that, it sticks with you for the rest of your life,” he said. “You can never, ever forget the day you put a man in the ground.”
While living on the streets, Brown learned to like the rain and its smell, he said, and if he concentrates enough, he can visualize a candle to make him warmer when it’s cold.
“I'm actually glad when it rains,” Brown said. “If you're going to be in the weather, you experience it all the way. You get climatized from the heat, the cold or whatever. You just gotta deal with it.”
Veterans often experience homelessness due to untreated mental health conditions, difficulty finding jobs, unaffordable housing or substance abuse disorders.
Stephanie Vranich, VOA Florida’s vice president of outreach and development, said while the new contract still provides housing to homeless veterans, it requires shorter stays. The new contract allows VOA Florida to house veterans for a maximum of 90 days, while the previous one covered up to 12 months.
The program’s overall goal is to help individuals find permanent, affordable housing and become independent, she said.
Beyond offering a place to stay, she said on-site residents and case managers are available 24 hours a day to assist veterans. They work closely with community partners like CareerSource Florida to connect veterans with additional VA benefits, mental and behavioral assistance and day-to-day necessities like meals and hygiene items.
“That's actually our passion,” Vranich said. “We love that we're providing that roof over their head, but it is about what's happening inside that housing.”
Many veterans struggle to ask for help when they need it, she added, and they’re often unaware of the resources and benefits available to them.
“It's hard for them to ask for help,” she said.
Milton Ray Beverly, a 65-year-old veteran and VOA’s resident manager at the facility that acquired 18 new beds, was staying at GRACE Marketplace until late last month, when he was offered a job and housing with the new program, he said.
He’s now responsible for maintaining the facility and holding veteran residents accountable for attending appointments and eating properly. Like everyone else in the program, Beverly also needed a job and place to stay, he said.
“I'm just like them,” he said.
Since returning from the military, Beverly has gone through eight VA housing programs, a series of evictions, issues with the court system and jail time. Now, Beverly said he wants to get his life back on track for his son, who lives with his mom in Trenton, just west of Gainesville. He hopes his son will choose to live with him when he turns 18.
“I just wanted to move closer to him and show him that I'm a good father figure,” he said. “I'm bettering myself for a better future for him.”
Veterans experience homelessness at a higher rate than non-veterans, according to Florida’s Council on Homelessness 2025 report. However, the report shows fewer veterans have been identified over the past five years as experiencing homelessness. About 2,500 veterans in Florida experienced homelessness in 2019, and just under 2,000 were identified in 2025.
Barbara Lawton-Freeman said the new Gainesville shelter filled halfway after its first week in operation, and she expects it to reach capacity soon.
When veterans come out of the military, she said, many families don’t know how to address and support their mental health struggles.
“A lot of them don't have the support that’s needed when they get out, primarily because of PTSD,” Lawton-Freeman said. “A lot of family members don't know how to manage that.”
She’s excited about the new program, she said, but she also knows there need to be some rules in place for it to work.
At the Gainesville shelter, veterans are required to sign in and out and meet a daily 9:30 p.m. curfew.
“It's just what it is, unfortunately,” Lawton-Freeman said. “Gotta have some type of control.”
Contact Sara Dhorasoo at sdhorasoo@alligator.org. Follow her on X @saradhrs.
Sara is a journalism senior at UF. She is currently serving as The Alligator's race and equity reporter, and previously served as the first amendment reporter, in Spring 2026. Before transferring to UF, Sara earned her Associate of Arts in Mass Communications/Journalism from Miami Dade College, where she served as staff writer for The Reporter. She grew up in France and aspires to return there and work as a journalist after graduating.
