Raiders donation helps Veterans Village expansion
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Steven Whitefeather served 10 years in the Army. Today, he calls Veterans Village home, the local non-profit that offers transitional or permanent housing for people who have served this country.
On Thursday, Steven was a winner.
“It is a trip. My feet have not touched the ground yet. I have never won anything before and it feels great,” Whitefeather said.
Whitefeather will get to swap his room for one of the new container homes that will go up on the Veterans Village 21st Street Campus.
At one time the containers shipped merchandise. Now, at 320 square feet, they come complete with a bedroom, shower, kitchenette and living area.
“It is with our gratitude that we present to you the check for $150,000 to continue doing what you are doing,” said Raiders President Marc Badain at a check presentation at Veterans Village 21st Street Campus. The team joins other corporate sponsors to make a container village for vets possible.
The money came from a recent fundraiser by the team’s charitable arm, the Raiders Foundation, at Topgolf Las Vegas. The team said it would also throw in an additional $25,000.
“It is a huge shot in the arm to us and we are grateful for it. It will be used to build 10 fully container homes,” says Veterans Village founder Arnold Stalk.
Stalk sees container homes as one of the new, groundbreaking ways to fight homelessness among vets.
Government numbers put the local homeless vet population in the hundreds.
Stalk says it is actually in the thousands, which is why this money matters.
“The only way we are going to solve the homeless problem is by building houses,” Stalk said. Veterans Village has plans to build dozens of the container homes in Las Vegas.
Six veterans who live here will now get these small homes. For Whitefeather, a Vietnam vet, it is great news.
“Wow, I never have to worry about being homeless again. I was homeless, I guess, for about two years,” he says.
A new home, for a vet who deserves it.
