A monstera plant. A wide-eyed cat. A couple enjoying a day at the beach.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a common thread running through these three very different art subjects, but it\u2019s one you might not expect. They were all painted by Richard Freund, an Army Veteran who once counted himself among the thousands experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n
Today, the former aviation operation specialist spends his time honing his craft in an art studio before heading to a home of his very own. But that stable housing only became a possibility when he took the important step of reaching out to VA and discovering the services available to him and Veterans around the country.<\/p>\n
Freund began his military career deploying to Afghanistan as an aviation operation specialist. Reflecting on his time with the military, he enjoyed his experience and wished he could do it again. After his service, however, he confessed to facing a series of struggles he had to overcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really ignoring my mental health issues. I think I ignored them because I thought I was going to fix them myself. One day, I just decided to go ahead and get the help I needed,\u201d Freund said.<\/p>\n
Freund approached the Salvation Army, which was running a program with the VA Central Texas Healthcare System<\/a> through Health Care for Homeless Veterans<\/a> Contracted Residential Services.<\/p>\n Eventually, he found housing through Supportive Services for Veteran Families<\/a>, a program that helps prevent Veterans from losing their homes through case management and supportive services. It also works to rapidly re-house Veterans and their families who are homeless\u2014and might remain homeless\u2014through partnerships with grantees. For Freund, that grantee was Family in Crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n In August 2023, Freund was able to attain housing. \u201cI\u2019m actually doing well for myself. Living on my own from being homeless is a huge step. I\u2019m striving very hard to just keep a permanent place for myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Freund now spends a good amount of his time painting. He says art helps keep his mind calm and that the act of painting truly makes him happy.<\/p>\n One of the pieces he\u2019s most proud of is a portrait of his cat, pictured above. It\u2019s a very focused view of his pet\u2019s loyal eye, full of detail and life. But he\u2019s also dabbled with painting different subjects in his portraits and using a more abstract style. \u00a0<\/p>\n Although he has several goals, his biggest one is to go back to school for art and focus on oil painting. He hopes to learn more about a field he\u2019s deeply passionate about while continuing to hone his skills and techniques.<\/p>\n Freund was able to find a home as VA was working to achieve<\/a> its goal of housing 38,000 homeless Veterans in 2023. But his is not a singular story.<\/p>\n If you are a Veteran who is homeless or at risk for homelessness, call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at\u00a0877-4AID-VET (877-424-3838).<\/p>\n Visit the\u00a0VA Homeless Programs website<\/a>\u00a0to learn about housing initiatives and other programs for Veterans exiting homelessness.<\/p>\n Check out the Ending Veteran Homelessness podcast<\/a> to learn more about what VA is doing about Veteran homelessness.<\/p>\n Learn how to get involved with housing homeless Veterans<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn the art studio<\/h2>\n
Learn about VA programs<\/h2>\n
![<\/a>Army Veteran Richard Freund<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nFreund began his military career deploying to Afghanistan as an aviation operation specialist. Reflecting on his time with the military, he enjoyed his experience and wished he could do it again. After his service, however, he confessed to facing a series of struggles he had to overcome.<\/p>\n\u201cI was really ignoring my mental health issues. I think I ignored them because I thought I was going to fix them myself. One day, I just decided to go ahead and get the help I needed,\u201d Freund said.<\/p>\nReaching out for help<\/h2>\nFreund approached the Salvation Army, which was running a program with the VA Central Texas Healthcare System<\/a> through Health Care for Homeless Veterans<\/a> Contracted Residential Services.<\/p>\nEventually, he found housing through Supportive Services for Veteran Families<\/a>, a program that helps prevent Veterans from losing their homes through case management and supportive services. It also works to rapidly re-house Veterans and their families who are homeless\u2014and might remain homeless\u2014through partnerships with grantees. For Freund, that grantee was Family in Crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn August 2023, Freund was able to attain housing. \u201cI\u2019m actually doing well for myself. Living on my own from being homeless is a huge step. I\u2019m striving very hard to just keep a permanent place for myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nIn the art studio<\/h2>\nFreund now spends a good amount of his time painting. He says art helps keep his mind calm and that the act of painting truly makes him happy.<\/p>\nOne of the pieces he\u2019s most proud of is a portrait of his cat, pictured above. It\u2019s a very focused view of his pet\u2019s loyal eye, full of detail and life. But he\u2019s also dabbled with painting different subjects in his portraits and using a more abstract style. \u00a0<\/p>\nAlthough he has several goals, his biggest one is to go back to school for art and focus on oil painting. He hopes to learn more about a field he\u2019s deeply passionate about while continuing to hone his skills and techniques.<\/p>\nFreund was able to find a home as VA was working to achieve<\/a> its goal of housing 38,000 homeless Veterans in 2023. But his is not a singular story.<\/p>\nLearn about VA programs<\/h2>\nIf you are a Veteran who is homeless or at risk for homelessness, call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at\u00a0877-4AID-VET (877-424-3838).<\/p>\nVisit the\u00a0VA Homeless Programs website<\/a>\u00a0to learn about housing initiatives and other programs for Veterans exiting homelessness.<\/p>\nCheck out the Ending Veteran Homelessness podcast<\/a> to learn more about what VA is doing about Veteran homelessness.<\/p>\nLearn how to get involved with housing homeless Veterans<\/a>.<\/p>\nFor more stories like these,\u00a0subscribe to the Homeless Programs Office newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to receive monthly updates about programs and supportive services for Veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A monstera plant. A wide-eyed cat. A couple enjoying a day at the beach. There\u2019s a common thread running through these three very different art subjects, but it\u2019s one you might not expect. They were all painted by Richard Freund, an Army Veteran who once counted himself among the thousands experiencing homelessness. Today, the former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":73331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,139,138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-veteran-homelessness","category-veterans-homelessness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73332,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73329\/revisions\/73332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/Richard-Freund_r1.jpg\"){kind=link}