Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Homeless Nevada family finds community online

When Kerry Veazey lost his job as a machinist in 2008, he was not all that worried about it.

There was plenty of money in the bank to sustain Veazey, 42, his wife Sabrina, 32, and son Keifer, 14. Veazey was certain he would find work. He always did.

"I never had a problem finding a job. We had money in the bank so I never went down and applied for unemployment," he said. "I figured in a week or two I'd have a job. I was sure we were going to get something."

But 15 months passed before Veazey applied for unemployment. But he learned he had missed the deadline.

Before he knew it, it was December 2009 and their money was running out.

He bought a 41-year-old camper trailer from a man on Craigslist who wanted $300.

"It just basically had some beds in it. That was like our last resort. I thought at least we'll have this. But I kept thinking, we're gonna get a job, it's gonna happen," he said.

In February, after a failed attempt to find a job in Prescott, Ariz., the Veazeys moved into the Craigslist trailer.

The family had sold most of their belongings and put some into storage. Before long, they lost the storage unit because they couldn't pay the bill.

Sabrina Veazey sat down in the gutted-out trailer to erase their personal information from their laptop before selling it. But she noticed there was an Internet signal from somewhere that let them get online.

That gave them an idea.

"I know the governor, everyone has a Twitter account, so I thought I'm going to get on there and make some noise and try to get us some help," Kerry Veazey said.

While he never got a response from state elected officials, Veazey did find a homeless community online.

"We learned more through the computer on how to find help than we did by going to places," he said. "It was a shock to find there were that many homeless people online."

Sabrina Veazey held her fingers an inch apart.

"I was having a hard time. I was this close to giving up," she said. "No matter what we did, it just kept getting worse and worse. People kept telling us all the time, it will get better, but with everything we'd been doing it just kept getting worse. I had hit that breaking point. I was done."

Kerry Veazey said he didn't know how to talk to his despondent wife to give her hope, so he contacted a homeless woman they had met online and asked her to call.

She did, and for two hours, the woman listened as Sabrina cried, Sabrina Veazey said.

"It must have helped," she said, smiling. Just talking with someone in a similar situation made it easier to deal with it all.

And Kerry Veazey soon discovered that in addition to getting support from the online community, he could offer his own support.

He became very active in wearevisible.com, a website aimed at giving a voice to America's homeless.

But he didn't stop there. He also began noticing homeless people around Carson City. He admits he never noticed them before.

Through the ever-growing followers on his Twitter account, Veazey solicited and got a case of socks sent to him. He carries those socks with him in his vehicle and with every new homeless person he encounters he offers a handshake and clean socks.

He also started to research online the options for people in his position. His research into the VA Homeless Veteran's program landed the family housing. They moved from the gutted trailer into an apartment in October.

Kerry Veazey is still out of work, which is stressful. But scoring a couch for $9.99 at the Goodwill store made them very happy.

On a recent day, Kerry Veazey also talked of the plight of his homeless "brothers and sisters," a common mantra on his Twitter account where he's "Alleycat22469."

Sabrina, as "bully_lover78," and Keifer Veazey, as "keifer1122," are tweeting. Keifer Veazey even managed to attract the attention of his idol, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.

In October, Hawk sent a care package of clothes and an iPhone, which Keifer Veazey uses to post his Twitter updates.

In his travels around Nevada's capitol city, Kerry Veazey makes it a point to tell the homeless that there is help and compassion online.

In late October, after hearing about Homeless Awareness Day in Reno, Veazey recycled enough cans to afford printing out fliers about wearevisible.com.

He spent the day in Reno and handed out the fliers at the event.

"Once we found wearevisible.com things really changed for us," he said. "Before, we woke up everyday ready to give up. We no longer had friends or family to talk to anymore, and these guys (online) were always there to encourage us."

"The positive words were more than just positive words," Sabrina Veazey said. "To us it was like family. They wanted to help. They were willing to do whatever it took to help."

Kerry Veazey is still filling out applications. He estimated he has applied for more than 60 jobs for everything from pizza delivery to machinist.

They are surviving on $500 in food stamps a month, and $307 cash from welfare. They don't panhandle, Sabrina Veazey said.

"We have what we need right now, so that's not fair to take more," she said.

Kerry Veazey's dream job is now community outreach. Though that never crossed his mind when he was a machinist, it seems to be his calling.

He said the world needs to understand the magnitude of the homeless situation today.

"Most people didn't see us as people after losing our jobs and home. It's time we open the eyes of people to the problem," he said.

"This is not a big city issue, it's a world problem — and problems can be solved."

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Information from: Nevada Appeal, http://www.nevadaappeal.com

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