The Kent County Daily Times: Community groups support local veteran housing

Kendra Port/klolio@ricentral.com | Jan 19, 2019

WEST WARWICK - Rhode Island's leading non profit supporter of local veterans, Operation Stand Down RI, accepted donations from two local organizations on Friday to support the running of two of their residential homes for veterans.

The Brian St. Germain Home is a housing facility for homeless and at-risk veterans. The home opened at 790 Providence Street, West Warwick, in 2005 and was later dedicated to Sgt Brian R. St. Germain, a West Warwick native who was killed on April 2, 2006 as a result of injuries sustained during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today the home can house up to nine veterans who are being offered “a hand up, not a hand out.”

OSDRI also has a facility specifically for female veterans called the Holly Charette Home, located in Johnston and named after Marine CPL Holly Charette, a Cranston native who lost her life on June 23, 2005 when her convoy was struck by a suicide bomber in the Anbar province of Falujuah, Iraq. Charette was Rhode Island's first female killed in Iraq. The home can house up to six female veterans at any given time and is the only all-female veteran housing available in the state.

To view the complete article, visit The Kent County Daily Times

Courtesy of The Kent County Daily Times