It was a long process for me to reconnect with my military situation from the past. For over 35 years, I suffered from PTSD, a deep suffering I didn’t even know I had. It was difficult to think of the trauma.
I had a lot of anger, suicide ideation, anxiety and severe panic attacks, and nightmares that sometimes scared my children.
This led to many lost jobs and evictions. My family was split up living with different family members in different states.
We were homeless for 5 years. We tried really hard to stay in contact but because of our struggles it made it twice as hard.
I was forced into living in a tent.
Finally my family of 5 moved into a small studio apartment. Cramped together, we learned to adjust to our living situation.
The Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) worked with us through the Individual Development Account (IDA) by matching our savings account toward our closing costs. The IDA account gave us hope!
At the same time, since 2020, me and my family were looking for a house. For 3 years we were met with all kinds of obstacles and challenges. The top two reasons were not having enough income and down payment.
After my first and final hearing with the military psychologist she sided with me. A doctor that Veteran’s Services referred me to was the hardest to convince in getting a good PTSD rating. However I was rated at 70% disabled and the VA sided with me and granted in my favor to be service connected.
I won my case and I was awarded compensation and disability payment dating back to the day I filed for compensation. I was able to use this as extra income needed to purchase the house me and my family needed.
My goals for the house were answered. It has everything I wanted: a big backyard, fireplace, 5 bedrooms in a nice quiet and clean neighborhood close to a transit center.
My lender shared how impressed she was by my never give up attitude and shared my story with others wanting a house.
After living in apartments and renting for 26 years I’m grateful we finally got keys to our own family house we purchased! Anything is possible.