Of groups throughout who are trying to help and you will meet those vets and organizations tonight on chasing news. A recent report estimates there are 503 Homeless Veterans in new jersey. And there may be countless others who never show up in the reports because they are called house surfers and goo i goose who lost their jobs and lost the which and lost the homes be a go from housetohouse, fam ry, friends trying to get a roof over their head. Many of these veterans are jobless. In addition to being homeless, some find transitional housing and some find permanent housing. Well bring you the story of one veteran looking for just a. Are you oh . Yeah. Eye got to catch my breath. Were you in a hurry . No. I get winded. Yeah. Cant run like i used to. Frank wes cot served in the army and National Guard he host the job as a tax taxi driver two years ago and living with a friend but recently became homeless. I caught up with hims was meeting with a field representative from soldier on. A know pile service to find housing for Homeless Veterans. Are you still looking for work . If i can find it, yeah. Yeah. 8. 52. 52. That is one increase i started for 3. So no. No. Wont buy a gallon of milk. He never owned a home and did rent apartments but evicted and didnt real. He may be emable for some veteran benefits. Apply for any service connections. No. I always thought that you had to have 20 years. Well that is retirement then the nonservice. You never knew that. Potential for the service. No. Might have hat of had some hearing loss. Well, i asked frank if head family key reach out to. He said he had brothers. Does he know your situation . No. We dont talk. Nobody in the family tax. Bad blood . Drifted away . I dont know. At point your situation have you thought about reaping out to them . Think . You might want to know. Well,. Frank is typical of clients who are primarily single men over the age of 50. T are of tep vet reason tone weight list and may not have the skills needed to land job. We found a single veterans have burned bridges with the Family Member and the ones chronically homeless for several years and they have Mental Health and medical diagnosis or maybe addiction and hean been treated for several years so they really dont have family ties or maybe Community Resources that they can act best any more. Walk you through what is going to happen with frank. With rank right how, what we are doing is transitional housing. And he is open to a tran digsal housing program. That is what we are working on now. Were working on applications for that. Then, while we are doing that. Part of the homeless. The homeless. It is actually programs for veterans where they can pay for anticipate where from 90 days to two years. The stability they need to transition. If the transition soldier on hopes to make easier through a plan Transitional Community involved. It is bayed on successful communities in massachusetts for veterans like frank. Where we are looking to build 7 a units of permanent Affordable Housing for single male veterans give in the demo graphic of what we have been seeing and indicative of the point and time number thats the population that needs how sog we start with single male veterans and what were looking to do is build ups for them a will be aidable they can stay in for the rest of their lives and reestablish them as community member. The problem among homeless and jobless vets persist so many men and women go off to fight for our country, fight our lib tip and come back from wars and find themselves live ooping bench would you tell job and without a place to go and without family. Want to intros due so somebody who has become a champion of veterans across the country and he is a congressman in new jersey and his name is congressman mccarthy. Great to have you. How are you. I met a couple of vet system of we were out there tagging to them. People who have struggled to get any a anywhere to get the chauffeur over the head and get the job. What is condress doing about this problem we have more veterans in south jersey in this any other part of the stat and i rep ent sy at love them. I heard the same story here describing. Come back from serving and cant get a job which is one of the main causes joblessness and Mental Health and addiction issues the other main because of homelessness. A few things we can do. Pass some sort of targeted bills which is withs a co sponnor and gave in self tef to higher veteran and piece of legislation in the last conglass authored and got passed in a into law between the department of defense and the va and requires them to work together. They have never done that. People are transitioning from the mill tar ran the military wasnt really set up to help them do that. It once passed into will you and joined the executive committee and they are, wog together. Thank you, tom. I appreciate all doing r doing. All right hi want to brk the guest force tonight. Get a special guests here in the studio with us. Billy whis a former navy veteran. You have been helped out by some of the programs and certainly hear your store on the head and you have been out there and helped them get place and jobs and the assemblymans the Assembly Leader in the jersey state legislature. I want to start with you. A bill passed a few mon a. How does it help veterans. Charge wad nonviolent crime and its the result of their experience in the military. The prosecutor van a Diversionary Program outside of of the criminal justice meaning they go for help as opposed to getting some kind of criminal penalty. It was unanimously passed. It is great legislation and will help. So who, you sponsored this . You pushed it through what inspired it. A constint, a veteran. Tom, i give him a lot of credit. He is a veteran and represented vet threeness law practice. He said this is something we need. It was my judgment of common sense. Let me ask you p. Something like that is hp pepful. Something about the organization a little bit. What inspired it. How you have been able to sneap sure. We are celebrating the 11th year and now one of the best friends. So outside of the city. This doesnt happens where. We have been lobby farring long type. Senator booker now created this Power Program and there is a lot of pushback throughout the state to say this is not what the state needs but now. Why pushback. Well,. Why. And the idea of segregating a certain part of the population giving them their own course we got some pushback but we are really proud to see the state Legislature Step up and pass this because he is necessary and chasings loft struggles when they come home. That doesnt end when it overs. What was your experience look. Were you homeless. Great organization. They got through housing. Then, they helped to get a job. How long were you homeless in. Well, i wasnt homeless long. But they took me. They got me a place to stay. And after this. They referred to me to gi go and got help. So it is interesting group. We got jobs and we go out and tv sets or put together furniture and lots of different kind of jobs. Ultimately, ultimately expand let me ask you whats the satisfaction level and the huge k ses. It railroad i off the streets. It is what i do this for. Every single day, you know, obviously, when we first started the org foyzation. Organization. I see a veterans close on the home anded our kids to skol and able to second the kids to college. I feel like that is a big win. That is why we focus on it and great win for us to get. I feel liabilities my friend helping his buddies who are back here now. I mean, it is why we do this. Seeing those success stories. What else hap peps to help groups like this into it seems to me like private sector and in spired by the death of a friend what is gets people motivated to act. Anything out there that they can or will or want to do movement we also passed a taxential Exception Group that just a few thousand dollars that was done through long ago. The bottom line is, we have to make sure that people remember that they gave their lives and service our country. Sometimes were forgetting that. We make sure the legislature we dont forget. Thank for the hard work. Ged sue. May pleasure. Congratulation. Bill the good news that is soldier on has helped frank find traditional housing that he can stay in for up to two years. Home fle is on the way. Coming up, well bring you the story of offering myzation that is trying to help veterans get the job skills they need to see. Bill welcome back to chasing news. Am bill spadea. We told you earlier before the break about a veteran who returned to find himself jobless and homeless. Well, good news that is thanks to the great folks at soldier on he has tra tran doingsal housing for the next two yers at least this is organization heaps vettedrance find homes so they can get a roof over their head and start their life again. I want turn to another part of this. That is the job search. There is a Great Organization in newark right near the train station that is working with veterans trying to get them the job skills training they need the ed and help them find a job that is going to keep them off the street. Starting the gi go fund after one of the best friends was killed in iraq. Well, the young kids and just hit home. They are real. The soldier and dreams are real individuals and Family Members and sacrifice everything and we didnt do much after. This is our best way to give back with the help with marines that are coming home and helping them find jobs and helping them find housing and put their lives back together. The gi go fund was focus on getting homeless vets off the streets of newark. Where i am now the highway. We would go to them. And by going to them we had to find where they were and the penn station be a the airport is where many homes live and the easiest way to serve them in the midful the night. This is a busy still. We dont really. You cant identify who is homeless and a veteran on the streets of newark. 4 00 in the morning and we come outside. The only people there are people in who are homeless. I am proud say we had significant impact. When we first started there were several hundred homeless vets at the station and now under 36 and many of those people have been housed. Ge go runs a stand down for hemless vets that draws hundreds and offers food, clothing and checkups and jobs and legal assistance. Today veteran like 20yearold dshawn moore are gi gos tows can. More is now going to college something he never thought about doing. Living in a Single Family home well the which have and twin boys. You know, i was pretty much, you know, trying to lib with in laws like we were pretty much the life line and i live in a onefamily home. Two bedrooms and like, it is, you know, decked out, you know. Were ready. An army veteran worked in the newark Public Schools as Security Guard for 12 years but looking to advance his career. Aam hoping for a lot of things. He gave me this brochure here and basically the programming and the variety of things. To help set veterans basically with employment. Education needs they need to file a claim anything that would make them remarkable or anything to get them ahead in life. They are plair and both form mare rens and currently working part time but once fulltime positions. Yuma, arizona from 2000 to 2004 and with a squadron. The marines, weapons, and what i did basically was took care of the records and the wait and balance of the aircraft. I searched from 16 7 to 2011 and i served which is the first stations and then primarily in camp lejeune, north carolina. Deployed in 2007. They assisted me with updating the resume and resources in new jersey be a working nights and obtaining my education at the university. For many vet vans as long as they serve three or more years, what makes them more marketable is a chance to get a Free Education and monthly stipend through the gi bill. E can choose from 200 training cores online at jobs gigo. Org. 21,000 new applicants each month log on looking for resume help and training. Over tentimes you take a veterans res my in terrible format and turn it around and format helps them tell the story of who they are so they have a shot at fining work. More job training willable available in new jersey and around the country thanks to a new Technology Center partnership. The go fun is the Training Center and helping equip to help support our military partners be a veterans help transition to the work force s. Right. Giving them the skills knead and the training they need to make it easier for them. Wants to help train veteran for number of reasons hp they have great mote vision and help people in the military and very good at working together and that i is very helpful in being in the environment. It is a challenge. It is really, really different. That is what we advocate for is educate them and help them understand what veterans bring to the table and how the skill sets they brought home with them from the military can actually benefit the place of worse. The real leaders. That lairdship can really help a place of business. What Incredible Organization certainly they got the work cut out for them the veterans who are getting the help they need are apeshtive. Lets check win dan zarrow who has got some of the biggest weather to race of 2017. Hi, there. Merry christmas. Give in the holiday i decided to for go a normal Weather Forecast and instead present my lists to the top five local weather ear vents of 2016 number five week of dry mild weather. Yes. Even morning weather macks this list and begin autumn with extended stretch of above normal temperature and mostly dry weather. We would have ended up spiraling into drought if not for the heavy rainstorm that arrives in late oc. Number four, the march noreaster. A few snow storms to glass but i believe last winters doubledigit snowfall takes the cake over 17 inches of snow and over three inches of rain in south jers sane wind gust of over 60 Miles Per Hour and significant icing what a mess. Number three and early start to winter. November turned cold. Three snow events in six days. Then early season snow and what is to come for the rest of the winter. Well see. Nonstop tropical threats the 2017 at lap tick Hurricane Season was active from harvey, you recall ma, hosea, may yea thanks to several near misses beaches from the long alistened to jersey shore were battered through the in tire last month of summer. And number one, the Great AmericanSolar Eclipse. All gust 21st 2016 was the date they would not forget although we did not fall in the path of totality they became a hot commodity across the tristate gr summer if you missed thet next partial Solar Eclipse here visible in october of 2023 there you go. 2016 was big year in weather. I am sure 2016 will bring us more sun and excitement. For chasing news, i am meteorologist dan zarrow. Coming up next, more on the stories of the bet veterans that are struggling to make ends meet. Find a job and put a roof over their head and organizations that are helping them. More importantly what is our government that sent them off to war and what tr they dog make things right at home. Bill welcome back to chasing news. I am bill spadea. Certainly we wanted to bring you stories of success robert lyons, moore, wes scott, t are on the way with a job and roof over their head. That is the start. Those are threat great torres and the married marine couple that has a job now. Outside of the stories how many veterans are in our community that tonight will not have a roof over their head and tonight will know they will go to sleep somewhere and maybe a park oar bus stitial and maybe in a train station and tomorrow morning wake up to try to get their life in order. The order idea you know there are so many vet rasp throughout that have served our Country Faith l faithfully and done their dut wherein had their sense of duty ap patriotism and come back home and they cant get break. Well i hope to help with the organization and need your help and go online and well post some of this on our web sit and certainly tweet it own a put it on facebook and there are gretted organizations that are doing their part and we checked win our congressman in new jersey who is did everything they he can to make sure the right resources are behind the vets and this all started rhetoric started and now the action is behind it when President Donald Trump talked about protecting our veteran during the campaign and well, it seems he is following through with thats were prom misand thanks to not only the brave courageous politician throughout doing the rig thing the organization out there helping carry out the Important Mission to get a roof and a job for our veterans. I hope you had a very, very merry christmas. Friends and family, hope you enjoyed yourself and enjoyed the time out. Have a in derful night. Again, merry christmas. Thanks for watching. We got a bunch of wimps en our society. We got to be tough. Something bad could happen. My hair is not my wardrobe. That is what i was born with. When it come to covering the dys condro version top ekes you got hit it from all sides. This is back and forth. Mo gnatter how you see. You we got your point of view covered. It is a big deal for some. Daysing news w live from center city in philadelphia this is fox 29 news at 11 00. Heres live look at the pocono mountains on this christmas day. Skiers have a perfect present that gift of beautiful white powder heres a look outside our old city studios. We hope that wherever you are you got to enjoy the day with friends and family. Thanks for joining us. Im iain page. While it was not a completely white christmas. It was a cold one. Remember, that polar vortex, yeah, its coming back. Lets begin with our fox 29 weather authority. As we head back outside. This time to Cape May County this is cape may those winds were crazy today. Lets get over to fox 29 meteorologist monica cryan. Cape may and atlantic city, wildwood, some of those locations had the highehest guss for