It took Jay Walker two years to lose his job, marriage, house and car. He called it a run of bad luck.
Problems began when the Army veteran found himself miles from home. After 18 years of sobriety, he went on a “weeklong drunk,” he says, before securing a shelter bed in North Sacramento.
The shelter was good for a cot and meals, but not much else.
“At 6 a.m. during the weekdays, they’d kick you out,” Walker says. “We all used to go down to Loaves & Fishes to hang out.”
At Loaves & Fishes, Walker learned about Nation’s Finest, a nonprofit that provides a comprehensive approach to housing, health and employment for homeless veterans. He filled out an application.
Then Walker was hospitalized with congestive heart failure. He went to Palo Alto for testing through the Veterans Administration, which led to open-heart surgery. From there, he was approved for placement at Nation’s Finest Mather location.
“These people saved my life, make no mistake about it,” Walker says.
Now he looks healthy, seated in the office of program support specialist Kerry Navarette. “They gave me a safe, clean environment to recover in and I’m getting better all the time,” Walker says. “I’m even in the process of getting my own home.”
Navarette says Walker’s story describes why the program exists.
“How to get the veterans we’re serving here to be self-sufficient enough to go from transitional housing to permanent housing and sustain living in permanent housing? Whatever that looks like for them is where my head goes every day that I come into work,” Navarette says.
The first step for veterans seeking assistance is to meet a case manager. A service plan is created with objectives related to substance abuse, mental health, medical, finances, education, employment and housing.
The nonprofit runs more than 30 locations in California, Arizona and Nevada, including one in South Sacramento and one in Mather that serves Mather Veterans Village, the first permanent supportive housing development for homeless and disabled veterans in the region.
“They have a lot of stuff for personal growth and improvement,” Walker says. “When I had a relapse, I needed to plug myself back into recovery mode. Nation’s Finest helps me walk away and stay sober today. I don’t want to go back (to addiction).”
Each site employs administrators and staff who run programs from recovery to suicide prevention. They rely heavily on volunteers.
“It’s not only monetary donations,” Navarette says. “Organizations come and donate materials and time. We have a volunteer that comes to repair bikes. The Kings and Raley’s donated a garden so residents can grow their own food. Hills Church do a monthly brunch where they give out food and talk to residents to see how they can help.”
Eleven months into his stay at Nation’s Finest and celebrating his 63rd birthday, Walker recognizes what got him there and how glad he is to find a new path.
“Speaking to vets out there, sometimes we think we’re owed something and we have a negative attitude,” he says. “But when we’re humble and grateful, things have a tendency to work out much, much better. For everyone out there in a situation, go into things realizing that you were part of the problem at a minimum, and be grateful you’re not sleeping outside.”
For information, visit nationsfinest.org and @nationsfinest1972 on Facebook and Instagram.
Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
