Big-hearted Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi has put his heart on his sleeve and his hand in his pocket to help homeless Washington war veterans rebuild their lives.
His Soul Foundation charitable project partnered with non-profit Help USA to provide a seventy-seven-home facility in the city.
The Walter Reed facility has been ten years in the making from concept to opening. It boasts a courtyard, gymnasium, lounge and computer room and can house up to three-hundred veterans.
Time spent on the streets can be lonely and isolating, so the facility encourages residents to socialise and come together for regular events and meetings.
There are a number of programs run by Help USA at Walter Reed designed to help veterans back on their feet.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development claims up to half the number of veterans found to be homeless in 2010 have now been housed.
However the problem continues to grow as ex-military men and women return from service suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health issues.
Jon Bon Jovi has sympathy for these former soldiers, ‘Oftentimes, they’re left to deal with PTSD and the issue of coming back to the workplace after leaving the battlefield.
Life as you knew it is going to be different and sometimes, people need that extra help.’
But this isn’t the first non-profit homes-for-vets project for the rock star.
Way back in 1989 the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation started Soul Homes which also provided support for teenagers making the transition from foster care to life in the adult world and people in the community on low incomes.
The Walter Reed facility is set up for low income individuals who earn half the average wage or less and will be expected to be able to budget a third of their income for rent.
Many vets do work in part time roles and some have pensions or are entitled to social security. Sometimes all they really need is a safe space to sleep and the dignity of a little privacy.
Help USA recognises this as one of the most effective ways of keeping people off the streets. In a statement the non-profit said, ’Over time, JBJ Soul Homes will give hundreds of people a permanent home with supportive services that will allow them to flourish.’
The opening of the new housing facility comes just as a new documentary ‘To Be of Service’ is released, which follows ex-servicemen and explores how their service dogs have helped in combating the effects of PTSD.
It shows how this simple bond has transformed the lives of sufferers.
Jon Bon Jovi took up a challenge to write a new track to go with the film and has released ‘Unbroken’ as a single, although he has been careful to point out that he had not served in the military. ‘
You have to be honest…so that men and women who did serve will feel pride when they hear this song.’
All profits from the release of the single are to be donated to the Patriotic Service Dog Foundation, which endeavours to match vets and first responders with service dogs.
The Soul Foundation has supported more than six-hundred affordable units and supported living facilities across ten US states, which has provided aid for thousands of vulnerable young people as well as military veterans.
The site in Washington will eventually provide 2,100 residential units, of which 432 will be classed as ‘affordable’, retail, office, medical and arts and entertainment spaces alongside a hotel and a charter school.
Among the twenty acres of parkland, the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre will continue to operate as a hospital.
Bon Jovi had two number one hit singles in 1986 from their multi-million selling third album ‘Slippery When Wet’.
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The singles were ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’ and the iconic rock chorus ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’. The band has played 2,700 rock concerts in more than fifty countries in front of an estimated thirty-five million fans.