Disabled veteran and young family looking for help

My name is Scott, I am 48, a father of two beautiful girls (Zoie 12 and Stella 9), a husband to a beautiful and loving wife and dad to two great dogs.

I am a 100% disabled veteran diagnosed in 2019 with severe PTSD and anxiety from the Gulf War (3 long deployments in a short period of time).




My family has rented a cute little house in Clarkston, Mi that my girls have called “home” for the past 6 years. It’s nothing special but it is home to us. This house is all my family has called home (and it is really not ours). Stella, my youngest, only knows of this as her home. She doesn’t remember the other home we lost. Zoie still remembers the safety and feeling of that home. A stable environment, home and what goes with it has never been easy for my family.




I have two dogs, Coco and Sherman. They bring the girls laughs, giggles and hundreds of kisses. For me they bring me comfort in some of my worst times. They are family, protectors and comforters. Although they are both what is considered an “aggressive breed” (coco is a lab mix/x and Sherman is a Presa Canario. As being branded “aggressive” they are excluded from many of the housing opportunities my family may have left. My dogs are part of our family and I will not abandon them and take them away from my children. I just can’t do it nor should be expected to. I am completely disabled veteran and my family should be able to find help somewhere. My dogs are both rescues from very bad circumstances. Early on I can not imagine what they went through. Now we try to give them both the best life they deserve. They got it pretty damn easy as most dogs should. Sherman lays with me every time I have a PTSD episode almost as if he knows something is not right and it does wonders for me for the next hour or two. My dogs are everything to me and my family.




Since my girls have been old enough they have seen and lived through the effects of PTSD and how it can cripple me at times.




My family currently lives on my disability and the little my wife gets from unemployment alone. We have no other plan B. I have failed.




In March my wife lost her 15 year job due to COVID-19 and it’s impact. She has not been called back so in turn we lost my girls and wife’s  healthcare.




The first of this month I received a call from my landlord letting me know he sold his lakefront home and that he and his wife will be moving into this house. They are going to fix it up and sell it. He has terminated my lease and has given my family 30 days to vacate all my girls know as home. It has devastated my girls and wife and has them scared for where we as a family will go.




We are left hopeless, helpless and homeless. I am a very proud vet and I know I need to set my pride down and just ask for help and it is Humbling but needs to be done. Please help.




This will only be “home” only for a few weeks. We will become another statistic. Another homeless veteran and his family in a shelter somewhere.




Thank you for taking time to read this and trying to understand what my family is going through. That’s all I can ask and hope for. Somebody to read this and help my family.




God Bless,

The Para Family

Scott Para