INDIANAPOLIS -- A new hope for a homeless veteran – found sleeping in the backyard of what was once his family’s home.
Tony Roberts and his co-worker were only at the old overgrown home on Arsenal Avenue because they were contracted by the city to cut the grass and remove the debris. But when he walked into the back yard Roberts said he found more than just trash, “There’s a guy living in the back yard.”
Lewis Morris told the contractors he was sleeping in the back yard, because he wanted to be where he felt close to his mother, who had died more than 10 years earlier.
Morris was sleeping on a mattress, wrapped in plastic in the back yard of the abandoned and boarded up home.
Just like the home, Morris told the men he felt run down and forgotten, until Roberts took an interest in his story.
“There had to be something attracting him to this property,’ said Roberts, “I didn’t’ know what it was.”
Lewis told Roberts that it was his mother’s house, her name was Vera Jean. He had lived in the house with his mother for years, after he returned from his service overseas in the Marine Corps.
But Vera Jean died in 2003, and Morris says he turned to drugs and alcohol, resigning himself to a transient life, “It was times I wish I could take back.”
But a homeless veteran, living among the weeds and mosquitos of his mother’s old home would not be the last chapter of Morris’ book.
“You see somebody who society for one reason or another is kind of given up on, but clearly there is a lot left there,” said Roberts. “He just needs a chance.”
The two men who found Morris are working with the city to purchase the property for Lewis. And they’re raising money to help him make the repairs it needs to be livable once again.
Lewis has not been set up with a case worker who will help him with veteran’s benefits and addiction recovery.
“It’s beyond my wildest dreams,” said Lewis. “You wouldn’t think that this could happen to you, and it’s happening.”
Volunteers are working to raise money needed to complete the house renovations. A GoFundMe page has been set up for people to donate - Lewis’ home: Help a homeless Marine - or you can donate to the fundraising account set up at Huntington Bank – it’s called SteadFast Indiana-Homes for Vets.
