Army veteran David Platt used to sleep in abandoned houses in North Charleston, after his alcohol-fueled descent into homelessness.
He was among the roughly 300,000 veterans the government estimates are homeless during the course of each year in the United States. But a growing network of services in the Charleston area has helped him change his life.
“Four years ago, I was a homeless drunk on the streets, picking cigarette butts out of ashtrays,” said Platt, 51, formerly of Mount Pleasant. “When I finally got honest with myself, this is where I came.”
Platt is living at the Good Neighbor Center in North Charleston, one of several transitional housing facilities for homeless veterans in the region. He’s nearly completed an associate’s degree in horticulture at Trident Technical College, and is looking forward to living independently.