Raising Hope (and Chickens) at Veteran’s Village

When he transitions from his space at Veteran’s Village into his own apartment later this week, Alvin will leave some big shoes to fill. As the resident poultryman, he presides over the five hens and banty chickens that keep the kitchen in eggs.

He watches out for the ducks, too. “I feed and water them,” he says. “Protect them at night from coons that are trying to catch them.”

He also makes sure they have a comfortable place to lay their eggs. He’s got one hen, “Red,” outfitted in her own crate on his front porch.

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Alvin was drafted into the Army in September 1969. After an injury led to a medical discharge, he returned to the States and worked for many years—first for his father, then for a rancher, and finally for a construction company drilling oil and gas wells.

When he retired in 2015, he visited his daughter and grandchildren in North Bend, Oregon. “They told me to stay,” he says. “Of course, I liked it up here, so I stayed.”

The family rented a house in North Bend for two years. Then, the unexpected happened.

“The lady sold it out from underneath us, and we had to move,” he says. His daughter believed there would be better job prospects in Portland, so she urged the family to move north.

But the family couldn’t find an affordable place to stay. His daughter went to a women’s shelter, and Alvin was connected with Do Good.

“I like it here,” he says. “I like all the guys here. Everybody’s real sociable here. Everybody talks to each other. We take care of each other.”

Still, he looks forward to moving into his own place in a few days. “It will be nice to be in my own space,” he says. “My own kitchen, my own bathroom.”

He’ll still keep an eye on the chickens. “I can come over any time I want to,” he says.

A Few Weeks Later

At Veteran’s Village, Alvin rarely needed to cook because other residents shared their meals. Now in his own permanent housing at Clayton Mohr Commons, he has a fully outfitted kitchen and cooks a lot. “I’m doing all my cooking now,” he says. “It’s more fun that way.”

Alvin moved into the new Clayton Mohr apartments just before Thanksgiving. He’s settling in and enjoying the new neighborhood. “People, you meet them on the street, and they’ll say hello,” he says. “I met a bunch of neighbors when we had an open house. They’re friendly, glad we moved in.”

Now he has room for bunk beds so his grandkids can visit. “I’ve got my own bathroom [and] shower,” he says. “Makes it a lot easier when you’ve got your own space.”