WWII veteran fighting to help his homeless comrades

Source: Denver Post

Milt Merrick, a World War II veteran, has a new cause: helping homeless veterans get a job and a place to live.

"I just want to help veterans," he said. "These guys fought for their country, and they're living under bridges and stuff like that."

On Tuesday morning, the 84-year-old Littleton resident sat at a table at the St. Francis Center, working as a volunteer on the annual Point-in-Time study conducted by the Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative, which counts the number of homeless individuals on one day of the year.

Veterans are his special focus.

"I talked to one kid this morning," said Merrick. "He was 24. He said he was mentally ill, disabled from serving in the Iraq war, chronically depressed. He said he'd been out of work and basically homeless since being discharged in March 2008."

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