CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — Each year, state leaders put programs in place to help veterans find a permanent home. 


What You Need To Know


Saturday morning’s welcome home celebration was unlike any other. 

Donna and Bob Russell no longer have to worry about if they’ll have a place to call home. 

Bob is a retired Navy veteran. He qualified for a Veterans Affair Supportive Housing Voucher. 

Saturday morning, officials with Habitat for Humanity and the Citrus County Housing Service handed them the key to their brand new home. 

Spectrum Bay News 9’s Katya Guillaume was there for the reveal. Walking through the house, Donna said her favorite part of the home is the laundry room, but said Bob has a different place in mind

“He’s real favorite thing is this room right here cause he wants a bathtub so he can soak in it,” she said.  

Fighting to hold back her emotions she said, “I can’t, I can’t thank everybody enough. It’s been a trying five years because it took us almost 10 years to get him disability.”

They’ve been homeless for the past two years after losing their home. 

“Somebody came knocking on the door and said here, here’s your papers your being evicted and you got 30 days to move and we were like what are we gonna do,” Donna said. 

They applied for housing assistance through the county with the help of Tammy Harris.

“We were able to assist them with housing for two years under this voucher and now they are moving into their new home today,” Harris, the services director, said.

She said while this is beautiful, many veterans in the country, the state, even in Citrus County are still homeless.

“We do have the highest concentration of veterans in the state so there’s a need,” Harris said. “We’re all working together to help get our veterans that’s been evicted that are actually living in the woods and have them in a home.”

“I was shocked when we got accepted because I didn’t think we would,” Donna said.

The Housing Service and Habitat For Humanity are working on providing more safe and stable homes to veterans in need.