How Connecticut became the first state ever to house all of its chronically homeless vets
Don't be fooled — it can be done.
Hector Guadalupe is a 55-year-old veteran who lost his home during the Great Recession, right before developing medical issues with his heart and eyes.
“I probably would have been jumping from couch to couch or living in one of those homeless shelters," he told The Wall Street Journal in August 2015.
But, thankfully, he's not.
Photo via iStock.
Thanks to efforts in Connecticut, Guadalupe now has a reliable roof over his head at a veterans housing complex in Newington.
The best part? His story's not a feel-good one-off. Now it's the norm in the Nutmeg State.
The federal government just deemed Connecticut the first U.S. state to end chronic homelessness among its vets.
In other words, every single veteran in Connecticut who'd once been chronically homeless — homeless for at least one year or homeless four times in the past three — now has stable housing or is on the pathway to stable housing.
Although cities like Phoenix and Salt Lake City have done this, too, this is a big deal. Connecticut is the first American state to accomplish the feat.
"Our veterans deserve access to housing, quality health care, education and career opportunities," Gov. Dannel Malloy said at an Aug. 17, 2015, news conference regarding the announcement, the Associated Press reported. "It's our obligation to deliver for them, and that's just what we're doing as a state."
Gov. Malloy at an event in April 2013. Photo by Christopher Capozziello/Getty Images.
Connecticut made strides by investing where it counts.
The state found success by partnering state agencies with community groups focused on providing homeless vets with necessary services. They also effectively invested in affordable housing programs.
Nearly 300 formerly homeless vets in Connecticut have been placed in stable housing during the past two years.
Photo via iStock.
Connecticut didn't get to this place just by being morally responsible, either. The state is being fiscally responsible, too. Even though implementing programs and investing in affordable housing may cost money up front, research has proven (time and time again) that helping the homeless better their circumstances saves taxpayers loads of money in the long run.
After all, when homeless people, say, make frequent visits to the emergency room or are jailed for crimes related to their circumstances (like loitering), taxpayers often foot the bill.
To be clear, this doesn't mean homelessness isn't a thing in Connecticut anymore.
“It's not that there is never going to be a homeless person again," Laurie Harkness told the Wall Street Journal. She's the director of the Errera Community Care Center, which helps vets with mental health and addiction services.
But “when people fall into homelessness, we have the safety net to immediately get them housed," she explained, noting a goal to get them into stable living conditions in 60 days or less.
The milestone isn't celebrating an end to homelessness as much as it's highlighting a system that's working.
Photo via iStock.
Connecticut has cracked the code on helping the people who — arguably more than anybody else — deserve our help and respect.
If the Nutmeg State can do it, the other 49 should take note.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.