The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Man highlights veterans' struggles
By Christine Laughren, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 29, 2008
He sits relaxed on his front porch wearing a Marine Corps baseball cap, a white long-sleeve shirt, blue jeans and black Reeboks. A Prisoner of War flag flanks the white porch steps with an American flag and purple tulips lining the front garden.
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You would never know it by looking at him, but six months ago David Bickford woke up after a long night of crack cocaine on a cold sidewalk in Wayne County.
The 48-year-old Marine Corps veteran said when he saw a paramedic standing over him, defibrillator in hand, he realized he needed to get back on track and become an honest citizen again.
"I had several doctors sit me down to tell me I needed to make a decision in my life," Bickford said as he looked out toward the street of his Ann Arbor residence. "It really opened my eyes."
Bickford, originally an Ypsilanti resident, now lives in The Salvation Army of Washtenaw County's Haven of Hope House. He is nearly a year into the two-year transitional housing program, created to help veterans who face homelessness and substance abuse problems.
Bickford joined the Marine Corps in 1976. He had stopped attending Willow Run High School before he graduated and saw the Marines as his opportunity to fight back as he heard news of his friends dying in Vietnam. But the Vietnam War ended in late April, 1975 and Bickford never saw any action.
"I was a year shy," Bickford said. "I guess it wasn't in my cards."
After he was discharged in 1979, Bickford lived in California and fell into a pattern of drug and alcohol abuse. Since then he has been in and out of rehab centers, addicted to heroine and crack cocaine among other things. He wondered the streets, a homeless man and stole money for drugs.
Bickford said he moved to the Ypsilanti and Ann arbor area to get his life back on track. After a short stint at a drug rehabilitation center in Ohio, Bickford moved into the Haven of Hope House and has been clean and sober for six months.
Jennifer Brown, a social service director for the TSA-WC said the Haven of Hope House began in 1995 as a joint project with Veteran Affairs Ann Arbor Homeless Outreach. The goal of the program is to house veterans for two years while they transition back into mainstream society, become self-sustaining citizens and established in the community.
"It's a beneficial program because it gives them an opportunity to have some supervision, some structure to their lives and an opportunity to for them regain some of the skills they may have had in their lives as well as keep some individuality."
Bickford said he loves living at the house. He said although he has a curfew - 11 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends - the Haven of Hope House is pretty lenient compared with other rehabilitation centers.
"This place has given me the opportunity to stay clean and save money for the future," he said. "And it's a beautiful home."
In exchange for cheap living accommodations and under the condition that he stay sober, Bickford cleans the dining room and polishes the floor. He lives with six other veterans who have been in similar situations. Every member of the house is given a chore and regular house meetings are held.
Bickford is currently working in the nursing home of the Veteran's Hospital in Ann Arbor. He spends his days transporting patients from room to room as they go for X-rays or examinations.
"I've been very blessed, I love that job," Bickford said, explaining how he likes to tell jokes to the patients to make them smile. "I've gotten to enjoy it, you get to know people."
Bickford got the position through a Compensated Work Therapy program. But the job ends at the end of this month and every Wednesday Bickford ventures out to look for another. He said he enjoys the work he does at the Veteran's Hospital and would like to stay there if at all possible. A few weeks ago he applied for a shipping job but was unsure if he would get it.
In the meantime, Bickford said he enjoys spending time with his brother, who lives in Belleville. He said the two of them get together often to watch the Red Wings, barbecue or just hangout.
"We're going to start fishing again too," he said. "My brother just got a boat."
Bickford said he is happy to be with his family and with people who support him as he begins his new life.
"I want to find out who David is," Bickford said. "All that time being doped up and drugged up I didn't know who I was."
He sits relaxed on his front stoop wearing casually smoking a Marlboro. Bickford said he is happy with the way his life is going and he is thankful to The Salvation Army for helping him become an honest citizen again.
He said all needs now is a girlfriend.
"I'm single and available," he said. "But it's going to take one hell of a woman to settle me down."
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