After nearly a decade in the Navy, Stephen Thompson returned to civilian life without realizing how much he had depended on the military’s structure. The routines, expectations and sense of direction that had shaped his adult life were suddenly gone.
“Things got out of whack real fast,” he recalled.
Thompson eventually became involved with the criminal justice system. He spent approximately eight years incarcerated at different points in his life. By the time that chapter ended, he had lost nearly everything and had nowhere stable to live.
His experience would later help him recognize a difficult reality facing other justice-involved veterans: Leaving prison does not always mean having somewhere to return.
Military Service and an Unexpected War
Thompson grew up in Millen, Georgia, and attended Jenkins County High School. He joined the U.S. Navy in July 1988 with ambitions of traveling and seeing the world.
“I went into the Navy like a lot of young people,” he said. “I was going into the Navy to be adventurous. I never thought I would end up in war.”
He served aboard the USS Reasoner from 1989 to 1991. While assigned to the ship, Thompson deployed to the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm. What began as an opportunity to travel became an extended wartime deployment marked by long months at sea.
Thompson later served aboard the USS Cape Cod from 1991 to 1994. Both ships were based in San Diego. He completed his final assignment at Naval Station Pascagoula, Mississippi, where he served from 1994 until leaving the Navy in November 1997.
By the end of his military career, Thompson had achieved the rank of petty officer second class, or E-5. He had spent more than nine years living within a system that told him where to be, what was expected and how to accomplish the mission.
Civilian life offered far less direction.
Losing the Structure That Held Life Together
Thompson did not immediately understand how the transition away from military structure was affecting him. Without that framework, his life began to unravel.
His involvement with the criminal justice system exposed him to another population he had not expected to encounter in such large numbers.
“Before I went to prison, I actually was under the impression that there weren’t a lot of veterans in prison,” he said. “But to my surprise, when I got to prison, there were a lot of veterans in prison.”
Seeing other veterans incarcerated disturbed him. It also made him more aware of how military transition, mental health, housing instability and involvement with the justice system can intersect.
After serving approximately eight years across multiple periods of incarceration, Thompson returned to the community with significant barriers. He had lost his possessions and housing, leaving him homeless and uncertain about what came next.
A friend told him about a local Supportive Services for Veteran Families program. Thompson reached out and enrolled. Through the program, he received help securing housing and assistance with essential expenses, including his water and electric bills.
That intervention gave him the stability to begin rebuilding.
During the same period, Thompson received a 30% VA disability rating and enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs Veteran Readiness and Employment program, commonly known as VR&E. He attended East Georgia State College for approximately two years.
When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted in-person education, Thompson withdrew and did not return. He began searching for another direction and eventually became involved in promoting Pam’s Magic Sauce, a business venture developed by his friend and future community partner, Rodney.
Traveling to events and meeting people gave Thompson a renewed sense of movement and purpose. It also led him back to the veteran community.
Returning With a New Mission
During their travels, Thompson and Rodney met veterans who were walking across the country to raise awareness about post-traumatic stress, veteran suicide and veterans’ rights. Inspired by their efforts, the men joined several walks in different parts of the country.
Those experiences allowed Thompson to speak with veterans facing struggles that felt familiar.
“At the end of the walks, they would challenge the veterans who participated to go back to their communities and make an impact on a veteran’s life,” Thompson said.
He accepted that challenge.
Thompson began helping veterans travel to VA medical appointments. For veterans living in and around Millen, accessing care can require traveling approximately an hour to the nearest VA facility. Without a dependable vehicle or a transportation program serving the area, a routine appointment can become difficult to reach.
What began with transportation assistance expanded into court advocacy through Veterans Justice Outreach and help for veterans experiencing homelessness.
Because Thompson had once received help through SSVF, he understood what the program could make possible. He began speaking with apartment managers and asking whether they would work with veterans whose move-in expenses could be supported through the program.
Over approximately one year, Thompson and his partners helped about 15 veterans obtain housing.
The work continued to grow as he learned more about housing programs, community partnerships and the resources available to veterans. His lived experience gave him an understanding of how easily someone can leave an institution without the housing, transportation and support needed to regain stability.
The Connection Between Incarceration and Homelessness
Thompson eventually became involved in providing reentry support to incarcerated veterans. The work brought him face to face with a barrier that can prevent a veteran’s successful return to the community: the absence of an approved place to live.
Some incarcerated veterans may become eligible for release while lacking a stable residence that satisfies parole or reentry requirements. Others leave correctional facilities and enter homelessness almost immediately because no housing plan was established before their release.
The connection is reflected in national research. A Veterans Health Administration study of 30,348 incarcerated veterans served through the Health Care for Re-entry Veterans program found that 30% had a history of homelessness. Eight percent had experienced transient homelessness, 11% had experienced episodic homelessness and another 11% had experienced chronic homelessness.
The findings do not mean that every justice-involved veteran will experience homelessness. They show why housing history must be taken seriously during reentry planning.
The VA’s Health Care for Re-entry Veterans program provides pre-release outreach, assessments and connections to health care, employment assistance and other community services. Local organizations can strengthen that work by helping veterans address the practical barriers they will face when they return home.
For Thompson, housing is one of the most important of those barriers.
His organization works with the VA and other agencies to help incarcerated veterans identify housing options before release. The goal is to prevent a veteran from reaching the prison gate with no approved address, no stable destination and no clear path forward.
Serving Rural Georgia
In 2023, Thompson founded United Veterans of Millen Inc. The organization currently assists veterans throughout Jenkins, Screven, Emanuel and Burke counties in Georgia.
The needs are spread across a largely rural region where distance can limit access to health care, transportation, housing programs and other services. Veterans may qualify for assistance while still struggling to reach the offices responsible for delivering it.
Thompson understands those gaps because he has lived through them. He also understands the difference one timely connection can make. A friend’s referral to SSVF helped him obtain housing when he had lost everything. Years later, he uses that knowledge to help other veterans find their own point of stability.
United Veterans of Millen is now developing the Veterans Village of Millen. The planned community is intended to expand housing opportunities for veterans, including those rebuilding their lives after homelessness or incarceration.
The project remains in development, but its purpose is rooted in what Thompson witnessed during his own journey: A veteran cannot successfully return to the community without somewhere safe and stable to return.
His work began with rides to VA appointments. It expanded to courtroom support, landlord outreach, housing placements and reentry planning. Each step has addressed a different part of the same problem.
For Thompson, helping veterans move forward means ensuring that release, recovery and renewed purpose begin with an address.
To learn more about Mission Roll Call’s work uplifting veteran voices and advancing effective housing solutions, visit our Homelessness page: https://missionrollcall.org/spotlight-priorities/housing-and-homelessness/
Mission Roll Call is committed to listening first. If you are a veteran, family member, caregiver or community partner, we invite you to share your story with us. Your experiences guide our advocacy and help us push for the changes veterans say matter most.
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Understanding the truth brings us one step closer to ensuring every veteran has what they deserve: stability, dignity and a place to call home.
About the Author
Yvette Jones-Swanson, M.A., is a writer and Mission Roll Call’s subject-matter expert on veteran homelessness and housing. A U.S. Army veteran, former homeless veteran and survivor of military sexual trauma, she brings more than 22 years of frontline experience as a Veterans REAL TOR® and housing advocate.