“I feel young”: At 77, a Vietnam Veteran gets his fresh start

By Maureen Dyman, Communications Director, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center

August 10, 2026

Army Vietnam Veteran Verton Morris, 77, slept on the ground outside Houston VA’s Community Resource and Referral Center (CRRC) for weeks. He’d come inside to do his laundry, grab a snack and exchange a few words.

Every morning, Emily Winfield walked past him. Winfield, a licensed clinical social worker and director of the CRRC, kept showing up, working to convince Morris to accept help. But he wasn’t yet ready.

But, “she never gave up on me,” Morris shared.

One week, her persistence, and his, paid off.

Morris was among 18 Veterans who received housing at the CRRC’s Homeless Surge Event, a single-day mobilization that brought together community partners, VA staff and resources under one roof to move homeless Veterans off the streets and into stable housing as quickly as possible. By the next day, Morris had keys in hand and a new place to call home.