HAMLET — The brick apartments at 321 Charlotte Street beside Dr. Fred McQueen’s office may soon undergo renovations and upgrades and become homes for homeless veterans.
Bruce Abulu, sole proprietor of Shankolo Properties, is investing his own money to make the dream a reality as a good-faith investment he hopes will lead to community partnerships and, ultimately, expansions.
“I came down here, and am planning to make here my home, and I wanted to give as much to the community through the veteran program,” Abulu said. “The population of the homeless veterans is about 10 to 12 percent, so I wanted to contribute my own quarter to the development of the town.”
Originally from Nigeria, Abulu worked in the upstream sector of the oil industry in the Lake Chad Basin for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, and in the Niger Delta Basin for Shell Petroleum Development Company.
“We have plans, we are meeting with the veterans administration in some key cities by Wednesday,” he said. “By then, we’ll have structured our program for them. And we have to think about putting some vocational skills, trying to bring (veterans) back to work, and the family, getting them reunited as a family and grow up as a family.”
Perry Ealim, who is working with Abulu and who is also relocating to the county, said one challenging aspect of transitioning veterans is the way mental health is addressed in the U.S.
“One of the things you have to understand is you’re coming from a structured environment to a non-structured environment,” Ealim said. “There’s no bridge there, and one of the things we’re looking at is we’re developing some basic, common-sense approaches to that kind of scenario.
“Society’s non-structured, and a lot of the service people that we’ve talked to and have been in contact with have a hard time adjusting to that,” he continued. “One of the things we’ve found out with the mental health issues is that they don’t deal with the cause — they deal with the symptoms.”
Ealim believes matching the veterans with career opportunities based on their skill sets is as important as putting a roof over their heads.
“One of the things we’re looking at is trying to develop ‘jobology’ programs, and counseling programs dealing with the causes and not so much the symptoms,” he explained. “As an example, one guy told me, ‘Perry, when I left, my son was 12 years old. When I got back, he was 16.’ There’s a difference in communication there. That’s what I mean by a common sense approach. We’re trying to develop certain programs where the Doyal Management Group, which is the consulting service I contracted to work with Mr. Abulu, is that we’re looking at these common sense approaches.”
For Ealim, an appropriate analogy is drawn from his experiences in a former career.
“I used to teach school, and one of the things they taught us in school was a lot of book stuff — but once you got in the classroom, that never worked. It never worked. So we’re looking at what I call ‘The Cornbread Approach,’ you know, the grassroots approach. Sometimes you’ve got to go outside the box. They way we think, there is no box.”
Abulu said the 12-unit property is the first of a handful of projects he hopes to launch.
“This will be the phase one of our program. We’re going to modernize it, put up fences and make it a gated community for their security,” Abulu said. “We’re going to do some landscaping work. This (building) for example, we’re trying to make it a laundromat for them, for laundry machines, so they will have a central point.”
Ealim said the reason they selected Richmond County as the location for the project was the numerous “possibilities and opportunities” the area has to offer.
“The area is conducive to the lifestyle that a lot of (veterans) need to transition, so that’s a part of it,” he said. “Another part is if the local government will come in and be partners, and even lending institutions, there’s close proximity to a lot of different areas. Even the college is coming in downtown Rockingham, so that’s going to be a big deal.”
Ealim said he believes the county has room for growth and expansion and could support new businesses veterans might start here. He said other plans include opening an in-house daycare center, saying that daycare costs absorb nearly 30 percent of a person’s budget. He envisions a daycare on the premises, staffed by volunteers, and providing a handful of basic life skills such as assisting the veterans in opening personal banking accounts, obtaining driver’s licenses and taking care of things many of us consider to be routine.
“We don’t just have veterans come in and give them a place to stay,” he said. “There are some programs we want to implement, also.”
Tenants currently living in the units, he said, will be part of a relocation program steered by five-year resident Mae Pearson.
“She knows a lot of the tenants here, so she’ll be instrumental in helping us relocate and find places for alternative housing,” Ealim said.
Archie and Vickie Leviner, who also rent a unit on the property, said they are not worried about being kicked out onto the streets.
“We were looking to buy, anyways,” Archie Leviner said. “I think this is an awesome thing.”
“As long as I’m okay and my kids, I think it’s great,” Pearson added.
“The veterans need places to be, for someone to help ‘em out,” Archie Leviner added.
To learn more about the project, contact Abulu at 910-817-9103.
Reach reporter Melonie McLaurin at 910-817-2673 and follow her on Twitter @meloniemclaurin.