Antonio Sanders glanced out the window Friday morning at the 6 inches of snow covering Little Rock.
"[Here's] a lot better than being out there," he said.
Here, for Sanders, 29, was his dorm room at the Empowerment Village, where the once-homeless U.S. Navy veteran has lived for about two months.
His audience was U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., and the senator's military and veterans liaison Anita Deason as the pair toured the village, a collection of 30 single residential occupancy units under one roof that is part of the Empowerment Center.
Opened in 2013 and located in the 3600 block of West 12th Street in Little Rock, the center is a public and private partnership that provides drug treatment, prevention and intervention programs. The center also offers career and technology training, life skills and supportive housing assistance.
Talking with a reporter before the senator's arrival, Sanders said he has post-traumatic stress disorder, which has caused him to lose jobs and his family. He suffers from flashbacks and has trouble sleeping at night.
He was homeless for about a year and a half before going to Empowerment Village.
His life has made a turnaround since his arrival, Sanders said. He's taking medication again, learning coping skills and undergoing counseling.
"My life is a lot better: my attitude on life, my motivation, me wanting to be around people, my focus on life. I'm refocused," said Sanders, who served as a hospital corpsman from 2006 to 2011. "I'm more driven now. I want to participate and continue with my life."
The veteran is working with Empowerment Center staff to get veteran benefits and move into an apartment in the coming weeks. He also wants to reunite with his family. Divorced, Sanders has five children who range in age from 3 to 10.
"My main focus is to just get my life back on the right track and just keep going," he said. "I don't want to just be another veteran who didn't try to get himself back together before it was too late."
Boozman, a member of the U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, spent about an hour and a half at the $5 million, 25,000-square-foot center Friday morning, chatting with veterans such as Sanders.
Sanders is one of about 65 people -- civilians and veterans alike -- whom the center assists each day, said the Rev. William Robinson Jr., who is executive director of Better Community Development Inc., a nonprofit, faith-based organization that oversees the center.
Better Community Development employs 31 people, Robinson said. The nonprofit has several other programs, including youth activities and supportive housing programs, with the mission of improving the quality of life for low-income, underserved, disadvantaged and at-risk children, youths and families in Little Rock.
The Empowerment Center also includes 24 treatment beds for partner organization Hoover Treatment Center.
"We want to work with the community and not for the community and tell the community what to do," Robinson said.
Robinson told Boozman that the Empowerment Center deals with "a lot with mental-health issues, especially among our veteran clients."
He also said smaller, newer nonprofits have a harder time acquiring federal and state dollars for their work.
"When ... you got a small piece of pie, you bring all those folks together and everybody wants the largest slice of the pie, but everybody can't get that," Robinson said. "There are not enough dollars out there to get the right things done. Budgets are tight, I know. But right here, we deal with the everyday people."
Boozman and Robinson also discussed how "red tape" sometimes stalls people seeking help.
The answer to red tape "needs to come from the bottom up," Boozman said. Tours and talks such as the one Friday give him ideas on how to cut down on legislative red tape, he said.
The tour included visits to the center's separate group living rooms for men and women and a stop in the building's dining hall, which was hosting an anger-management counseling session for residents.
Estella Morris, director of the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System's Veterans Day Treatment Center, also joined the tour.
Boozman also visited with Darryl Johnson, a U.S. Army veteran from Little Rock who has lived at Empowerment Village for about four months.
Johnson showed the senator some of the woodcarving he does in his room, including several canes adorned with brightly colored images of people.
"The people here are so dedicated, and you feel that as soon as you walk in the door," Boozman said. "They do a tremendous job. This is a great example of the city, the state, the federal government and the nonprofit end of it working together for a common cause. As a result, it works really well.
"We need to see a lot more of this in the future."
State Desk on 01/23/2016