CLEVELAND — According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, women make up the fastest growing segment of the homeless veteran population.

This is one reason Volunteers of America have created a place for 12 female veterans to live in Cleveland, called the Sara J. Harper Village.

Norika Hancock, the senior director of veterans and housing with Volunteers of America Ohio and Indiana, said each veteran gets their own affordable apartment unit to live in.

“Safety is a very big thing for us,” she said. “We want to make sure our ladies feel comfortable in the community and the housing that they have. They feel like they have a space of their own. They have a voice. We see them. We hear them, and we are here to support them.”

Hancock said, along with housing, they also provide referrals to resources for the village residents.

“We’re not just, you know, sending the female off to, you know, this provider or that provider,” Hancock said. “We assist them. We reach out. We make those phone calls. If there is paperwork, we can make that referral, and we also have a staff person on-site that can physically go with the female.”

Gloria Kelly is an army veteran and a resident in the village. She said she was on a troubled path before moving to the village and finds comfort in connecting with the other residents.

“I got introduced to drugs,” she said. “It started in the military, though. A lot of the drug using started in the military because I tried to cope with what was going on and not being accepted, the racism, the separation.”

Kelly said she hopes more places like the village will be built to help support veteran women.

“I’m just elated that I finally have a place that I can call home," she said.