Fred McLean hoped his veteran status would help him and Donald Underwood obtain housing aid from the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs when they got married in 2022.
McLean has received health care from the VA for years but said all it ever gave Underwood was a plot in the state veterans’ cemetery, where McLean will someday join him.
Underwood died in February at 47. He and McLean had only been together a few months when in 2011, a police officer struck Underwood’s face with a Taser and left him with a life-altering brain injury. Underwood developed severe claustrophobia that made it difficult to live indoors, so the couple learned where to sleep safely outdoors and lived primarily on Little Rock’s streets. […]
Click here to read to the full piece. This story was originally published by Arkansas Advocate on April 3, 2024.
