After 5 years homeless, veteran found hope at HVAF apartments

Dean Cooksey showed up to his apartment five months ago with two changes of clothes and a stack of wallet-sized photos of his family.

Cooksey was moving into a place of his own after five years of living outside. He has a one-bedroom unit at Manchester Apartments, a transitional housing facility for homeless veterans. It’s at 10th and Pennsylvania streets and operated by Helping Veterans and Families of Indiana.

Cooksey, 65, served in the U.S. Army from 1980 to 1983.

He became homeless shortly after his wife died. But Cooksey forced himself to keep a positive attitude on the street, comparing those years to a long camping trip.

“If you start looking down and backwards and stuff, you ain’t gonna last long,” he said.

Cooksey caught a break when he met an outreach worker with HVAF. At the time, Manchester Apartments was only partially open after a fire in October 2024.

Now, Cooksey lives in a part of the building that has since been rehabilitated.
 

And after years of surviving outside, Cooksey did something last week that hadn’t been possible for a long time: He watched movies.

“That’s the first time I’ve sat down and watched that much TV in five years,” he said.

Cooksey’s time at Manchester Apartments is about to come to an end — but for a good reason. He found an apartment and hopes to move in as soon as this week.

HVAF plans to come back stronger after fire

The fire that displaced 48 veterans made success stories such as Cooksey’s feel a long way off.

HVAF CEO Emmy Hildebrand remembers seeing smoke billowing into the sky and handing out blankets to veterans outside. The only good news came the next day, when everyone living at the apartments was accounted for.

“I was just thinking, I have no idea how we’re gonna come back from this,” Hildebrand told Mirror Indy.
 

But an insurance adjustor pointed out that rebuilding after the fire was a chance to make positive change.

The silver lining: Once the facility’s south tower is complete next summer, there will be 13 more units than Manchester Apartments had before the fire. And HVAF will double the size of its food pantry by moving it to a new space in the south tower.

The north tower, where Cooksey lives, was back to full capacity in early October. There are 19 units housing 23 veterans.

Why Cooksey kept his cardboard sign

Cooksey is still rebuilding his life. He has a recliner in the corner of his living room, a small dining room table and a TV in his bedroom.

But the family photos are among his most prized possessions, showing glimpses of his three kids, 21 grandkids and late wife Sandra. They’ve started to fade and wrinkle after years outside.

“They ain’t in the greatest shape,” he said.
 

Cooksey sold his house and gutter business shortly before his wife’s death. She had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for 15 years. The two traveled the country together for about eight months, and he came back to Indianapolis with virtually nothing.

During his time living outside, Cooksey stayed around the corner of U.S. 31 and Thompson Road on the south side. There, he held a cardboard sign asking for help.

Now, Cooksey uses a repurposed version of the sign. He uses it as a phone holder.

“It reminds me of what I did,” he said, “or used to do.”

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Mirror Indy reporter Tyler Fenwick covers housing and labor. Contact him at 317-766-1406 or tyler.fenwick@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @ty_fenwick and Bluesky @tyfenwick.bsky.social.