First hour: Helping homeless veterans
Second hour: Carola Dibbell, author of The Only Ones
The City of Rochester has completed Michelle Obama’s “Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness.” To meet the challenge, communities had to achieve a status of “functional zero,” meaning that housing is available for all homeless veterans who seek it. A 2015 study found 55 homeless veterans in the Rochester area, Now, all of those veterans who requested assistance have housing. We’ll talk about how area agencies worked together to complete the challenge and what’s next on the city’s agenda to help veterans in need. Our guests:
- Todd Baxter, executive director, Veterans Outreach Center
- Erin Militello, program manager for the Healthcare for Homeless Veterans program at the VA
- Carol Wheeler, manager for housing for the City of Rochester
- Emil Anderson, Marine Corps veteran
In our second hour, we talk with author Carola Dibbell about her novel, The Only Ones. The book was selected for this year's Debut Novel Series at Writers & Books. Dibbell is a rock critic who published her first major work of fiction at age 71. The Only Ones tells the story of a young woman hired to provide genetic material to a grief-stricken mother in a post-pandemic world. We talk to Dibbell about the story, her research process, and themes within the book. Our guests:
- Carola Dibbell, author of The Only Ones
- Joe Flaherty, executive director of Writers & Books
- Karen van Meenen, coordinator of the Rochester Reads and Debut Novel Series programs at Writers & Books