Atlantic Story Leads to $1 Million Check for Homeless Couple

Atlantic correspondent Christina Davidson has been touring the country on a Recession Road Trip. Her post today is nothing short of astonishing.

Last week she wrote about a husband and wife living in a tent city for the homeless in Sacramento. Today she reports that a Texas senator saw the piece and contacted the Veterans Affairs Committee, which has agreed to give the husband a check for almost one million dollars to cover back pay for his last 18 years in retirement.

Here is the heart of the story:

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) apparently read my piece about the Zimmermans and contacted Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV), who sits on the Committee on Veterans Affairs. As a result of their efforts, Charles Zimmerman had a mind-blowing meeting with a VA official yesterday afternoon.

Charles called me as soon as the meeting had ended to tell me that the VA had apologized for delaying resolution of his case for so long. He said they told him he would start receiving full benefits within a matter of weeks, including an initial check that would cover backpay for the past 18 years since his retirement.

"Are you sitting down?" Charles asks. "Yes," I say. "They say they'll be sending me a check for $972,000," he replies.

We both laugh semi-hysterically for a bit before calming down enough to discuss rationally. "What are you going to do with all that money?" I ask. "Retire," he says. "Then help SafeGround as much as I can. And that's it."

As my colleague Justin Miller remarked, this is what journalism can accomplish.