As he said himself, Wilbert doesn’t have bad credit, he just doesn’t use credit. For as long as he can remember, he has paid for things as needed, no credit cards or loans. It is hard to get by in the city without credit, especially when you are looking for a place to live.

Wilbert’s peripatetic existence has taken him from his hometown, Chicago, to places all over the world, including Vietnam where he served in the U.S. Navy. After the war, he eventually found himself in the Pacific Northwest, where he liked the people and found a number of places to work and live.

At the age of 58, Wilbert felt ready to have a place of his own, but found that to be nearly impossible without any credit record. Ready to leave the gray winters of Seattle behind for a life on the streets in a warmer climate, Wilbert came to the Veterans’ Program and received unexpected good news. The King County Veterans’ Program had found Wilbert a home at the Plymouth Housing Group’s new Anne and Langdon Simons Senior Apartments.

While he has faced many obstacles and challenges in life and has often suffered from bad timing, he refers to this latest development in his life as an example of “great timing”. Now he says that he will be able to tolerate the winters and looks forward to living out the rest of his days here. He has worked as a chef for decades, and is hoping to take some culinary classes and get back into that trade in some way.

In the meantime, he still visits the Veterans’ Program to chat with the staff, especially with Candice, his case worker. Of the staff at the Veterans’ Program, Wilbert says that they are enthusiastic and have a lot of energy. About Candice, Wilbert says, “She’s family”.