Colter Wood

Home is Support for Our Veterans

When Colter describes himself, he says, “I am a veteran, a friend, a community member, and a human being.” He sees more than his hardest challenges.

Colter graduated from El Cerrito High School in 2008. In his spare time, he was an avid swimmer and worked as a lifeguard. In 2011, Colter joined the Navy with visions of becoming a special forces agent, seeing the world, and learning new skills. But it didn’t work out quite like that.

First, he discovered he was color blind, so special forces were out of the question. Then he became disabled after a car hit him as a pedestrian, suffering a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI. After 5.5 years of service, Colter was medically separated from the Navy.

Colter briefly worked in Cybersecurity, but his TBI injury led to significant mental health issues, expressed in multiple attempts at suicide. After years of struggling, a new doctor advised him to try an experimental treatment that he could only access in the Bay Area. So, Colter came home.

Colter became unhoused in June of 2025 and says housing instability was one of the most destabilizing experiences a person can have. Overcoming the challenges of being unhoused, he says, would have been impossible without the support of community organizations, particularly the VA and its programs. The nonprofit Swords to Plowshares provided Colter with a hotel voucher, and then they connected him to the HUD-VASH program. VASH is for veterans who qualify for VA healthcare, are homeless or at risk, and who agree to participate in ongoing case management. Colter is thankful for the support Swords to Plowshares and the VA have provided.

Programs like this are an essential partnership between the county and agencies to provide critical services to seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and frontline workers.

Colter, who was born and raised in the East Bay, finds it hard to believe that he has gone through all of this. He seeks stability in all its forms and for all aspects of his life. He wants to work with in-home health services, helping others meet the challenges of their disabilities. His intent is to become independent, live in Berkeley, and return to work and school.