The Buchanans, parents of a 5-year-old son, served in the military during the 1990s - he in the Marines, she in the Air Force. They now count themselves among the nation's hundreds of thousands of homeless veterans, after losing their jobs and their home this year in their native Chicago.

"We ended up spending what money we had for bus tickets to come here, hoping we could get a fresh start,'' Jessie Buchanan says.

Today, the couple is living in Mercy Franciscan at St. John's temporary housing on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine. Every weekday Jessie takes the bus up the hill to Goodwill Industries' job training office in Roselawn, where he learns computer skills and how to sell himself to employers.

"In Chicago, we were nothing,'' Jessie says. "Here, we feel like we matter.''

In Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, dozens of agencies can help homeless veterans with food and shelter, job training and drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Several programs can help homeless veterans find homes of their own.

But even with the multitude of shelters and aid programs, only a handful of homeless veterans seek help.

"There's an enormous number of people out there who have no idea there is help available,'' says Bill Malone, who runs the non-profit Joseph House for Homeless Veterans in Over-the-Rhine.

Here are four places offering help:

• VA Domiciliary for Homeless Veterans, Fort Thomas: Run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the 60-bed facility provides a temporary home for veterans while they work to kick drug and alcohol addictions and learn new job skills.

Tommy Davis and Bobby Richardson are two veterans who credit "The Dom,'' as it is called by the men who live there, with saving their lives.

Davis, a southern Indiana native who served in the Navy from 1975 to 1981, found himself homeless and addicted to drugs after a job injury left him unable to work.

Richardson, a basketball star at Purcell High School in the 1970s who served with the U.S. Army in Germany, started abusing drugs and alcohol after his wife died three years ago. The slide cost him his job and, ultimately, his home.

Both men were living in a shelter when they were referred to The Dom.

Davis, now sober and in possession of new computer skills he had no use for when he was a maintenance worker, is on the verge of leaving the Domiciliary for his own apartment in Newport. His friend Richardson hopes to follow him soon.

"If you ask me where I would be if I had not come to this place, the answer is simple,'' Richardson says. "I'd be dead.''

For information, call (513) 861-3100.

• Joseph House for Homeless Veterans, Over-the-Rhine: Bill Boone, a formerly homeless Vietnam veteran, was one of nine men getting help at this shelter and treatment facility 10 years ago.

Today, Joseph House has room for 65 homeless veterans in four buildings. Boone works there, helping director Malone run the day-to-day operations.

Joseph House recently acquired another building - a former crack house on Republic Street, next door to Joseph House's "Landing Zone'' where homeless veterans check into the program. The plan is to turn it into housing for another dozen veterans undergoing drug and alcohol abuse treatment.

Joseph House is almost always full. Nearly all those served are men, but Joseph House has a few rooms segregated for the occasional female veteran. Women make up 3 percent of the homeless veteran population nationally.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs pays non-profits like Joseph House $27 a day to house a veteran for up to two years.

But Malone says it costs Joseph House $35 a day to house each veteran and give him treatment and training, so Malone spends much of his time raising private funds. One of the biggest backers of Joseph House is Disabled American Veterans, the national service organization based in Cold Spring.

For information, call (513) 241-2965.

• Mount Airy Center: Tucked away in the Mount Airy woods, this shelter is a former Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps camp.

It helped put jobless and homeless men to work then and does the same today. The 65-bed center is operated by the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services. About 40 percent of occupants are homeless veterans.

In April, the VA gave the Mount Airy Center a $157,388 annual grant that will pay $27 a day for each bed, up to 16, through 2007.

For information, call (513) 661-4620.

• Goodwill Industries, Woodlawn: Learning job skills and the art of selling one's self to employers is at the heart of Goodwill Industries' program for homeless veterans.

The agency operates a 24-bed dormitory for homeless veterans at its Ohio Valley headquarters on Springfield Pike. Since the Goodwill program began 11 years ago, more than 2,000 veterans have lived in the dormitory-style housing. Of those, 1,747 found jobs and are now living in their own homes.

Goodwill Industries receives VA funding to house veterans. Goodwill also gets grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Labor to run its program, in addition to money it raises privately.

Goodwill does not provide substance abuse treatment, so it refers veterans with addictions to programs like Joseph House first.

"Once they have beaten that, they come here, and we teach them to fend for themselves out in the real world," director Charlie Blythe says.

"We build self-esteem."

For information, call (513) 771-4800.

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com