By Whitney Phillips, Cronkite News Service
To Army veteran Robert Herr, this downtown Starbucks is just another place to grab a cup of coffee on his days off from work.
But just more than a year ago, when he was homeless and living in his car in California, Starbucks was the place Herr went for shelter, drinking free refills and eating the occasional free snack.
“My main survival was pretty much Starbucks during the day and then finding a good hiding place at night,” he said.
When Herr’s father died in late 2010, he came to Phoenix to be close to his 8-year-old son. He ditched his car and slept in bushes outside the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center until a VA liaison connected him with U.S.VETS, a nonprofit organization that provides temporary housing, counseling and job placement for veterans…
