OAKLAND — Instead of living in Army barracks, Robert Bruce would pitch a tent in the nearby woods. He preferred the isolation.

While not a troublemaker, the infantryman was repeatedly disciplined for letting his hair grow too long. Going to the barber meant being around crowds, and Bruce doesn’t do that.

“I’ve always been pretty much alone. Most of the time I didn’t want to be around people,” Bruce said. “Even now, I get very nervous.”

This mental illness, diagnosed as paranoia, led the Vietnam veteran to spend much of his adult life homeless, living out of vehicles around Oakland and the East Bay.

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Until he let one person in.

Earlier this year, Bruce, 60, was referred to Ron Murray, a veterans services coordinator with Swords to Plowshares, and his life changed dramatically.

The homeless veterans-assistance nonprofit, based out of Oakland and San Francisco, helps about 3,000 veterans each year. Last year, the group got permanent housing for more than 1,200 homeless veterans, with another 319 receiving employment and job training, according to the agency’s website.

Swords to Plowshares has received funding this year from Share the Spirit, an annual holiday campaign to benefit needy residents in the East Bay. The grant is administered by the Contra Costa Crisis Center, and donations support programs of 40 nonprofit agencies in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

“The biggest challenge is building trust,” says Manny Sosa, Swords to Plowshares outreach coordinator. Many of the veterans have endured many broken promises, he said.

Most Bay Area homeless veterans served in the Vietnam War and are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, mental illness or substance abuse problems, said Sosa, moments after he spoke to a young veteran at an Oakland encampment, promising to pick him up the next day for a visit to the DMV.

Many are eligible for VA help but have not gone through the often-cumbersome application process. Some have no government-issued identification, which means they can’t enter federal buildings where they need to fill out paperwork and be interviewed to apply for benefits. So Sosa offers rides, paperwork assistance and trips to a variety of offices.

For Bruce, Murray helped him navigate the VA. Bruce had been scraping by on Social Security and about $130 a month from the VA for ringing in his ears. With the help of Swords to Plowshares, Bruce said that by the beginning of next year he expects his VA disability payments to go up more than tenfold.

“The encouragement part really worked for him because he just needed someone to, what I call, triage him through the system and someone he could trust,” Murray said.

Wearing a gray T-shirt, camouflage pants, black flip-flops and a Vietnam veterans hat, Bruce took a reporter and photographer on a tour of a homeless encampment where just a couple of months ago he would park his red minivan and spend the night. The cul-de-sac at East 12th Street and 23rd Avenue, strewn with trash topped by an abandoned couch, sits between a rail line and raised BART tracks, and below the 22nd Avenue overpass.

Bruce would keep to himself.

“I don’t talk to nobody. So I would leave to go somewhere peaceful during the day,” he said, often winding up at the Berkeley Marina to find a quiet space to park and decompress.

While he never dealt with a substance abuse problem, his mental issues meant a shelter was out of the question, so Swords to Plowshares found him his own temporary motel room. Eventually, it found an Oakland studio for him, along with a psychiatrist and social worker.

Bruce has no big plans. He just wants a permanent home to call his own, where he can sit and enjoy the solitude.

“It’s just makes me feel at peace,” he said.

SHARE THE SPIRIT

The Share the Spirit campaign, sponsored by the Bay Area News Group, benefits needy residents of Alameda and Contra Costa counties by funding nonprofit holiday and outreach programs.

To make a tax-deductible contribution, clip the coupon accompanying this story or go to www.sharethespiriteastbay.org/donate.

Readers with questions, and individuals or businesses interested in making large contributions, may contact the Contra Costa Crisis Center, which administers the fund, at 925-939-1916, ext. 408, or sharethespirit@crisis-center.org.