NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Spending years of your life serving your country on the frontlines only to come back and have the struggles continue is an all too familiar story, but there are some who have been continuously giving hope at home.

Army veteran John Cooper makes his way in to Niagara Gospel Mission with a purpose.

"I was in Kabul, Afghanistan and came on leave. So when I came home, came on leave, and I saw the condition of Niagara Falls being very similar to the condition of Kabul, Afghanistan," said Cooper, "which was like a legit war zone."

The men experiencing homelessness in this facility, they share something in common with its executive director.

"My wife lost her job. I was in school. She lost her job. So we moved back here with my parents," he noted. "So we faced homelessness. I'm under 30. So I came back. I started working here until I was going to go to Georgia to finish my schooling to be a chaplain. And then, the Lord had different plans."

From needing help to building a new life here with a family and a mission in Niagara Falls.

"I would say 9.5 million people a year come to this area to watch water fall off a cliff, but walk right past somebody made in the image of God who has value, who has dignity, who has worth," Cooper said. "They don't know that person, but they're uncomfortable."

Every day is different, but met with the same set of principles.

"So when I got back from Afghanistan, something that was said to me, that I felt really helped my marriage was, 'the hardest thing you've ever been through is hardest thing you've ever been through,'" he remembered. "You cannot treat people like they haven't been through what you've been through. Therefore they don't. They don't know how to deal with hardship. So where it translates is how was I able to deal with the hardship I've been through? Just kind of ciphering it down as hardship."

"To my 5-year-old, like his Lego pieces," he continued. "Not going together is the hardest thing that he's going through. And praise God, I want that to be the hardest thing he goes through, right?"

And while his mission operates on essentially a shoestring donation budget, the relationships built and these programs have them rich in pride and a few other things.

"I couldn't do without my faith, right," Cooper asked. "So we really, as part of what we do here, we teach people that you know, a relationship with God is going to get you through the stuff that's been getting people through stuff for 2,000 years."

Whether those in need find more comfort in the spiritual or the structured.

"They taught us in the military was, it's about the platoon. It's about the squad. It's about the section. It's not about you," he said.

From the darkest days to the greatest triumphs, there's a thin line.

"Like, John Cooper's not awesome, right? I really am not," he said. "I am a sinner saved by grace. I am rotten as the guy next to me. Not only am I not better than anyone who walks through this door, I'm also two steps away from being them."

The will to put in the work drives John's personal and now professional success in and out of the mission.

"You are in the spot I was in. I'm not Mr. Fix It, who's come in here, right? I'm not. Sergeant Cooper isn't going to come and fix your life for you," he added. "But it can get better. And it has to get better - there's hope. That's what it is."

There are different types of homelessness, but no matter what your situation, there are folks like John Cooper and other organizations out there for help.