Homeless in America: 1 in 4 are Vets

[Guest Len]

This is a crying shame.

The discussion at military.com about this article was very interesting. (Its a long link, so go to military.com, read the article, then click on "sound off" at the end to read what the members have to say.) I'd like to hear what our local vets (and other interested TGO members) have to say about this problem and what solutions might be out there.

Homeless in America: 1 in 4 are Vets

WASHINGTON - Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report released Nov. 8.

And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.

The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.

The Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.

In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.

Some advocates say such an early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.

"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.

While services to homeless veterans have improved in the past 20 years, advocates say more financial resources still are needed. With the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to the younger veterans while there's a window of opportunity.

"When the Vietnam War ended, that was part of the problem. The war was over, it was off TV, nobody wanted to hear about it," said John Keaveney, a Vietnam veteran and a founder of New Directions in Los Angeles, which provides substance abuse help, job training and shelter to veterans.

"I think they'll be forgotten," Keaveney said of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. "People get tired of it. It's not glitzy that these are young, honorable, patriotic Americans. They'll just be veterans, and that happens after every war."

Keaveney said it's difficult for his group to persuade some homeless Iraq veterans to stay for treatment and help because they don't relate to the older veterans. Those who stayed have had success - one is now a stock broker and another is applying to be a police officer, he said.

"They see guys that are their father's age and they don't understand, they don't know, that in a couple of years they'll be looking like them," he said.

After being discharged from the military, Jason Kelley, 23, of Tomahawk, Wis., who served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, took a bus to Los Angeles looking for better job prospects and a new life.

Kelley said he couldn't find a job because he didn't have an apartment, and he couldn't get an apartment because he didn't have a job. He stayed in a $300-a-week motel until his money ran out, then moved into a shelter run by the group U.S. VETS in Inglewood, Calif. He's since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.

"The only training I have is infantry training and there's not really a need for that in the civilian world," Kelley said in a phone interview. He has enrolled in college and hopes to move out of the shelter soon.

The Iraq vets seeking help with homelessness are more likely to be women, less likely to have substance abuse problems, but more likely to have mental illness - mostly related to post-traumatic stress, said Pete Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs at the VA.

Overall, 45 percent of participants in the VA's homeless programs have a diagnosable mental illness and more than three out of four have a substance abuse problem, while 35 percent have both, Dougherty said.

Historically, a number of fighters in U.S. wars have become homeless. In the post-Civil War era, homeless veterans sang old Army songs to dramatize their need for work and became known as "tramps," which had meant to march into war, said Todd DePastino, a historian at Penn State University's Beaver campus who wrote a book on the history of homelessness.

After World War I, thousands of veterans - many of them homeless - camped in the nation's capital seeking bonus money. Their camps were destroyed by the government, creating a public relations disaster for President Herbert Hoover.

The end of the Vietnam War coincided with a time of economic restructuring, and many of the same people who fought in Vietnam were also those most affected by the loss of manufacturing jobs, DePastino said.

Their entrance to the streets was traumatic and, as they aged, their problems became more chronic, recalled Sister Mary Scullion, who has worked with the homeless for 30 years and co-founded of the group Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia.

"It takes more to address the needs because they are multiple needs that have been unattended," Scullion said. "Life on the street is brutal and I know many, many homeless veterans who have died from Vietnam."

The VA started targeting homelessness in 1987, 12 years after the fall of Saigon. Today, the VA has, either on its own or through partnerships, more than 15,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds for homeless veterans nationwide. It spends about $265 million annually on homeless-specific programs and about $1.5 billion for all health care costs for homeless veterans.

Because of these types of programs and because two years of free medical care is being offered to all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Dougherty said they hope many veterans from recent wars who are in need can be identified early.

"Clearly, I don't think that's going to totally solve the problem, but I also don't think we're simply going to wait for 10 years until they show up," Dougherty said. "We're out there now trying to get everybody we can to get those kinds of services today, so we avoid this kind of problem in the future."

In all of 2006, the Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that 495,400 veterans were homeless at some point during the year.

The group recommends that 5,000 housing units be created per year for the next five years dedicated to the chronically homeless that would provide permanent housing linked to veterans' support systems. It also recommends funding an additional 20,000 housing vouchers exclusively for homeless veterans, and creating a program that helps bridge the gap between income and rent.

Following those recommendations would cost billions of dollars, but there is some movement in Congress to increase the amount of money dedicated to homeless veterans programs.

On a recent day in Philadelphia, case managers from Project H.O.M.E. and the VA picked up William Joyce, 60, a homeless Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair who said he'd been sleeping at a bus terminal.

"You're an honorable veteran. You're going to get some services," outreach worker Mark Salvatore told Joyce. "You need to be connected. You don't need to be out here on the streets."

[molonlabetn]

So the potential for a veteran to be homeless is double that of the general population...

I wonder when this trend was set in motion? Vietnam-era?

[Guest db99wj]

Seems like some proactive programs, like job placement, job training, mental therapy would be in order and part of their orders. When they get back, before they can get out, they have to commit to a year of this, with the guarentee of not being reactivated, so that they can have the skills, mental stability, etc to cope with civilian life.

Not sure of the answer, but the system is failing our heros, our patriots. Very sad.

[Guest Ghostrider]

The entire VA system seems to only be for the benefit of those employed there.

I have received very good care for my service related issues, but don't even pretend like you have a thought in your head or you're a "trouble maker". Just say "yes" to everything and bring a good book. Tell some crap faced punk who never laced up a pair of boots your problem, get some condesending story or the other, then finally get what you need and get the heck out of there till you're FORCED to go back.

I'd bet a considerable number of vets in the homeless category just can't stand to take orders from someone who has never committed to anything more than a failed marriage and a couple of "projects" that may or may not ever produce anything.

It's taken me a number of years to learn when to shut up, and I still can't make myself do it all the time.

[The Rabbi]

I have serious doubts about the methodology here. How do you determine even how many people are homeless on any given night, much less how many are veterans?

Further, there has been a 20% improvement over 20 years in veteran homelessness. Why isn't that the focus of the story?

Further, I doubt its the case that merely being a veteran increases your chances of homelessness. Many people enter the army because they cannot fit in well in civillian life. Once their service ends they are back to where they started vis a vis society and end up like this.

I find the whole study very suspect....

[Guest canynracer]

I have serious doubts about the methodology here. How do you determine even how many people are homeless on any given night, much less how many are veterans?

Further, there has been a 20% improvement over 20 years in veteran homelessness. Why isn't that the focus of the story?

Further, I doubt its the case that merely being a veteran increases your chances of homelessness. Many people enter the army because they cannot fit in well in civillian life. Once their service ends they are back to where they started vis a vis society and end up like this.

I find the whole study very suspect....

This is gonna get good

[fury2neon]

And don't forget this same guy said that the homeless could not be counted when it was reported that fewer people are homeless now. So now he can count them when it suits his purposes. You also have to remember that the one's they are counting claim to be veterans like the ones Dan Rather interviewed living in the woods in Washington state in the late eighties that turned out to not been to be vets. Some may be vets but I bet the majority claiming to be vets would not know the military from PETA. You can thank Dan Rather for me not believing this news story.

[Guest Len]

IMO, if there is one homeless veteran in this country, it is a travesty. We can talk about methods and numbers all day, but in the end, if even one vet is "left behind," we should all feel the shame.

Veteran's Day is tomorrow, I hope everyone takes a moment to give thanks to those have served.

[The Rabbi]

IMO, if there is one homeless veteran in this country, it is a travesty. We can talk about methods and numbers all day, but in the end, if even one vet is "left behind," we should all feel the shame.

Veteran's Day is tomorrow, I hope everyone takes a moment to give thanks to those have served.

Len, are you suggesting that it is acceptable that non-veterans should be homeless? Why aren't you ashamed that in this wealthy society there is even one person without a dwelling to call home? Where is your conscience?

[fury2neon]

I know its not PC to say but some, not all, actually choose that life style. Should we force them to live with shelter and hot food?

There is a homeless lawyer who fights for the rights of homeless people to stay homeless.

Personally, I don't understand why someone would choose to be homeless. I guess it take all kinds.

I also think it is wrong for cities like San Fransisco to pay people to be homeless. I think it is great for individuals and religious groups to provide food and shelter for the homeless, poor, orphans, etc... I just don't see any evidence of anything that government has done in my life time that actually helps them.

[Guest Len]

...yeah, I'm just a big mean bas**rd...

Len, are you suggesting that it is acceptable that non-veterans should be homeless? Why aren't you ashamed that in this wealthy society there is even one person without a dwelling to call home? Where is your conscience?

[Mike.357]

To me what is really scary is that an awful lot of the population is only a few weeks/months away from being homeless. Meaning that these people work and do pay bills but if something happened to their job or a catastrophic illness happened they could lose everything and be out on the street.

[The Rabbi]

To me what is really scary is that an awful lot of the population is only a few weeks/months away from being homeless. Meaning that these people work and do pay bills but if something happened to their job or a catastrophic illness happened they could lose everything and be out on the street.

I dont know if that's scary. It sure is a lesson: don't let this happen to you.

But if everyone budgeted appropriately and lived within their means, ate reasonably, exercised moderately, drank moderately and quit smoking then a lot of us would be out of jobs.

[Guest canynracer]

I am going to quit smoking just so I can afford an M&P compact....then I will resume...LMAO

I seriously spend WAY too much money on cigarettes...

[fury2neon]

...if everyone budgeted appropriately and lived within their means, ate reasonably, exercised moderately, drank moderately and quit smoking then a lot of us would be out of jobs.

Ain't that the truth! If people ate reasonably then my wifes business would close. (WWW.SERNICOLAS.COM; shameless plug) Italians never serve reasonable portions only massive portions that most reasonable people can't finish.

As a caveat to that, if we each did all those things when would have any fun other than at the range of course.

[The Rabbi]

Link no work. Plug away, that's what we're here for. Who knows, maybe there is a recovering anorexic on the board looking for a place to bulk up at.

[Guest canynracer]

Link no work. Plug away, that's what we're here for. Who knows, maybe there is a recovering anorexic on the board looking for a place to bulk up at.

http://www.sernicolas.com/

it had a semicolon at the end......

and BTW...why is it that everything so good, so freaking far from Memphis? the menu looks AWESOME

[fury2neon]

Sorry, I should have put a space between the address and the semicolon.

[The Rabbi]

I don't even know where Cowan is.

Didn't you have to get some kind of special permit to offer Eye-talian food in the county? Is this a commie Muslim plot to undermine the fiber of America's manhood?

[Marswolf]

Some vets just prefer the homeless lifestyle.

I know some who prefer a tent-camp or live in a "hooch" to living at the VA in the domiciliary. Mostly, you can't drink in the dom.

[fury2neon]

I don't even know where Cowan is.

Didn't you have to get some kind of special permit to offer Eye-talian food in the county? Is this a commie Muslim plot to undermine the fiber of America's manhood?

Naw, the Italian immigrants came through in the 30's when their homeland was being taken over by National Socialist as Il Duce called it.

Cowan: Large Metro area between Sewanee and Winchester. You know a huge city maybe even 3,000 people.