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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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 Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 1:04 pm Post subject: 1 in 4 US Homeless Are Veterans |
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| Quote: | 1 in 4 US Homeless Are Veterans
Associated Press
8 November 2007
By Kimberly Helfling
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 to be released Thursday.
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 National 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 the 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 National 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." |
i remember hearing a similarly shocking statistic for over here in britain. the government/power is only interested in people as cannon fodder - when you've served you time - they couldn't give a monkeys.
i remember a quote from that nice man henry kissinger "military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy."
which reminds me of another quote from an equally as nice man, goering;
'Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ... voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
when will we learn  |
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Marcella-FL
Don't make me pull this van over!!!
Joined: 01 May 2006
Location: KMC, Germany
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:09 pm Post subject: |
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Ok ... I want to make crystal clear that the part of the government that send these men to war and the part that cares for them after are NOT the same. "when you've served you time - they couldn't give a monkeys" is NOT true of the entire system and I am trying very hard to not get pissed off here.
I agree that we need to treat military men and women better than we do and I am not denying that some of these homeless vets are homeless NOT of their own accord ...
HOWEVER my husband works for Veterans Affairs and he has first hand interaction with these vets. As the article stated, they have outreach programs to get these vets the services they need and they actually have case workers who go to known vet encampments to get these guys their money and try to get these guys to come off the streets. Some of the older guys don't want to come off the streets. They want to be as far off the grid as possible.
I worked with a homeless Vietnam era vet. He chose to be homeless and paperless. He was a bit of a survivalist nutjob and conspiracist BUT it was his choice. We tried to "help" him find an apartment to live and he got mad!
I know this is not the story for all homeless vets - just offering a little perspective from a state with a very large veteran population and a wife to a husband who spends many long hours away from the family trying to help these vets get what they are entitled to! |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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don't get pissed off with me marcella - after that cuba and hiroshima thread i made a point of saying the government/power - ie the fuckers who send them there - get pissed off at them. be pissed off with kissenger. be pissed with bush. i can't see why you're pissed with me for posting an article from the associated press.
i even made a point of mentioning britain so i wouldn't get any of this anti american crap
i haven't said or implied that there aren't lots of good hardworking people trying to help - but don't you just wish the government spent a tiny bit more on when the veterans come home instead of spending it all on bombs and tanks? or tax breaks for the richest? or that they weren't sent to these pointless wars in the first place? instead they'd been decreasing funding! i mean - you mentioned vietnam, millions dead for nothing
you're getting pissed off with the wrong people ... |
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Marcella-FL
Don't make me pull this van over!!!
Joined: 01 May 2006
Location: KMC, Germany
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Marcella-FL
Don't make me pull this van over!!!
Joined: 01 May 2006
Location: KMC, Germany
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | i can't see why you're pissed with me for posting an article from the associated press. |
I am not pissed off at the posting of the articlel. The article has a lot of good info and even shows how the government is addressing the problem.
Now ... what about the other 3 out of 4 homeless? What are we doing for them? Not a whole lot ... |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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| you don't think the biggest problem is them being sent to pointless wars in the first place? |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:42 pm Post subject: |
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you say the va doesn't have to worry about funding?
| Quote: | | VA's budget—which has always been sparse—has been pushed to the limit in recent years by the War on Terrorism.[2] In December 2004, it was widely reported that VA's funding crisis had become so severe that it could no longer provide disability ratings to veterans in a timely fashion.[3] This is a problem because until veterans are fully transitioned from the active-duty TRICARE healthcare system to VA, they are on their own with regard to many healthcare costs. The VA has worked to cut down screening times for these returning combat vets (they are now often evaluated by VA personnel well before their actual discharge), and they receive first priority for patient appointments. VA's backlog of pending disability claims under review (a process known as "adjudication") peaked at 421,000 in 2001, and bottomed out at 254,000 in 2003, but crept back up to 340,000 in 2005p |
i know there had been talk from bush that it was being decreased - was it increased in the end? |
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Mandy
Joined: 07 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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From the articles I have read, the Vets, (whether wounded or not) do not get the financial resources, pensions, family support, health care which they deserve and expect.
Take the example of the US government refusing to blood/urine test the vets & serving soldiers for DU contamination. Some states have had to do that themselves. |
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Marcella-FL
Don't make me pull this van over!!!
Joined: 01 May 2006
Location: KMC, Germany
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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| luke wrote: | | you don't think the biggest problem is them being sent to pointless wars in the first place? |
Please don't misinterpret my feelings. I loathe the fact that anyone has to get sent to battle. I wish they would spend MORE money on war technology so no humans had to go. Somebody please come up with the simulation like in Star Trek ... |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Marcella-FL wrote: | | Please don't misinterpret my feelings. I loathe the fact that anyone has to get sent to battle. I wish they would spend MORE money on war technology so no humans had to go. Somebody please come up with the simulation like in Star Trek ... |
you're only thinking of your own side here, yeah fine - send in robots in american uniforms with lasers and whatever, but the civilians in the countries ( i remembered the spelling  ) attacked don't have a choice in the 'battle' ( or illegal invasion as kofi annan called it - a war of aggression, the supreme international crime ) ... |
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Marcella-FL
Don't make me pull this van over!!!
Joined: 01 May 2006
Location: KMC, Germany
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:10 pm Post subject: |
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I think the biggest problem with the aftermath is education of the vets. They just do not know what they are entitled to.
Funding? The vets' $$ doesn't get cut - the staffing $$ does. If the staffing gets cut (no new hires) then the process gets bogged down. Can't process the claims and requests efficiently if you don't have enough people. Can't get in for a screening with the medical staff if you have 10 docs serving 30,000 vets. People complain it takes 177 days to process a claim from start to finish. Can't do it any faster without quality staffing. |
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Marcella-FL
Don't make me pull this van over!!!
Joined: 01 May 2006
Location: KMC, Germany
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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| luke wrote: | | Marcella-FL wrote: | | Please don't misinterpret my feelings. I loathe the fact that anyone has to get sent to battle. I wish they would spend MORE money on war technology so no humans had to go. Somebody please come up with the simulation like in Star Trek ... |
you're only thinking of your own side here, yeah fine - send in robots in american uniforms with lasers and whatever, but the civilians in the countries ( i remembered the spelling ) attacked don't have a choice in the 'battle' ( or illegal invasion as kofi annan called it - a war of aggression, the supreme international crime ) ... |
hmmmm ... I guess I was being a little too smart ass with the Star Trek analogy. |
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faceless
admin
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:14 pm Post subject: |
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That old saying of judging any society by the way it treats people at the bottom seems perfect here.
Britain and america are as bad as each other on this score. |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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no, i think you were just thinking how you could cut american losses - which is how power would like us to think, dehumanize the enemy, they're not relevant ...
see, i don't see any difference between an american dieing or an iraqi - one isn't worth more or less to me - i want to cut the deaths of all |
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Marcella-FL
Don't make me pull this van over!!!
Joined: 01 May 2006
Location: KMC, Germany
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| Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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| faceless wrote: | That old saying of judging any society by the way it treats people at the bottom seems perfect here.
Britain and america are as bad as each other on this score. |
You are right ... I go back to my question of what is being done for the other 3 of 4 homeless? |
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