One out of Four homeless are Veterans.
November 7, 2007 by Dusty
This disgusting fact is brought to you by a new report which will be released tomorrow. From the AP writeup:
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.
These numbers will most likely go up. Again, from the article:
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.
So, we are not only killing more soldiers, those that manage to survive their multiple deployements to Iraq will have a harder time keeping themselves as part of the general population that works and supports themselves. They can survive the war, but can they survive back at home after multiple tours?
This is criminal to me. How about you?
Tags: homeless veterans, 1 in 4 homeless are vets
Just watching “War” on PBS. It seems that the military figured out that more than 250 days of continuous combat will drive a soldier mad.
What is the latest tour of duty in days Iraq? 403 days.
That was the figures learned from WWII in 1944.
I’m visiting with a Veteran friend of mine from memphis. (he’s taking a nap right now, so I have some time to check out the blogs). We are sharing a lot after 38 years. We served together in the same platoon in Vietnam in 1969.
Our conversations were about a lot of things, but we did identify that we were sent over there as individuals and even though the “tour of duty” was one year, it was a long time. We both have recurring dreams that we are there and have already done our time and we are old and shouldn’t be there again.
I recalled that I spent 10&1/2 months in the field before I got a break, and after the break, still had a month to serve before they’d send me home. It still freaks me out.
I’ll elaborate with a post about my battle with PTSD and the nightmare to get benefits from the VA soon.
This is a good article. Most homeless Veterans won’t even admit they are Vets. So much to say about this.
Thanks for posting.
My son’s father, my second husband, was a Vietnam Vet. He had a severe case of PTSD. This subject is very close to me for that reason.
He never got the treatment he needed and eventually left me and became homeless. Several times I found him, coaxed him back and took him down to the VA to get treatment.
PTSD was not recognized as a medical problem back then. They never helped him until he became incredibly sick from living on the streets. They would keep him for a short period of time and then the bastards would release him without even calling and informing me.
I finally left the city we lived in to move back to California. I know logically that I did all I could to help him over the decades, but I will never lose the feeling that I didnt’ do enough and I know the VA system didn’t do enough. I hold the VA system responsible for whatever happened to him. I even married him a second time at one point in order to get him some help on my insurance plan. He was ok for a few years after that and just up and disappeared one day. This happened many times..too many to count.
My painful memories come rushing back each time this issue comes up. But I deal with them in order to blog about how important this issue is..we OWE these men and women..for the love of Buddah, we OWE them.