It's 10PM -- Do You Know Where Your Local Veterans Are?

BEYOND SAD

So, this is the first part of a three part “Elizabeth on her Soap Box” series. Bear with me, because I’ve actually got important things to say here for once.

Every now and again, I like to not be a complete asshole, and instead write about issues that actually have merit. (As opposed to any of my craptastic reality TV shows, Britney Spears, or the state of my neighborhood Starbucks.)

I read this article on CNN a few days ago. I was hoping to get this blog up in time for Veterans Day, but life has gotten crazy this month (mostly in a good way).

While normally trust CNN about as much as The National Enquirer, I do think that they’re reporting fairly accurately on this subject.

It was something that I already knew about; and, it’s something that I believe the American population in general knows about on some subconscious level. It’s something I’ve been meaning to focus more of the conscious part of my mind on for about a month or so, and just seeing this article really brought it to the forefront of my mind:

Here are some fucked-up facts for you:

- More than 25% of the American homeless population are U.S. Veterans
- Approximately 468,000 veterans experience “severe housing burden”, where over half of their income goes towards housing (thus making them highly susceptible to becoming homeless)
- Requested Iraq War Budget for Fiscal Year 2008: $155.5 Billion
- Expected Cost of Iraq War: Over $1 Trillion
- Requested Veteran’s Administration Budget for Fiscal Year 2008: $86.7 Billion
- Amount of money the VA specifically sets aside to deal with homeless veterans each year: $150 Million
- The VA (Veterans Affairs) houses approximately 100,000 veterans every year. While those 100,000 are surely better off thanks to such assistance, that leaves approximately 300,000 veterans (that we officially know of) homeless at any given time.


WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!?!?!

As far as I’m concerned, there aren’t enough question marks and/or exclamation points available to express how much incredulity I feel with this question.

How on God’s green earth can this be happening? How can a country that prides itself on having the finest armed forces in the world allow 300,000+ veterans to be homeless?

Well, there is no easy answer. A few interesting facts that shed some light on the subject:

- 76% of homeless veterans experience alcohol, drug, or mental health problems
- According to "Is Homelessness a Housing Problem?" in Understanding Homelessness: New Policy and Research Perspectives, published by Fannie Mae Foundation in 1997, most homeless veterans are “…single, unaffiliated men…”, whereas most housing funds available in federal programs are geared towards “…helping homeless families or homeless women with dependent children…”
- Of all of the soldiers from the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars that have been diagnosed with PTSD (approximately 15-17% of them), only 23 to 40% (depending on the area) are seeking professional help, due in large part to the stigmas still attached to “mental illness”.
- Over 40% of reservists lose sources of income when called upon active duty.

These are just some of the many factors that lead to over 300,000 veterans being homeless. While there is no one reason for the cause of this problem, there really is no reason why this should be happening AT ALL in the first place.


SO… NOW WHAT?

The fact of the matter is that while the actual people working within the VA are overall compassionate, committed people who would love to eradicate homelessness amongst the veteran population, they’re stuck having to work with our government.

In case you’d like to get an idea of the kind of madness you encounter trying to work with the government, here’s a very useful link on Citizens Against Government Waste’s website as to what kind of ridiculous garbage the U.S. Govt. likes to spend its “pork” on, as opposed to, you know, serving the troops that serve us.

Ultimately, even the VA has turned to “veterans helping veterans” organizations and community based charities to help fight homelessness among the veteran community. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, “Programs that seem to work best feature transitional housing with the camaraderie of living in structured, substance-free environments with fellow veterans who are succeeding at bettering themselves.”

While the ultimate goal would be to get the U.S. government to spend its taxpayers’ dollars on helping the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, that’s not happening any time soon.

I don’t know what the exact solution is to this. It’s probably a multi-faceted program or series of programs that would need to be facilitated by both the federal and state governments, as well as local communities.

I do have a few ideas as to how individuals can help. There is always the option of donating to the organizations that are doing the most work and having the most success in fighting this epidemic, and volunteering at the local homeless shelter.

In the meantime, I’m just going to post the information that I have. I do have an idea or two of ways that people can help these homeless veterans. I’m going to work on these in the next few weeks, and I’ll post whatever I put together here. (Yes, I’m announcing this here so that I therefore feel obligated to follow through since it’s in print on the worldwide web.) =)

In the meantime, here are some useful links… hence the subject line.


SOME USEFUL LINKS:

U.S. Veterans Affairs Dept.: http://www.va.gov/

Homeless Programs & Initiatives Page on the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department Website: http://www1.va.gov/homeless/page.cfm?pg=2

Veterans for America (Humanitarian and Advocacy group dedicated to treating veterans with psychological traumas and brain injuries): http://www.veteransforamerica.org/

National Coalition for Homeless Veterans: http://www.nchv.org/background.cfm

National Coalition for the Homeless (Charity and Advocacy group that has some good facts & articles on the issue of homelessness itself): http://www.nationalhomeless.org/

U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program (This is a Federal program that works to reintegrate homeless veterans into the workforce): http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/fact/Homeless_veterans_fs04.htm


THE NEXT STEPS

I’ll post another blog in a few weeks once I’ve done some more research to see if I can flush out a few ideas. I encourage everyone to take a few moments and visit some of the above links to find out more about the issue.

It’s funny – it’s only two days after Veterans Day, and already all of the news stories on this subject are disappearing from the headlines. I don’t know about the rest of you, but this is one issue that REALLY bothers me.

BTW: I will post more funny/stupid blogs in between this blog and the follow-up blog on this in a few weeks. So, if you don’t see the follow-up blog, but you see one about funny things my roommate has said or a new record of foods & liquids that I’ve managed to spill on myself in one day, don’t worry – I definitely haven’t forgotten about this.

Cheers,

E