Discharged to the streets: Armed forces veterans account for up to 25 percent of the homeless...

[Forkboy]

Sometime Wednesday on Veterans Day Rick Walker will take a moment and think about Fort Gordon in Georgia. The son of an Army aviator, he has happy memories of growing up around soldiers.

“Those were some of the happiest days of my life,’’ said Walker, who went on to serve in the Army. But after his discharge, his marriage fell apart, he became depressed, and he began sleeping in his van. From 2005 to 2007, he spent his nights sleeping upright in the driver’s seat in a parking lot in Leesburg, Va.

Two years ago, Walker, 53, raised some gas money to travel to see his son in Maine and heard about a housing program for homeless vets in Lynn. Since then, he has lived in a rooming house there with 14 other veterans.

While advocates still say veterans account for as many as 25 percent of America’s homeless population, Walker’s story of finding subsidized housing - through the aid of federal grants - is becoming more typical as the US Department of Veterans Affairs has increased funding to help place homeless veterans. During the last four fiscal years, the VA’s allocation to transitional housing jumped from $92.7 million to $171.6 million. During that time, the number of homeless veterans in the United States has dropped from about 196,000 to 131,000.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2009/11/08/veterans_account_for_large_percentage_of_nations_homeless/

[old mark]

1. There are still vets from Vietnam among the homeless. A national disgrace,

I am glad there is someone finally doing something about it.

rec.

mark

[Forkboy]

2. The entire homeless issue is a disgrace.

This is just the icing on a shit cake. :mad:

[old mark]

3. No argument from me. We always seem to have money for politicians raises, though.

Maybe we might think about cutting back on that.

mark

[Forkboy]

4. Too bad the homeless can't vote themselves pay raises.

I'd like to see some of these people try living just a single day like a homeless person does. They'd be crying inside of two hours.

[old mark]

5. They'd probably have their chauffer do it for them....

I recall a lot of the rich got out of fighting in the Civil War by literally buying someone else to serve for them.

But, hey, let's not start a class war.....:grr:

mark

[bigtree]

6. kick

Lots of reports from around the country on increasing numbers of vets in out on the streets of towns across America. This on top of the folks we've yet to help from decades ago.

[Waiting For Everyman]

7. A basic symptom of PTSD is the inability to relate to people.

Most families of PTSD vets abandon them because of it. But beneath that reality is the fact that PTSD programs to help vets are entirely ineffective. The vets who make it are the ones who find their OWN way to live with PTSD which takes a long process of trial and error, and lots of ability to control rage and determination to survive. It would help a lot though, if families really understood what the vet's dealing with AND if the vet received the benefits they're entitled to (which most don't, it's very hard to get a PTSD claim approved).

Very often these vets are violent at home, very often they have substance abuse problems trying to self-medicate to keep control, very often they are incarcerated or have legal issues because of it, and very often that means they can't hold a job. Social relationships deteriorate for the same reasons. Vets end up isolated with no answers and no hope. Many will turn their rage and destruction inward on themselves, but some will turn outward especially when pushed too far for too long. It's a time bomb situation, it gets worse with time.

I was married to a 100% PTSD disabled vet for 25 years, until his death two years ago. Believe me, I know a lot about how tough it is to cope with, and all that goes along with it. Wives and widows of vets are invisible, there are no programs for us at all.

The VA has improved a lot since the 1980s, but there's still a lot of denial of vets' issues within it. Claims are turned down multiple times before they're approved, very few PTSD vets can make it through the process - especially if they have no help from a relative or friend. The service organizations are largely clueless. They do ok on the easy cases but they're no help on the tough ones.

[Forkboy]

8. Until just recently my father had a lot of trouble with the VA.

The last two years he says he's seen a marked improvement, but until then I guess it was pretty bad.

Sorry to hear about your husband, and you're right, we never hear anything about what the spouses go through. There needs to be help for both.

[Xithras]

9. There's another fairly simple explanation for this.

The military tends to take in a lot of enlistees who are poor, uneducated, and have no real work skills, but are looking for a way to earn a living. Many of these people, when eventually discharged years later, are still poor, uneducated, and have no real work skills. The military merely served as a stopgap solution to ward off homelessness.

It says more about the false military recruiting claim that they "teach job skills" than it does about our treatment of veterans.