Speaking in support of new initiatives on Tuesday, Steven Berg of the National Alliance to End Homelessness said the problem shouldn’t be viewed as inevitable.
“We know a great deal about the pathways into homelessness,” he said in testimony to Congress, and also about “the interventions and program models which are effective in offering reconnection to community, and stable housing.”
Prevention efforts may be especially important for Americans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, experts say, because the likelihood of vets being homeless is greatest about seven years after they leave military service.
Bills under review in Congress include a range of measures, such as 60,000 new housing vouchers from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), targeted at the number of vets estimated to be chronically homeless due to problems such as mental illness. Other provisions would target new money toward community or faith-based groups to provide support for homeless vets. One bill focuses especially on support for vets who are single parents.
Homeless Vets have half-a-leg up on other homeless men, because of the VA. Nevertheless, the VA is ill-suited to keep up with the medical needs of the many mentally ill homeless that drift from place to place. Their prescriptions and medical records can hardly be switched from facility to facility in a timely manner, not to mention that no having an address is an impediment in itself.
Case Study: We took in one of these men, Ed, to our little group of addiction-challenged men strewn across the wreckage wrought by Hurricane Katrina along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. When he arrived, he was beset by demons and believed that it was too late for him: the devil already owned him.
We got him re-connected with his meds from the VA, gave him some new tools to fight his addictions, schooled him in the spiritual disciplines, [url=http://resurrectiongulfcoast.blogspot.com/2007/06/of-huckleberries-and-retreats.html]took him on a spiritual retreat[/url], and generally poured love into him.
He finally drifted off again, and with the lack of an address fell off his meds again. But at least he knew who owned him: Jesus, not Satan.
I pray for Ed again today, that he may find peace and stability, and find his true home in the ever-welcoming arms of Jesus.