More than 195,800 military veterans were homeless on any given night last year, and there are “troubling” indications that many service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan could face the same fate, according to a study released Thursday.
The report, from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, found that veterans make up one-quarter of the U.S. homeless population.
The report, which relied on data from Veterans Affairs facilities across the country, reflects a slight increase from previous estimates and confirms past surveys showing that former service members are much more likely to face homelessness than the rest of the population.
Although veterans make up about 11 percent of the civilian adult population, they represent 26 percent of homeless people, a figure the report calls “shockingly disproportionate.”
“As a country, I think we should be shocked and concerned that [nearly] 200,000 veterans don’t have a place to go,” said Stacey Stewart, former president and chief executive of the Fannie Mae Foundation, which announced a $200,000 grant Thursday to build housing for veterans. “Shouldn’t those who served their country be better served by the society that benefited from their service?”
Ed, the last homeless veteran I worked with [url=http://resurrectiongulfcoast.blogspot.com/2007/06/of-huckleberries-and-retreats.html][u]over here[/u][/url] had been having trouble with the VA, who accused him of “shopping” because of his succession of treatment in various VA hospitals.
Although veterans make up about 11 percent of the civilian adult population, they represent 26 percent of homeless people, a figure the report calls “shockingly disproportionate.”
Well, this is sort of apples and oranges isn’t it? How about comparing the percentage of veterans in the civilian male adult population with the percentage of veterans in the male homeless population? Women constitute a relatively small percentage of the total veteran population while the total adult civilian population is – what – about 51% women, right?
Rodney, the very idea! How dare you inject logic into a discussion of homelessness…
Whenever I read stories like this, I have so many questions that never get answered: do we really know that this many homeless are really vets? Did they rely on what the homeless said or did they check military records? While the story says that 45% of the homeless vets have mental illness, why are the rest homeless? What are their stories? Where are their families? If they have medical conditions, why are they not treated at veteran hospitals? My personal experience tells me that many homeless people willfully live on the streets albeit they have mental illness and/or alcohol & drug addiction. Couldn’t we say that with equal authority as the author of the story that most homeless people are homeless because we do not force treatment on the mentally ill and the drug & alcohol addicted? The homeless are very sad but the reasons for their being homeless are very complicated but have little to do with economics or the military. Helping them takes a lot more than blaming society for not caring.
Some things to remember about homeless vets: 1) Many were discharged from the service, sometimes even before they had been in long enough to legally qualify as veterans (so-called entry-level separations) because of mental disease or severe personality disorders. 2) Many were from the era when the draft was in force, and there was little vetting of those coming in. Today many of those brought in for service under the draft would never, ever get in the recruiting office door–much less get to serve. 3) Many homeless persons claim falsely to be vets, in order to gain sympathy or benefits. Those who work with the homeless often say that the more military garb a homeless person wears, the less likely the person ever had any military service. 4) Some of those discharged were given less than good “paper” and were discharged because of severe substance abuse problems–criminal conduct. None of these are the picture that this article and others would have one see in one’s mind’s eye.
None of this is to say there isn’t a problem with vets on the street homeless, just as undoubtedly there is with any subset of the population. And Christians are as obliged as the Good Samaritan to help those so stricken. But this article offers absolutely no evidence of the so-called “troubling” indications it trumpets. Indeed, homelessness statistics are notoriously unreliable and are often broadcast without any true fact-checking. Mitch Snyder’s false “three million” statistic repeated by the mainstream press over and over and over to beat up Ronald Reagan turned out to have been wholly made up, and an exaggeration of truly staggering proportions. Caveat lector.
I have always liked the poem “Tommy” and I Googled and found this. Kipling’s irony with respect to the lack of appreciation and public support given to the military who have fearlessly, and sometimes in great fear for their lives, have served those citizens who sat safely at home ‘rings as true’ today as it did over a century ago.
” Tommy
I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mr. Atkins,” when the band begins to play.
I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-‘alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.
Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy how’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.
We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints:
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind,”
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind.
You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country,” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
But Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!”
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And you bet that this “Tommy”, that is myself, sees.
We are becoming a nation of ‘effetes,’ that is, most of us don’t have the sense of personal sacrifice or the personal courage to serve in our country’s military forces.
We leave that to ‘other people’ among us and then we second guess them, we distain them and we wonder whether or not they chose a military career because they ‘just couldn’t hack’ a civilian career.
In fact, the civilians who wouldn’t serve their country are the deficient ones. It is their lives that are mostly without self-sacrifice to country. It is these civilians who wouldn’t serve who should be looked upon as selfish and deficient.
AnglicanFirst, I appreciate the English doggerel, and I agree with everything it says. I’ve “been there and done that.” Now, I’m going to ask a question of all of you: How many of you are veterans? How many of you have ever taken the time to visit your local Veterans’ Hospital or Nursing Home? How many of you have ever worked with homeless veterans, or even come to know them?
I’m a retired disabled USAF veteran with a 100% service-connected disability rating, and believe me, I know first-hand how difficult things can be! Fortunately, I’m not among the homeless……though I have interacted with them regularly. Congress has just enacted legislation design to try to alleviate most of their concerns, but it’s going to take more than that. It means that a complacent society is going to have to realize that freedom isn’t cheap. Millions of us have paid for that freedom with our health…….and with our lives.
It’s time to step up to the plate and go to bat for what’s right, folks!
Cennydd,
Sorry to hear of your disability and I strongly agree with your words.
My wife and I, through the elder care needs of our own parents, have become very very familiar with the reality and needs of those whose world has been narrowed to the institutional confines of a nursing home. No matter how well managed a nursing home is and no matter how kind and considerate, its staff, a nursing home is not the home that a resident left behind and its staff are not kin folk. Further, except for the very wealthy, all nursing home care is constrained by real-world budgetary limitations.
The elderly in such homes are truly the ‘forgotten’ people of our generation. Especially if they are not free to ‘come and go’ as they wish. That is, if they are under some form of ‘lock down.’
Our exposure to the ‘forgotten’ elderly has increased my wife’s and my concern for them. When visiting nursing homes, we enjoy exchanging pleasantries with the residents. We try to remember their names and things that they like to talk about. It makes a real difference to them. You can see it in their faces.
We also assist our vicar with providing a lay minister’s Eucharistic service at a local adult residence each Sunday.
So, while Ms Schori worries about the UN’s MDGs, we in our little part of the world, worry about doing something that will really make a difference and we don’t need to associate with the UN to do it. As a matter of fact, Anglicans have been doing what we are doing since before there ever was a United Nations. I assume that what we are doing was also done in the Early Church.
I think that MS Schori and company should forget about the UN and get back to the basics of parish ministry that have been practiced by Anglicans over the generations.
Having worked a few years on a VA hospital as a recreational therapist for vets of all ages (including the psychiatriac and addictive disease units), I throw my support behind Cennydd`s comments. The VA system is not easy to negotiate, and folks, I am here to tell you that vets do not generally have it easy. It is not hard for me to believe that there is a disproporionate number of vets among the homeless. As this Veterans` Day approaches, may we all remember the sacrifices these men and women made so we enjoy the freedom we have.
I would also like to take this moment to make a prediction. Soon, and very soon, in many states, we are going to an increase in homelessness in another segment of our society – one that is shunned by almost everyone – and that rise will also reach disproportionate levels. That segment is registered sex offenders (RSO`s). As every city, township, village, county and state passess residency restriction laws, soon there will be nowhere for a RSO to live, and this will include their spouses and children. Contrary to the picture painted by main stream media and politicians, the average RSO is not a predatory, depraved single man lurking in the bushes waiting to grab your child. The average RSO is a sinner like you and me -with a family – who made a terrible mistake, often years and years ago, that will hang over his head forevermore. Why do I bring this up? Because I am the wife of a RSO, and I a pray daily that my city & county does not pass such a law or I, too, will be among the homeless.
More and more, it seems the western culture way is to discard and shun the ‘undesirables’ in our communities. (Whether culture is changing or my awareness of it is changing, I cannot say.) But I know that the opposite of discard and shun is to love and embrace. And the Christian culture, if we could indeed have one, would follow the latter practice.
My ministry and that of those who I have been working alongside have been hectored and shunned from city to city for the unforgivable crime of feeding the homeless. It was this ministry that brought me into contact with homeless vets such as Ed: drug-afflicted, demon-beset, and off his meds. It is too easy to say “You caused this yourself.” That is the statement of one who declines to love. Self-caused problems are problems nonetheless, and when someone is ready to try to find a way out, they find instead that they have dug themselves in so deep that they have become ‘untouchable’, and no one is willing to help. The woman at the well drifted from husband to husband and man to man, ending in a social situation where she was despised and shunned. Jesus reached out and embraced her life and gave her hope. We can do the same. We really can.
Sorry for the rant from the Briar Patch.