War Veterans Should Not Have to Fight For a Place to Sleep

Vets Shouldn't Have to Fight For a Place to Sleep
by Donna Teresa

I'm in my car, my radio is on, and I hear the familiar Keith Richards/Mick Jagger lyrics from the Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter."
"Oh, a storm is threatening my very life today, if I don't get some shelter, oh yeah, I'm going to fade away."

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 5 to 8 million people have experienced at least one night of homelessness, including military veterans.

"There is a wide assumption that the VA takes care of all veteran issues, so people assume that if a veteran becomes homeless, all he or she has to do is go to the local VA and they will be cared for," said Stephen Peck, community development director of the U.S. Veterans Initiative (http://usvetsinc.org).

"That is not the case. There is another assumption that because they served in the military, they have the discipline and resources to take care of themselves. This is also not true. People in the military have the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities as the rest of the population. While in the military, the discipline of service helps them hold it together but when they are discharged, they are no longer part of a disciplined unit and sometimes can lead to dysfunction and homelessness." (continued…)

According to Bill Wallace, clinical director for U.S. Vets-Long Beach, the Department of Defense needs to work harder at educating our men in women in uniform.

"I have long believed that the Department of Defense was more concerned with retention versus discharge planning for their service members," he said. "I think now that the Department of Defense is finally putting a much greater emphasis on making their service members and their families aware right away of benefits and services available to them in order to retain them. National Guard and Reserve members are particularly feeling a huge strain.

"Many are becoming homeless before they even deploy. They are called up and their military pay does not match their civilian wages and individuals and families are placing items in storage, moving in with relatives and have to live on a shoe string budget while their loved ones are deployed. Homelessness is an issue that is sure to grow in the coming years with the nature of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. With extended and multiple deployments, the individual service member is being overtaxed."

The future doesn't look much brighter for our newest veterans.

Says Peck: "Government estimates say that more than 1,000 veterans of the current war in Iraq and Afghanistan are now homeless in the U.S. This is a small number compared with the current 200,000 veterans homeless in this country, but 30 percent of these young soldiers and Marines are returning with mental disturbance, including post traumatic stress disorder and depression.

"The problem of homelessness is not impossible to solve, but it will take resolve on the part of government, communities and individuals. As soon as our citizens say that the notion of homelessness is intolerable, and let their representatives know about it, we will be on the road to a solution."

While presidential candidates are visiting cities throughout the U.S. I hope they will share with Americans their solutions to help combat homelessness.

Our war veterans shouldn't have to fight to have a place to sleep at night. They have already done their fighting in defense of this country.

For more information, see http://www.nchv.org for the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans or http://www.vtcmonterey.org The Veterans Transition Center in Monterey County.

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