NEWSHOMELESS VETERANS

The nation's Department of Veterans Affairs serves about 92,000 homeless veterans. Veteran homelessness is a difficult task to tackle, and the VA is no doubt making a commendable effort, no matter how short the scope of its assistance may fall of the ideal. Unfortunately, there are still another 15,000 homeless veterans on the streets of America, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

While all homelessness is something we ought to be ashamed of, veteran homelessness — 23 percent of the homeless population, according to United States Interagency Council on Homelessness — is unique. Veterans have contributed to our country in a way no other citizens have. They have offered up their lives, their safety, and often times their sanity, for our freedoms and way of life.

Tell the Senate to pass the End Veteran Homelessness Act!

We can disagree about foreign policy or the justness of certain wars, but when a young person decides that the best or only way he or she can individually give back to this country is to risk everything — and everything bears repeating here — we need to honor him or her.

What, in this instance, does honor include? Our productivity and our excesses, our freedoms and our transgressions are all predicated on the work of veterans. Like the unseen cells that form the organs with which we fight disease, our lifestyles are guarded by our soldiers. The least we owe them is our full guardianship.

It is a task perhaps too much to ask of the government, which makes the work of organizations like Swords to Plowshares so important. Started in 1974, the non-profit provides a continuum-of-care approach to serving veterans in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I met Terry on a rainy day in Nashville. He told me he once owned a landscaping business and made over $125,000 a year. But then he went through a horrible divorce.

You can tell by the character of his face that Terry has been on the streets for some time. After getting out of the Marines after three trips to Vietnam he started to travel. He says traveling gets into your blood. He has now survived 33 years of homelessness.

You may see an old man that has probably had too much to drink. What I see is a kind Vietnam vet doing the best he can to forget the madness of his past life and present situation.

Knoxville, Iowa could be transforming a former veterans' hospital into a new national center for homeless veterans with 400 beds and federally-subsidized education and treatment programs. The proposed National Veterans Recovery Center would provide services to homeless and at-risk veterans for up to two years. And it seems that the Department of Veterans Affairs is investing in the program for the long-haul: they've expressed interest in leasing the property for up to 75 years.

Regular readers of this blog (and people with common sense) already know why services for homeless veterans are so desperately needed. Though 400 beds doesn't seem like much when more than 100,000 veterans are homeless, it is a promising step in the right direction. Plus the proposed location boasts 163 acres and 39 buildings, plenty of space for on-site training and treatment, and possibly enough space to offer more beds after the center establishes itself. Best of all, this proposal has a fighting chance of becoming a reality – with a little push from supporters. Voice your support for the National Veterans Recovery Center!

The center proposal comes from a nonprofit headed by former Army Reserve officer Bob Krause. Krause has decades of experience in the Reserves and as a politician, and has been a long-time advocate for veterans, so he seems to have the skills to bring the center into being. Knoxville's mayor Donald Zoutte has voiced support for the project if Krause "has his ducks in a row." The bad news: Knoxville is a town of only 8,000 and may lack job opportunities for transitioning veterans, though it is only 35 miles from Des Moines. And the veterans' organization isn't the only group with an eye on leasing the property. An investor group and a college are also interested in securing the government's long-term lease.

According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, over 100,000 veterans are homeless on a given night. That's almost one-fifth of the homeless population, and doesn't come close to representing the 1.5 million other veterans who are at risk of homelessness. But organizations in New Jersey and Indiana have recently stepped up to do something about it.

Community Quest, a low-income housing developer, will break ground on affordable apartments in Ocean County, New Jersey, as part of a major initiative to provide housing to some of the 6,500 homeless veterans throughout the state (there are currently 200 beds for them statewide). The 24-apartment facility, Tucker's Walk, is the first military-and-veterans-only facility to be built in New Jersey and is scheduled to begin providing housing within a year.

Elsewhere, ECHO Housing Corporation proposes building 27 apartments for homeless veterans with disabilities in Evansville, Indiana (by current counts, the city has over 100 homeless veterans). The project, named Lucas Place II, is a prime example of the immense amount of coordination required to get even a modest-sized housing development off the ground in the current economy. City and state governments, for-profit companies and community donors are among those contributing substantial sums to help those who have defended our homeland and are now without a home. Homeless vets, one of the largest subgroups of the homeless, are also one of the most politically correct to help.

This new video comes from Mark's InvisiblePeople.tv 30-city, 11,000-mile, 75-day road trip, going on now.

Johnny is a Vietnam veteran living homeless in Nashville. During the interview, Johnny, who is in a wheelchair, started telling me how the small RV he was living in was impounded. They even came to tow it when he was still inside. My friend and fellow Change.org contributor Steven Samra wrote a post about Johnny's RV being impounded when it happened.

When Johnny told me he had already raised $230 to get his "home" out of the impound lot I was impressed and started to think of different ways I could help. I turned to social media. Thanks to all of you we raised the money to get the RV back to Johnny. You can read more and watch a short video here.

I wish all InvisiblePeople.tv stories had happy endings like this. The thing is, they can. We all helped Johnny and we can all work together to end homelessness.

Returning home can sometimes be the most challenging tour of duty a soldier faces, especially if he takes that journey alone. Air Force veteran Dwight Radcliff — who died earlier this week of a heart attack at age 55 — understood all too well the challenges of returning to civilian life and the importance of finding a strong support network.

After overcoming his own struggle with substance abuse and homelessness, Radcliff went on to help thousands of veterans find jobs, homes and counseling as president and chief executive of United States Veterans Initiative, the non-profit that helps veterans in five states and the District of Columbia.  The sudden and early loss of someone who has made a vital difference in so many lives is tragic, but Radcliff's commitment to helping returning vets will surely serve as an inspiration for nationwide efforts to end veteran homelessness.

Only a few weeks ago, Radcliff attended a ground-breaking ceremony for a new $34.9-million affordable housing development near Los Angeles International Airport designed for low-income veterans. Joined by Rep. Maxine Waters, Sen. Barbara Boxer and veterans from each branch of the Armed Services, Radcliff commented on the importance of the new project:

"Affordable housing for heroes is an objective that everyone supports. Veterans are committing suicide at a rate of 18 deaths per day, according to VA reports, and we must realize that the VA alone can't help and can't be the sole answer to these veterans' needs. This is serious work."

The new facility is an excellent example of the types of programs needed to

I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.

These are the words that our soldiers look toward to sustain and guide them, not only during active duty, but for the rest of their lives. One only has to visit a national veteran's cemetery and see the masses of white crosses marching over the hills to understand the depth of our soldiers' commitment.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki quoted this creed during his recent address to the National Alliance to End Homelessness conference. His voice ringing with conviction, he said that no one who has ever served the United States in uniform should end up living on the street. During his speech, he mentioned the extensive efforts that the Veteran's Affairs department has undertaken to end veteran homelessness in the next five years. These include more domiciliary residences, more funding for HUD-VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) subsidies and new funding called SSVF (Social Services for Veteran Families), which addresses the many practical needs that homeless or impoverished families of veterans face. It also includes money for more substance abuse treatment, mental health services, traumatic brain injury services and job training.

These changes are music to the ears of those of us in the non-profit world, and even more impressive is that the VA has used a program called CHALENG (Community Homeless Assessment Local Education and Networking Groups). It is a fundamental shift in VA thinking to seek meaningful collaboration with communities in order to design its services. The number of these groups around the country has grown from 4,000 to 18,000 participants over the last four years (pdf).

But even though Shinseki's words lifted my heart as I saw his passion for the homeless, I fear that he is overlooking a crucial component necessary to end homelessness among veterans.

"It's lonely." That's what Chris has to say about homelessness in Hollywood, one of the busiest, most populated places in the country.

He tends to see the bright side of things, too. He just received some food and a lead on a possible job opportunity, which is his way out of homelessness. After five and a half years of homelessness, with a background in military service and part of a college education under his belt, he still can't find work to afford his first place of his own.

If Chris had three wishes, he'd want his life back. If he had that, he wouldn't even need the other two. Maybe, just maybe, he would go back to not buy some lottery tickets. Then he could use that money for something useful instead of the empty chance of winning a fortune.

"You have to live life to learn." That's what Chris said to end our interview. But there have to be ways we can make life's lessons a little less painful for people like him.

Ambitious timelines for ending homelessness are in, apparently. Nationally the timeline for eliminating veteran homelessness is five years, but New Hampshire recently released a state plan to end homelessness among veterans by 2014. It extends to veterans' families as well. New Hampshire also has its own 10 year plan to end homeless, which was released in 2006.

The New Hampshire Homeless Veterans Plan (pdf) focuses on outreach and education, treatment, prevention, housing and housing support services and community partnerships. It will create more affordable housing and offer housing vouchers and employment assistance — basically, anything and everything, which is good, since that's what it will take to wipe out homelessness among vets.

According to the plan's research, veterans and service providers are often unaware of the services that are already available to those who have served. Considering how common veteran homelessness is, it's disturbing that existing resources are going untapped. The outreach and education part of the plan will hopefully correct this. The plan also attempts to improve mental health services and substance abuse treatment, vital both to preventing homelessness and to transitioning out of it. According to the plan, "The VA estimates that about 45 percent of all homeless veterans are living with a mental illness and slightly more than 70 percent have alcohol or other drug abuse problems."

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs, about 200,000 veterans experience homelessness every year. Another 140,000 veterans are in prison. Whoa — 340,000 veterans spending time without a home or in prison every year? That's just disgraceful. Especially considering that nearly half of vets behind bars are there for drug-related offenses. In fact, substance abuse (pdf) is the number one predictor of incarceration for veterans.

And what are some common causes of substance abuse among veterans? Post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) and traumatic brain injury, which also happen to be major causes of homelessness among vets. So it shouldn't be a surprise that veterans who've been incarcerated are too often homeless upon release. The trauma and addiction that lead to arrest also make it difficult to find work and keep a roof over one's head. Getting sober, dealing with health problems and overcoming the traumas of war all require stability. That's hard to come by when you're homeless and out of work, especially with a criminal record hanging over you. So the cycle repeats itself and some veterans bounce from prison to homelessness and back again for years.

A new grant program tries to break the cycle by helping prevent homelessness among veterans released from prison. Targeting incarcerated veterans at risk of homelessness, the new Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program grant competition from the U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS) is currently awarding $4 million to relevant programs. (Not much, but better than nothing.)

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