BY ROGER ARMBRUST · NOVEMBER 11, 2014
Finding Homes for the Brave who are Far from Free
(The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
estimates that 49,933 veterans are homeless on any given night. That’s a
dramatic drop in number since my column below was published on Yahoo! on Nov.
19, 2011. I hadn’t written a column for Yahoo! in two years, deciding to
publish elsewhere. I recently discovered that Yahoo! had erased all my columns,
making them no longer available on the Internet. Here’s the column on homeless
military veterans. I wanted to share it with you today: Veteran’s Day. For the
record, I’m leaving my original figures in the column. For updated figures, you
can check the links following the column. Thank you for your service, all
Veterans, both those with and tragically without homes.)
How can we help our more than 100,000 military veterans who
have served our nation yet stumble homelessly through it? The reality is this:
If Americans can find an answer to safely sheltering them, and then help them
return as active members of society, we may find the solution to our country’s
overall pervasive and tragic homeless problem—3.5 million people in any given
year (1.35 million of them children).
Homeless Veteran
Can helping the homeless veteran help all the homeless?
A group calling itself “The 100,000 Homes Campaign” is one
service organization looking for a solution. Its goal is to house 100,000
homeless Americans by July 2013. It reports having currently housed 11, 271
through its nationwide, community-based program.
This month, it also issued a data report: “National Survey
of Homeless Veterans in 100,000 Homes Campaign Communities.” Its trained
volunteers set out in 47 towns, and interviewed 23,000 homeless individuals.
They used a questionnaire “based on leading medical research by Drs. Jim
O’Connell of Harvard University and Stephen Hwang of the University of
Toronto,” the study notes. The scientific survey “screens for health and social
conditions linked to an increased risk of death among homeless individuals. It
also asks for data on age, health status, institutional history (military,
hospital, jail, prison), length of homelessness, patterns of shelter use, and
previous housing situations.”
Of the 23,000 homeless individuals surveyed, 3,493 were
American veterans. To put that in perspective, the National Coalition for
Homeless Veterans, using estimates from the federal Veterans Affairs
Department, says, “107,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Over the
course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness. Only
eight percent of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly
one-fifth of the homeless population are veterans.”
Who are these homeless veterans? Hear first from their
National Coalition:
America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, the
Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Afghanistan and
Iraq (OEF/OIF), and the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South
America. Nearly half of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam era.
Two-thirds served our country for at least three years, and one-third were
stationed in a war zone.
Roughly 56 percent of all homeless veterans are African
American or Hispanic, despite only accounting for 12.8 percent and 15.4 percent
of the U.S. population respectively.
About 1.5 million other veterans, meanwhile, are considered
at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal
living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.
The 100,000 Homes Campaign’s survey released this month
notes:
While the percentage of surveyed veterans who reported
having fought in America’s most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was small
(1.5%), this group displayed a number of striking qualities. As a group,
Iraq/Afghanistan vets often suffer brain injury.
Many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer brain injury.
Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were considerably more likely
to report suffering from a traumatic brain injury than veterans of other wars.
They were also more likely to report having received some form of mental health
treatment, though significantly less likely to report having health insurance.
The study supposed that was due to the federal government’s
increased “attentiveness to brain injuries and combat-related mental health
symptoms.”
The study also compared percentages in illnesses suffered by
surveyed veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those involved in
earlier conflicts: Twenty-seven percent of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans reported
brain injuries, compared to 19% from earlier engagements. Having received
mental health treatment: Iraq/Afghanistan 46%, earlier wars 41%. Serious health
condition: 42% to 56%. Substance abuse 57% to 61%. Those having health
insurance: 44% to 59%.
The report showed that military veterans experienced
homelessness longer than non-veterans: 5.77 years, compared to 3.92 years for
homeless non-veterans. “Similarly, 62% of veterans reported having been
homeless for two years or more, while 50% of non-veterans said the same. Among
those who had been homeless for more than two years, total length of
homelessness jumped to 9 years for homeless veterans and 7.3 for homeless
non-veterans.”
The 100,000 Homeless campaign sees a connection between
getting veterans a home and a subsequent return to better health:
In the last several years, VA has embraced permanent housing
as a central plank in its efforts to address homelessness among veterans. There
is good reason to suspect that the increasingly broad implementation of this
strategy in communities across the country will result in the emergence of a
clear correlation between a veteran’s connection to VA benefits and both
improved health and reduced length of homelessness.
Still, the survey shows that about half the surveyed
homeless veterans haven’t received mental health treatment, and don’t have
health insurance. It would seem logical that this nation–that can spend
millions designing and operating pilotless drones–could find a positive way to
house, treat and insure our soldiers who have served and are suffering.
Meanwhile, the 100,000 Homeless campaign keeps taking its
efforts into local communities, believing that’s where substantive solutions
abide. The campaign is overseen by Common Solutions, a national spin-off of the
New York City-based not-for-profit Common Ground. Becky Kanis leads the 100,000
Homeless effort. Following years at West Point, she eventually got involved in
Times Square and the Street to Home Initiative. The 100,000 Homeless drive
lists among its “sponsors, partners and allies” the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation,
Bank of America, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
For more information about the 100,000 Homes Campaign, visit
its website: http://100khomes.org/.
