TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

On The Street: Many Vets Are Homeless, Study Finds

ADVERTISEMENT

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, The Associated Press

Published: November 8, 2007

WASHINGTON - Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released today.

Homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger vets from Iraq and Afghanistan are going to shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or job help.

The Veterans Affairs Department identified 1,500 homeless vets from the current wars and says 400 have joined programs aimed at homelessness.

The Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings in its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. Data from 2005 estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.

In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.

Some advocates say such an early presence of Iraq and Afghanistan vet at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took about a decade for the lives of Vietnam vets to unravel to the point they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.

"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.

Although services to homeless veterans have improved over 20 years, advocates say more financial resources are needed. With the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to younger vets.

"When the Vietnam War ended, that was part of the problem. The war was over, it was off TV, nobody wanted to hear about it," said John Keaveney, a Vietnam veteran and a founder of New Directions in Los Angeles, which provides substance abuse help, job training and shelter to veterans. "I think they'll be forgotten," he said of Iraq and Afghanistan vets. "People get tired of it. It's not glitzy that these are young, honorable, patriotic Americans. They'll just be veterans, and that happens after every war."

After being discharged, Jason Kelley, 23, of Tomahawk, Wis., who served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, took a bus to Los Angeles looking for better job prospects and a new life.

He couldn't get work because he didn't have an apartment. He couldn't get an apartment because he didn't have work. He stayed in a $300-a-week motel until money ran out, then moved to a shelter run by U.S. Vets in Inglewood, Calif. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.

"The only training I have is infantry training, and there's not really a need for that in the civilian world," said Kelley, who has enrolled in college and hopes to leave the shelter.

Iraq vets seeking help with homelessness are more likely to be women, less likely to have substance abuse, but more likely to have mental illness - mostly related to post-traumatic stress, said Pete Dougherty, VA director of homeless veterans programs.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT