Amongst the ranks of the homeless, veterans loom large.
Instead of returning home from active duty abroad, many veterans find themselves returning homeless.
“I learned in the Marine Corps how to survive. Survival is good but now I wanna live,” explains Alfred, a veteran of the Vietnam era who did not want to use his last name, and who has been periodically homeless for twenty years.
As Congress weighs new legislation directed at veterans this summer, the perennial needs of homeless veterans continue to go unmet and new needs are emerging. One problem for Congress and the administration is deciphering why veterans are at risk of becoming and remaining homeless.
Although they are less likely than the general population to live in poverty, veterans are significantly more likely to be homeless than non-veterans. In fact, roughly one in four of the homeless are veterans. As Cheryl Beversdorf, director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans explained in her Congressional testimony in March, veterans are more likely to become homeless because they hold “uniquely military skills” and often suffer from “combat-related health issues”.
“Yes I’m homeless, but I’m not helpless,” says Jawara Pittman. Pittman finds himself homeless after fourteen years in the U.S. Navy. A force drawdown in 2006 meant he was honorably discharged only a few years before he could have retired.
“Now we’re looking to get back to where we were before, having a place of our own,” said Pittman. After numerous active-duty tours abroad, including the Persian Gulf, Pittman said that employers outside the military are not looking for his skills as an aircraft mechanic.
There is little doubt that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) further complicates veterans’ lives. According to a recent study by the RAND Corporation, 300,000, or one in five, veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have reported symptoms of PTSD. Meanwhile less than half of those have sought any treatment.
Fortunately, there is an infrastructure of support for veterans suffering from PTSD. Assistance with emotional and psychiatric problems as well as medical services rank amongst the needs that are most likely to be met by existing service providers, according to a 2008 national survey of homeless veterans conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The existing supports for veterans are poorly prepared for a changing military. In fact, child care and legal assistance for child support issues are the least likely to be met.
“There seem to be more homeless female vets, especially single mothers with kids,” explained David Autry, the national communications director for Disabled Veterans of America.
Autry attributes this to the increasing female representation in the military, especially in combat roles. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, female veterans are 3.6 times more likely to become homeless than non-veteran females. In addition to regularly having children, women are more likely to report symptoms of PTSD, not always from combat. “Woman veterans report serious trauma histories and episodes of physical harassment and/or sexual assault while in the military,” says Beversdorf.
Female veterans with children require different types of support. Most shelters use bunk-style dormitories that are ill-suited to women with children. As a result women typically stay in civilian shelters, where the support is not tailored towards veterans’ unique needs. “There is a camaraderie amongst veterans that isn’t shared with civilians and this is very important to adjusting,” explains Autry.
Homeless male veterans still outnumber female veterans by more than nine to one, but for service providers, the choice between which population to serve can be difficult. “The female veteran is probably the most underserved veteran,” says Raymond O’Pharrow, the Chief Operating Officer for the All Faith Consortium, which recently opened a 56-bed shelter for male veterans in D.C. “We had to go either or. Whatever you do, the need is still overwhelming.”
Fortunately, some projects are adapting to the changing needs of female veterans. At a Veterans Medical Center event in January, the center responded to a spike in female attendance by holding a special female clinic.
“We realized we had to expand our continuum of care because female veterans had never been included in previous programs,” says Roslyn Hannibal-Booker, the Director of Development and Administration for the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training (MCVET). MCVET recently expanded to include 17 single-occupancy rooms available for women, but is still unable to house homeless women and their children.
President Obama and Congress may be keen on finding additional funding for veterans’ programs. On June 18, before the first meeting of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, Obama said, “It is simply unacceptable for individuals, children, families, and our nation’s veterans to be faced with homelessness in this country.” To advocates, this may be more than political posturing, one of the first bills he introduced as a U.S. senator was to reauthorize and expand funding for homeless veterans projects, the Sheltering All Veterans Everywhere Act.
Projects like the new All Faiths Consortium shelter are supported by federal grants. New legislation that has passed in the House in mid-June and is awaiting action in the Senate is likely to expand access to housing and funding for veterans projects.
Part of the policy debate surrounds estimating the number of homeless veterans. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, recent efforts may have led to a decline in the number of homeless veterans, however the numbers are hotly contested. Autry with Disabled Veterans of America says the Department of Veterans Affairs recently changed the way they counted the homeless, making it difficult to interpret the changes compared to older estimates. The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates 63,000 homeless veterans while the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates range from 131,000 to 154,000 on any given night.
Unfortunately, even with additional funding, it will still be difficult to reach many of the nation’s homeless veterans, according to Hannibal-Booker.
“The biggest obstacle we face is getting information to those who need it,” she said. Even geography can be an obstacle as travel distances between services for homeless veterans limit access. A significant proportion of homeless veterans live outside of large urban areas, where there is less support infrastructure.
And even when the people they serve are veterans, homeless programs often carry a stigma.
“We find that people are supportive of homeless veterans, but that they adopt a not-in-my-backyard mentality that says, ‘yeah, build a shelter, but not in my neighborhood,’” explained Autry.
Hannibal-Booker agreed, but said that her program was eventually able to overcome neighborhood resistance.
“Initially there were concerns about a veterans’ shelter,” she said, “but, now that it is in use, we’re a sought after location because people have observed that we make good neighbors.”
