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The number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are homeless or at risk of losing a roof over their heads has more than doubled in the past two years, according to government data.
Through the end of September, 26,531 of them were living on the streets, at risk of losing their homes, staying in temporary housing or receiving federal vouchers to pay rent, the Department of Veterans Affairs reports.
That's up from 10,500 in 2010. The VA says the numbers could be higher because they include only the homeless the department is aware of.
My Comment: And we wonder why the suicide rate for vets are so high .... it is clear that many are experiencing horrific and depressing financial/debt/money problems. These men (and women) deserve better.
Officials laughed that the spectacle probably scared away most folks before they could be counted. But when the group came upon a homeless Marine veteran among a group of vagrants huddled in a Capitol Hill stairwell, it sent the VA staffers into a frenzy. Gould asked the 54-year-old about his time in the Corps and jotted down his personal information. Staffers started combing through files to see if he was eligible for any benefits. Someone scrambled a van to come out with an emergency shelter team. A VA spokesman assured reporters that the man would be off the streets within hours. One down, 62,000 more to go.
Department officials have touted the sharp decrease in veterans homelessness in recent years as a sign of both their focus on the issue and success so far. The number of veterans living on the streets dropped more than 10,000 people from 2009 to 2012, in large part because of department efforts to provide more service and outreach to the destitute veterans. Gould and other officials freely admit that the task ahead ending veterans homelessness by the end of 2015, a pledge both the president and VA secretary have publicly made will be more difficult as they try to engage chronically homeless veterans, many with severe mental illnesses and addictions. Unlike Thursday, officials wont be able to reach every one with a full team of VA specialists and media spectators.
The annual point-in-time count has been key to the VAs efforts on homelessness assistance and prevention. Thousands of volunteers canvassed cities across the country this week, asking men, women and children on the streets how long theyve been there, why they ended up without a home, and whether theyve tried to get any government assistance. The data is combined with head counts at shelters to piece together a full picture of the problem.
VA officials have used the figures in recent years to push for more community outreach grants and to expand the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, which provides resources to keep veterans in their homes before they end up destitute. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said as officials learn more about when and why people end up homeless, they can better react to the problem. Its not just the numbers, he said. Its person by person, family by family, hearing what their stories are so we can tell what they need.
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The Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County froze about 40 Housing Choice vouchers, previously known as Section 8, in April and May pending guidance from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, then learned late in May that HUD granted 25 vouchers to Santa Cruz to house homeless veterans. The sequestration "stopped us dead in our tracks," said Phil Kramer, who began working last year on the 180-180 project to house 180 people in Santa Cruz who have been homeless by July 2014.
Although vouchers for veterans were "protected, not frozen," the freeze on the other vouchers "affected our ability to move people into housing," Kramer said. He said interviews with 600 homeless people found 65 military veterans. A handful are recent veterans, but most served during the Vietnam War, the Korean War or during the Persian Gulf War era. The 25 rental vouchers worth $287,208 in federal funds granted to the Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County are part of $60 million awarded for Veterans Affairs Supported Housing, with the goal to house 9,000 homeless veterans nationwide.
160 vouchers
Ken Cole, executive director of the Housing Authority of Santa Cruz County, said the agency has been awarded 160 vouchers for veterans. About 86 percent of those vouchers are "leased up" to veterans, Cole said, adding, "These vets are supported with services from the Palo Alto VA medical center." For Kramer, those services are invaluable. "One of the challenges we have with the 180-180 campaign is we experience scarcity in case management," he said.
The case manager works one-on-one with up to 10 veterans to help each transition to his or her new home and connect to community resources as needed. If the veteran is considered "medically vulnerable," at risk of early mortality, the case manager would help find medical services that are less expensive and more effective than the hospital emergency room. "Every community has a million-dollar Murray," Kramer said, referring to The New Yorker report by Malcolm Gladwell about a homeless alcoholic man in Reno who ran up a huge tab at a local hospital from frequent emergency room visits.
Cuts are deep
