Luddly Neddite
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- Sep 14, 2011
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The move is part of the larger governmentwide effort to end veterans homelessness in the next two years, and comes at a time when most federal programs are tightening their belts in an effort to deal with sharp reductions in funding. The grants through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program are designed to provide a safety net to low-income veterans struggling with permanent housing. Awards were given to 319 community agencies across all 50 states, in an effort to provide direct and flexible assistance to veterans and their families.
Vincent Kane, acting executive director of the VAs homeless initiative, said officials pushed for big increases in the SSVF awards because of the success of past grant programs. In its first year, officials found, 86 percent of grant beneficiaries were still in permanent housing a year later. The latest round of grants is expected to help about 120,000 veterans and their families.
Key in the program has been financial assistance to veterans, preventing them from becoming destitute in the first place, Kane said. If you want to end homelessness, you have to rescue those on the streets, Kane said. But you also need to have a strategy to help those who could end up in trouble, before they end up homeless.
For that reason, Kane said even as homeless veterans numbers decrease, the department expects to keep support for the SSVF grants. In total, the VA has pledged more than $1 billion in homelessness prevention programs this fiscal year. According to the most recent national counts, compiled in early 2012, about 62,000 veterans are living on the streets. Figures for 2013 are expected later this summer.
VA triples spending on homelessness problem - Veterans - Stripes
Our government owns 1000's of homes, lets find a good way to get them to the returning vets, they earned them. I don't know what your life is worth but I think my life is worth a lot and they are coming back in bad shape and need our help.
Our government owns 1000's of homes, lets find a good way to get them to the returning vets, they earned them. I don't know what your life is worth but I think my life is worth a lot and they are coming back in bad shape and need our help.
I wonder how many neighborhoods would welcome homeless vets?
A Hundred Million in freaking grants? Is anybody in the freaking government responsible for the proper administration of taxpayer dollars? You can bet your ass(ets) that the 100M will not put a single Vet on the road to sobriety but it might spread the wealth to community activists who supported the president. The unkind reality is that there are hundreds of programs already in place and there are shelters and meals but along with shelter there are behavior restrictions. The 100M thrown out into the system as grant money with little or no accounting will only buy another bottle and maybe a vote or two or three.
Sorry, but this is a great big stinking lump of crap. And is only doing what such programs do: make people feel better, while not really doing anything.
For one, the biggest problem with "homeless vets" is those veterans themselves. Millions successfully move from their military to civilian careers, and never have a problem with homelessness. I also believe that the "homeless veteran" problem is overhyped, mostly by homeless advocated that hope to get a "trickle down" of this money, as well as the homeless that were never veterans looking for a handout.
Of those that are really vets and homeless, I bet drugs and/or alcohol is the real problem. We need to get them cleaned up, or they will always be homeless. But like most addicts, they do not want to be cleaned up, they want their next fix or drink.
And how worthless is this effort? Well, I looked at the numbers. $100 million spread amongst 42,000 individuals comes out to less then $2,400 per person. What is this supposed to do exactly? That may give some homeless a few months in a cheap apartment, but that is about it.
The real reason for most homelessness (veteran and otherwise) is mental conditions and substance abuse. And until those are solved we will always have this problem.
In this, I think the VA always has been and always will be a failure. Because they do not solve the actual program. Myself, i favor programs like US Vets, which deals with the real problem before trying to actually help the veteran. It is a private non-profit, that has a high success rate in dealing with homeless vets, as long as they follow the rules. And #1 is no drugs or drinking, period. Break that rule and you are back out on the street.
There are a large number of Not for Profit groups in New York that continue to have high success rates, some without VA Grants. The first Shelter on Long Island was established in Pacthogue without government grants.
There are a large number of Not for Profit groups in New York that continue to have high success rates, some without VA Grants. The first Shelter on Long Island was established in Pacthogue without government grants.
This is what I believe should be done as well. Not the VA itself, but encouraging non-profit organizations as you have described in actually solving the problem itself.
I mentioned US Vets, and they really are a great organization.
U.S.VETS ? Providing Veterans Services including Housing, Job Training, and Counseling
This organization provides shelters in 12 cities in 6 states and DC. They offer not just shelter, but housing (a shelter puts you up for the night, housing gives you a home) as well as food, medical care, job training and employment assistance. Their "Transitional Living" arrangements can even last for the life of the veteran if needed.
There are only a few things you need to get assistance from them. A DD-214 with a discharge other then Bad Conduct or Dishonorable (and they can verify within 48 hours), and be drug and alcohol free for 30 days. And as long as you stay there, you must remain drug and alcohol free.
Yes, I am a veteran. And yes, I have been homeless. And yes, I have stayed with US Vets. I have also worked their outreach and "Veteran Standdown" drives, trying to find more that need assistance.
Of all those that fail the program, drugs and alcohol are definitely the leading reason. This and the inability to verify veteran status are also the major reasons for inability to use their services. In one event we even had a representative from the VA present, who could get DD-214s within 1 day. I would say that 3/4 of those that came forward and claimed to be veterans had never even served. Of the rest, the no drug-no drinking environment drove away 80% of those.
But for those that attended the program, the benefits were pretty good. I was one of 16 that they were able to send to school to get their MCSE, entirely paid for by public donations. Others got training in auto mechanics, catering, construction, and warehousing (not in running a pallet jack, but in running the warehouse itself).
I even remember returning 8 years after I left and meeting the director Dwight again. It rather shocked him to see me back in uniform again, and he asked me to talk to several of the residents who had been thinking of returning to the military also but thought they were to old. I wrote a letter to the facility after I learned of his death a few years later.
Air Force veteran Dwight Radcliff dies at 55; counseled homeless troops
This is a successful program, specifically because it is in many ways like the military. You have to follow the rules, specifically about those in regards to drugs. Fail a drug or alcohol test, and you are out.
But unless these efforts are tied to solving the problem that got the veterans on the street in the first place, they will simply continue to fail, over and over again. It is not shelters that are needed, but transitional living situations that help solve the real cause and helping people rejoin society.
This is what I believe should be done as well. Not the VA itself, but encouraging non-profit organizations as you have described in actually solving the problem itself.
this-
This is what I believe should be done as well. Not the VA itself, but encouraging non-profit organizations as you have described in actually solving the problem itself.
exactly.
I know sarcasm is lost on the nutty liberals, but here goes....
Really Ludd, a hundred million? How dare the VA provide assistance to homeless people who served there country, it would have been much better to provide 100 million to people for welfare who don't even speak English but are sure to vote Democrat...
Oh wait...
Our government owns 1000's of homes, lets find a good way to get them to the returning vets, they earned them. I don't know what your life is worth but I think my life is worth a lot and they are coming back in bad shape and need our help.
I wonder how many neighborhoods would welcome homeless vets?
Finding housing for Veterans who are homeless has been very successful for over 30 years.
Do some research ass hole.
So the solution is to give a homeless vet a government house and another problem is solved. Have all the vets earned a government house or only the homeless?
Researchers with the Veterans Affairs Salt Lake City Health Care System in Utah found that more than a quarter of veterans who were homeless at their first Veterans Affairs visit had been separated for misconduct, with a risk for homelessness nearly five times greater than that for troops with normal separations. Researchers had expected to find higher rates of homelessness for veterans with misconduct-related separations — troops discharged because of drug use, unauthorized absences and other misconduct. “But we were surprised at how high the rates were,” said Jamison D. Fargo at Utah State University, one of the authors of the study, which was published in the Aug. 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers analyzed VA records of 448,290 active-duty servicemembers who had been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, separated between 2001 and 2011 and were eligible for and used VA services. About half were from the Army, about two-thirds had had combat exposure, most were men and nearly all were enlisted.
Although only 5.6 percent of the troops — 24,992 — had been separated for misconduct, they represented 25.6 percent of homeless veterans when they first visited the VA, the study found. Within a year, such vets accounted for about 28 percent of the homeless veterans, and within five years, more than 20 percent. The higher percentage of homelessness among those with misconduct-related discharges found within the first year of seeking VA services suggests that “over the course of the year, there are increased difficulties in re-integrating into civilian life and creating a stable living situation and lifestyle,” Fargo said. The length of time a veteran was homeless, or whether there were repeated instances of homelessness, was not captured in the study. Homeless veterans were defined as those who had indicated they were homeless, those who had sought the VA’s housing services or both.
Troops who were dishonorably discharged were not included in the study because that discharge renders them ineligible for VA services. Misconduct-related discharges usually are “other than honorable” or “general.” Previous research on homeless veterans found risk factors such as being male and being younger or older than average, as well as drug or alcohol problems and mental-health issues. “The biggest risk factor is always economic-related,” Fargo said. Rates of homelessness in the study for veterans who had been discharged honorably — from 0.2 percent at the first VA visit to 1.4 percent after five years — were more in keeping with the national rate of homelessness, Fargo said, which hovers at a little less than 1 percent.
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Howell talks with a homeless veteran about the upcoming 2015 Veterans Stand Down, Aug. 5, 2015. Troops separated from military service because of misconduct are far more likely to become homeless than other veterans, a new study has found.
But for veterans with misconduct-related discharges, the rate was far higher: from 1.3 percent at an initial VA visit to 9.8 percent within five years. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, homeless veterans make up about 12 percent of the adult homeless population. Most are single, live in urban areas and suffer from mental illness, alcohol and/or substance abuse, or other disorders. About 41 percent are between the ages of 31 and 50. “What this study does is help us pinpoint a risk factor,” Fargo said. According to the study authors, the results “represent the strongest risk factor for homelessness among U.S. veterans observed to date.” “It calls for action on the part of the VA and the Department of Defense,” Fargo said. “Policymakers need to address it.”
In 2009, the Obama administration committed to ending veteran homelessness in the U.S. by the end of this year, and those efforts apparently have had success. According a 2014 estimate by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, some 49,933 veterans were homeless on a single night. That estimate represents a 14 percent decline compared with the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2013 estimate and a 33 percent decline compared with its 2009 estimate.
Study: Troops discharged for misconduct at greater risk of homelessness
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America on Thursday issued a statement blasting the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee after members approved omnibus legislation that would reduce by 5 percent the Post-9/11 GI Bill housing allowance to pay for other veterans programs. "As Congress quietly passed another bill cutting veterans education benefits, veterans are stuck having to beg for the benefits we earned," IAVA Chief of Staff Allison Jaslow said in a statement. "We fought hard eight years ago to get the Post-9/11 GI Bill passed and we will not quit fighting until Congress protects the benefits being earned on the battlefield as we speak."
The Senate committee, headed by Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia, during a hastily convened session on Thursday afternoon unanimously voted in favor of the legislation, known as the Veterans First Act. The circumstances surrounding the vote also drew criticism from IAVA officials. "In a normal process, they would have published a schedule and said, 'In two or three weeks time, we're having a hearing to mark up this particular bill,'" Jonathan Schleifer, the organization's chief policy officer, said on Friday during a telephone interview with Military.com. "This was done certainly without any notice or warning."
The bill calls for slowing the annual increase to the monthly basic allowance for housing, or BAH, for all recipients of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, including veterans, by 1 percent a year for five years, until 5 percent of the costs are paid for out of pocket -- mirroring the eventual payment for active-duty service members. Service members'BAH is on track to cover only 95 percent of housing costs by 2018 as a result of language previously included in a separate bill called the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA. The GI Bill payments weren't included in that previous reduction. In addition, the Senate legislation significantly differs from another proposal recently passed by the House of Representatives that would reduce by half the monthly housing allowance for children attending college on a parent's education benefit.
House lawmakers supported the move to shore up funding for other programs such as improving postnatal care for female veterans, expanded K-9 therapy for veterans suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder, reauthorizing the VA work-study program and removing the cap onVA home loan guarantees. If the full Senate approves its version of the bill -- a vote could come before Memorial Day -- House and Senate negotiators will convene to iron out differences between the proposals. Isakson said the Senate legislation would expand a VA program to provide assistance to caregivers, strengthening the Veterans Choice Program and create a pilot program to address the delays and massive backlog in VA’s disability claims appeals process.
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