What can we do about homeless Vets

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Spent the day yesterday at my mom's with her friends and my girlfriend and her family. First time gf's family met mine, great day of food and family and fun. And food. GF is from Vietnam, came here 23 years ago. Her mom and mom's best friend were teens-20s during the Vietnam War. Lot of conversation about both countries and food and culture and politics. All of my mom's friends, women in their 70s and late 80s loved all the homemade Vietnamese food especially the freshly made summer rolls at the kitchen table.

Wish I could share about the politics discussion but not appropriate here. But we did talk about post-war Vietnam, Agent Orange, and American Vets. A rich lively discussion especially with my gf's mom's best friend earning her U.S. Citizenship 2 days prior. She was elated to talk about it.

One thing that came up was homeless here in the U.S. and specifically veterans. Why isn't anything being done for them. Or maybe there is, I/we just didn't know.

For over a decade Jon Stewart fought for 9/11 first responders health care which is to be honest shocking he even had to. Is anyone doing the same for Vets that fought in the last few wars who are homeless today? Is anyone identifying them, creating an infrastructure to get them off the streets and in better mental health?

[Baz]

Congrats to the lady who got her citizenship....very nice!

As to your question.....not enough being done. Nor is enough attention given to them and this problem.

Will refrain from any politics - as you said, Shaun.....not appropriate in this forum.

[Scott Douglas]

I'm sure Mayor Bass of Los Angeles could answer your question, Shaun.

I can't, but I agree, more needs to and should be done.

[masraum]

The homeless issue is unfortunate (enormous understatement) and it's even worse when it's Vets or children. There are folks that prefer to be homeless as hard as that may be to believe. I suspect many/most of those have issues (mental health and/or substance abuse) and then they are, I'm sure lots of other folks that would rather NOT be homeless but don't know how to fix the problem.

They all need support. I suspect in many cases, they need to ask for support. It's possible that no one in the position to help knows that they need support. It's also possible that it's not simple/quick/easy to provide support.

I don't generally give to homeless. I've known folks that would buy food and take it to homeless, and the homeless would be pissed because they didn't want food, they wanted money. I've also known "homeless" folks that weren't actually homeless, they were just beggars. I would be willing to give to homeless if I knew that my gift would actually help. But if my gift was going to fund substance use or other non-useful/helpful/positive items, then I'm not doing it. I suspect that many/most folks given money, would not use the money to get ahead.

[Arizona_928]

I think it’s good to define what a veteran is. Honorably served. Not kicked out. Genuine service connected disability. Not a tradoc kid that was kicked out for failure to train, malingerers, ect.

Next is to define what the VA is… A welfare system for veterans.

I’ve read and seen so many different chapters packets. Honestly, it’s tiring of the criminals that come in…. Then when they get kicked out and think the world owes them something... If one was homeless before. Odds are, if they can’t play by AR, they’re going to be homeless on the back end… this is a societal issue. Not a VA nor a military issue.

A guy i served with stayed with me for a few months to get back on his feet. I knew his story and he is functionally as we used to say, mildly mentally retarded. He should have not been able to enlist but that’s a bigger issue at play. Anyways, the point of this. With a OTH the VA wanted nothing to do with him because he was essentially kicked out. Being slow was a social security issue and not a VA problem. lol

Also VA region is going to be vastly different on the level of care/help. Phoenix, Denver, Philadelphia, Detroit, ect wouldn’t be my first choice…but the VA does take care of their own*.

*except Vietnam vets. Agent orange exposure. Sarin gas exposure. Ect

[Gogar]

It seems the VA has quite a few programs for homeless vets, but of course who knows if they are effective or if said homeless vets use them or want to.

Looks like about 5% of USA homeless are veterans, just slightly less than the percentage of veterans in the total population, so while still unfortunate it's not a disproportionate number.

[pwd72s]

Hard to not send this to PARF...so no comment.

[jmaxwell]

Originally Posted by Gogar

It seems the VA has quite a few programs for homeless vets, but of course who knows if they are effective or if said homeless vets use them or want to.

Looks like about 5% of USA homeless are veterans, just slightly less than the percentage of veterans in the total population, so while still unfortunate it's not a disproportionate number.

My son works for the VA Oklahoma City. Granted, his clients are in housing, his job is to enable them to keep it, giving them rides to medical and other appointments and making sure the housing is kept up to standards. Sometimes it’s quite a struggle. But the VA is trying…

[gacook]

VA does do a lot for vets. There are also myriad other programs out there specifically for vets. My (biased, heartless) opinion is that any vet on the streets has other problems that really aren't related to being a vet, per se. There ARE programs--probably too many. (And yes, I'm a vet).

Also, to AZ above...Agent Orange-impacted vets are taken care of, too. They weren't for many, many years but they are now.

[Ayles]

They have done a good job in the last decade of providing benefits to those exposed to agent orange. The perimeter covered in Vietnam is now huge. My dad would have qualified from day 1 but for some reason he had a real aversion to accepting any of the benefits he earned.

[Dixie]

I say this with no intention of diminishing vets...

I was eating lunch at a restaurant downtown. A homeless man was seated nearby. He was hungry and told me he was a veteran. I asked him what his MOS was. He had no clue. (My family is military, so I know everyone who served can anwer this.)

For a second I was annoyed. I felt he'd stolen the valor of others to gain a meal. Then it occurred to me. Regardless if he served or not, he was still one of God's children and needed my help.

I bought him lunch.

My point is, kindness and compassion rarely costs us much, but it can mean a lot to the other person. So practice kindness. You don't need a reason to do it.

[Bugsinrugs]

Dixie.. well said and thank you .

[LWJ]

I knew a guy running a program to house homeless Vets in Oregon. They were very successful.

But my impression is that Vets make up a large, and disproportionate number of homeless.

No idea. It’s a crime not to help.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by gacook

VA does do a lot for vets. There are also myriad other programs out there specifically for vets. My (biased, heartless) opinion is that any vet on the streets has other problems that really aren't related to being a vet, per se. There ARE programs--probably too many. (And yes, I'm a vet).

Also, to AZ above...Agent Orange-impacted vets are taken care of, too. They weren't for many, many years but they are now.

^^^This^^^

...and per Dixie's comment...regarding the "vet" that did not know wat an MOS was...I also find that most homeless" vets" that I have encountered were fakes. I am not as kind...as I find it hard to be kind to those that claim service that clearly did not serve.

Of course, if an AF vet, he might not know what an MOS is...as the AF uses the term "AFSC".

[unclebilly]

Mental health is a bitsh. I think every vet that has served, may come home with some form of mental health issue (easy for me to say, I never served). I know the military changes people, not always in positive ways.

I say the above because I don’t think it should matter if the vet was discharged honourably or not. What if they had mild mental health issues on the way in that were amplified as a result of military service? Why should they be any less eligible for help from the VA than someone who wasn’t affected negatively by military service?

I agreee with Dixie, kindness is the answer. You have no idea what the underlying issues are for each homeless vet, I guarantee you every one of them has a different story. These are people who served their country and now have nowhere to go.

[jyl]

I would be curious to know if the homeless rate is higher among veterans who saw combat than those who did not.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by jyl

I would be curious to know if the homeless rate is higher among veterans who saw combat than those who did not.

Interesting question. The Wounded Warrior Project thinks so:



I do give money to them monthly.

Also, Statistica does a good job breaking doen the numbers. I am still wading through the site.

https://www.statista.com/topics/3450/veterans-in-the-united-states/#editorsPicks

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

I'm sure Mayor Bass of Los Angeles could answer your question, Shaun.

I can't, but I agree, more needs to and should be done.

Thanks Scott, have done a small amount of googling. It looks like some recent action in the last few years is coming together.

https://usvets.org/

[Shaun @ Tru6]

This part of the discussion during the day grew from the U.S. sending money to Vietnam to help its population that was effected by Agent Orange.

The communist government then, as it still is now, was corrupt and used a small portion of the money to help a small percentage of those effected. They'd run shows on TV showing how they helped everyone but in reality it was a tiny population.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by jyl

I would be curious to know if the homeless rate is higher among veterans who saw combat than those who did not.

As mentioned above, it’s going to be related to other factors. Either prior to service or service connected. That said, homelessness is a vague term that I don’t necessarily understand. If one lives in a conversion van, they are homeless, even if they’re not. All the retirees must be homeless at the FamCamp…? It’s political. Same with food insecurity.

I think it’s an interesting statistical comparison between the suicide rate of deployed vs non deployed… that really gets into the meat and potatoes of this issue.