Posted on 06/08/2005 3:38:42 PM PDT by Jackknife
WASHINGTON — Advocates for the homeless already are seeing veterans from the war on terror living on the street, and say the government must do more to ease their transition from military to civilian life.
Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, said about 70 homeless veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan contacted her group’s facilities in 2004, and another 125 homeless veterans from those conflicts last year petitioned the Department of Veterans Affairs for assistance.
“It’s not a big wave, but it’s an indicator that we still haven’t done our job,” she said. “I think that our nation would be very embarrassed if they knew that.”
(Excerpt) Read more at estripes.com ...
Please ping any military or veteran lists. I would like to see their feedback.
I've seen stories like this a couple of times in the past year, and I wonder at how accurate they are. Is Boone just trying to drum up donations or is there a legitimate problem?
This is the very reason I posted this article here. Something just smells a little fishy about the tone of the article. I am, naturally, skeptical.
You can lead a horse to water...
Even Ethiopian/Eritrea veterans get taken care of, and they're supposed to be those poor starving fella's we see on TV all the time...pretty sad that veterans end up on the street...
Painting with a broad brush: drunks or stoners....
I fully agree. If the help programs are in place, and they won't utilize them, then I can't have much sympathy.
So maybe they're still playing the same games and some of these guys just got sick of it?
I could see where the whole gov't beaurocracy problem could be part of the cause.
This "story" has been run up the flagpole about every six months since the war started. They always manage to find a case or two of former soldiers who are "maladjusted" to civilian life but if you dig deeper you find that these individuals were messed up long before they ever entered the service.
ping
This is my suspicion.....
Because we live in a free nation and have no military class, per se, our veteran population will be largely a reflection of society as a whole. While it's certainly possible and indeed likely that some tiny percentage of WOT veterans will be so disturbed or traumatized by their combat experience that they will not be able (or allow themselves) to fit back into society. Some homeless will be the same as a result of child abuse, alcoholism, or some combination of all of the above.
After I resigned my commission and prior to my discharge I had over 60 days of terminal leave based on accrued leave and my remaining use/lose balance from the current fiscal year. I spent a lot of that time with my folks whom I'd not seen much of over the previous 14 years and was living with them. I'd terminated the lease at my last duty station and as such, I guess I was technically a "homeless vet," inasmuch as I had no legal right or ownership interest in my parents' home (legally I was there with their permission only) and as I was over 18, they had no legal obligation to provide me with shelter. I would suspect the numbers here include a large number of vets that are in the transition to the civilian sector and fall under similar circumstances.
My first question was what they considered 'homeless'. This puts it in perspective.
Homeless advocates and other Poverty Pimps always have to keep chanting this in order to keep themselves in business. I would bet that most of the people they serve who say they were in the military are lying anyway. But it works well when you are begging on the corner or dealing with a social worker who will take your word on it. Especially if you tell them how evil the military was to you and that they forced you to be homeless. What a laugh
Seeing we line the pockets of elites all over the world enemies' leaders included, I'd say we ought to be ashamed that any of those who sacrificed to serve our own Nation don't have a provision for their well being.
A high number of those in the last two wars are sick and too many have died for their age group and still we can't provide health care for them!
As said in previous replies on this thread, some of us are still a bit skeptical about this story, even though it is from Stars and Stripes. I am trying to get time this weekeend to talk to a Marine buddy that returned from Iraq a couple of months back. I want to see how available these services are to him here in the Atlanta area.
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