Veteran Homelessness Still a Problem
LOW-INCOME
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
12/5/2007
WASHINGTON – Federal and local governments alike are frustrated with the prospect of even more war veterans returning to the United States with no place to go.
Rep. Chris Shays (R-4th) said at a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday that there were 5,000 homeless veterans in Connecticut and that the population of homeless veterans was growing throughout the country.
“We owe no greater debt than the one we owe to our veterans,” said Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the senior Republican on the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee. “Our nation’s heroes deserve the very best we have to offer.”
Shays, a member of the subcommittee, wrote a letter Nov. 8 to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the subcommittee’s chairwoman, expressing concern that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are becoming homeless at a much younger age because of the nature of their injuries and the rise of post-traumatic stress brought on by combat.
“Additional funding can help,” Shays wrote, referring to the $1.5 billion the Department of Veterans Affairs spends on health care costs for homeless veterans. “But there is also an opportunity to identify and expand programs that work.”
Shays wrote that the number of homeless veterans nationwide has grown to the point that one out of every four homeless are veterans. In Connecticut, it is estimated that 10 percent of the homeless are veterans, Linda Schwartz, commissioner of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for the state, said in a telephone interview.
But, she said, there is no clear idea of how many homeless veterans there are or what their circumstance is.
Already, Schwartz has counted 108 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who have gone through the Veterans’ Home and Hospital in Rocky Hill. The home tries to use its facilities to give these veterans vocational training and medical help to get them back on their feet, the commissioner said.
Peter Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said Wednesday at the hearing that homeless veterans are more likely to receive benefits once they are identified. For Commissioner Schwartz, identifying these homeless veterans has become a mission.
Through “vigorous outreach,” Schwartz said, her department is traveling to shelters throughout Connecticut in hopes of identifying all homeless veterans to make sure they receive the benefits they are entitled to. And, if they are not entitled to benefits, Schwartz said her department will help them contact the proper agency that can help them.
“This is a deep concern,” she said. “But we still have people living in the woods, under bridges.”
According to Schwartz, the Veterans’ Home and Hospital now holds 380 veterans who have no other home. With winter coming, Schwartz said she hopes she can reach as many veterans as possible.
“Most people won’t believe that people come back from war and have no place to go,” she said.
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