>From the Ranks to the Street
Nearly a fourth of the homeless are veterans. Reasons vary, but many fail to adjust to life's randomness after the order of military service.
By Jocelyn Y. Stewart Times Staff Writer
May 29, 2004
After the homecomings are over and the yellow ribbons packed away, many who once served in America's armed forces may end up sleeping on sidewalks.
This is the often-unacknowledged postscript to military service. According to the federal government, veterans make up 9% of the U.S. population but 23% of the homeless population. Among homeless men, veterans make up 33%.
Their ranks included veterans like Peter Starks and Calvin Bennett, who spent nearly 30 years on the streets of Los Angeles, homeless and addicted.
Or Vannessa Turner of Boston, who returned injured from Iraq last summer, unable to find healthcare or a place to live.
Or Ken Saks, who lost his feet because of complications caused by Agent Orange, then lost his low-rent Santa Barbara apartment in an ordeal that began when a neighbor complained about his wheelchair ramp.
"I'm 56 years old," Saks said. "I don't want to die in the streets.. This is what our [soldiers in Iraq] are coming home to? They're going to live a life like I have? God bless them."
Studies indicate that some will live such a life. Male veterans are 1.3 times more likely to become homeless than non-veterans, women 3.6 times more likely. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the estimated number of homeless Vietnam veterans is more than twice the number of soldiers, 58,000, who died in battle during that war.
In the past, data quantifying homelessness among veterans did not exist, said Phillip Mangano, who heads the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. "It's been precisely the lack of research that had us groping in the dark as far as what our response should be," he said.
But in 1996, a comprehensive study on homelessness by the Census Bureau, co-sponsored by the VA and other federal agencies, offered a disturbing look at the men and women who once wore uniforms.
Although 47% of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam era, the study found, soldiers from as far back as World War II and as recent as the Persian Gulf War also ended up homeless.
It is impossible to know exactly how many U.S. veterans are on the streets, but experts estimate that about 300,000 of them are homeless on any given night and that about half a million experience homelessness at some point during the year.
Now, as fighting continues in Iraq and Afghanistan, social service providers wonder what will happen to this generation of service men and women returning home from war.
"What are they going to do for these guys when they come home . other than wave a flag and buy them a beer?" asked Paul Camacho, a professor of social science at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a Vietnam veteran.
Nobody can pinpoint a single cause for homelessness among veterans. As with non-veterans, the reasons vary: high housing costs, unemployment, substance abuse, poor education. Veterans may also contend with war injuries, post-traumatic stress syndrome and frayed family relations.
The transformation from spit-polish soldier to urban nomad is as much a question of what does not happen in a person's life as of what does. The strict, orderly world of military life - where every soldier is housed, fed and treated when ill - does not necessarily prepare veterans for the randomness of life outside. Even the VA loan guarantee, which has helped generations of veterans purchase homes, is useless for those too troubled, or earning too little, to take advantage of it.
Homelessness among veterans is currently the topic of joint talks between the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, said Peter Dougherty, the VA's director of homeless veterans programs.
"Traditionally, what happens to you after you leave has not been a concern of [the] service," he said.
The Defense Department has created a Transition Assistance Program - designed to help smooth the switch from military to civilian life - but such efforts lag far behind the problem, experts say.
Thousands of veterans struggle every day for survival in a fight that most are not prepared to wage.
----- Original Message ----- From: "marc .." <marc36 at graffiti.net> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2004 5:35 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] "hey, he's fucking us over, but at least he's kicking some sand-nig*er ass!!"
Bikers Roll to White House to Praise Bush
[...]
The group endorsed Bush in 2000 over Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites), a Vietnam veteran. This year, they chose Bush, who served stateside in the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam, over John Kerry (news - web sites), a decorated veteran of the same war who is also a motorcycle enthusiast.
For the past 15 years, the group has announced its arrival with the roar of motorcycles - not unlike the sound of the 1965 bombing campaign against North Vietnam that was called Operation Rolling Thunder.
Rolling Thunder is an organization that seeks to create awareness of POW/MIA issues and promotes increased veterans' benefits. It has 70 chapters and over 7,000 members throughout the United States and abroad.
"In the Oval Office, I looked you in the eye as you told me of your relentless pursuit of finding out the plight of many of our POW/MIAs, and I appreciated so much your concern, your care and your persistence," Bush told the rally. "I also want to thank you and your organization, Artie, for honoring the men and women of our military who fight today in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq (news - web sites)."
The Kerry campaign said Bush's proposed budget cuts would affect veterans.
"It's pretty audacious of the president to brag about looking the leaders of Rolling Thunder in the eye considering that his most recent veterans initiative is a secret plan to cut almost $1 billion from the Veterans Affairs," Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said.
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