Veterans Make Up One Quarter of US Homeless, Here Are Some of Their Stories [VIDEO]

Posted by Alex Jung, AlterNet at 11:00 AM on November 12, 2007.

If we are to demonstrate our true patriotism, then we must rehabilitate the present and future lives of those veterans who carried the biggest burdens of our declarations of war.

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A recent AP article released sobering numbers about our nation’s veterans: they make up 25 percent of homeless persons, while representing just 11 percent of the overall population.

The data is already a couple of years old, which does not bode well for the future:

Some advocates say such an early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.

"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.

The image of a healthy soldier returning from war, physically and mentally unscathed, is a fiction. If we are to demonstrate our true patriotism, then we must rehabilitate the present and future lives of those veterans who carried the biggest burdens of our declarations of war.

Editor's Note:

When I Came Home is a documentary which follows the lives and struggles of several homeless veterans, including those who have recently returned home from the war in Iraq. The film examines the factors which led over 150,000 Vietnam veterans from the battlefield to the street and asks the question: Will what happened to Vietnam veterans happen to a new generation of soldiers? The film also focuses on the veteran-led movement which is fighting to end this national disgrace. Check out the video to your right for some scenes from the film.

Tagged as: homeless vets, wariniraq, vietnam, iraq

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you don't come home to the america you wish you had [Report this comment] Posted by: KaptainSpiffy on Nov 12, 2007 11:49 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] you come home to the america that you have those draft dodgers, bush and cheney, don't give a damn and, yes, their net worth has grown while you have become nothing. they're laughing all the way to the bank. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] VA lawsuit [Report this comment] Posted by: rogus on Nov 12, 2007 6:02 PM Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] A veterans group is suing the VA in an attempt to get the VA to properly take care of veterans. Lawyers representing the VA are trying to get the suit dismissed arguing that veterans have no right to medical care and therefore shouldn't expect any. "The scope of VA’s mandate reaches only ‘to the extent and in the amount provided in advance in appropriations Acts for these purposes’ [and] creates no such expectation [that veterans are entitled to care].” Strange that's not what the recruiter's told us. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Being poor and homeless in America is a crime [Report this comment] Posted by: Lector on Nov 13, 2007 12:28 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Demonstrating our true patriotism means rehabilitating ALL US citizens. A vet being homeless in the land of amber waves of grain make this whole thing an even greater shame. Policies making homelessness illegal in America’s cities were enforced long ago. Thus the vet getting caught in the same net. In the nation’s capital itself there are thousands each night living in the streets. The rhetoric of our politicians concerning this problem has being going on for decades but little has been done to attack the root causes of homelessness. Poverty and homelessness go hand in hand. Poverty and Homelessness in America [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: Being poor and homeless in America is a crime Posted by: ad132 true gratitude [Report this comment] Posted by: raymondg on Nov 13, 2007 4:15 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] every veterans day the president spouts off a lot of platitudes about the nation's gratitude to war veterans for their service. if this country were really grateful, they would forgive student loans, consolidate credit card debt and pay it off, remit tuition for any accredited institution, provide a lifetime housing allowance and so forth. There are many concrete things this country could do to ensure that the life these veterans have when they return from war is better than the life they had before going off to war. It's a question of political will, which is sorely lacking. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Posible Solution. [Report this comment] Posted by: douglashoyt on Nov 13, 2007 5:40 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Part of the enlistment contract should stipulate life time employment with the federal government, life time medical care, a comprehensive educational allowance. This is too much socialism for the ruling elite who believe government should help business and the privilaged, only. For everyone else, it is the "free" market. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: Posible Solution. Posted by: ad132 Homeless vets joining the ranks of the homeless [Report this comment] Posted by: Romantic Violence on Nov 13, 2007 8:24 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] I am a vet and I feel for my fellow vets. Anyone remember the Bonus Army March on DC in 1932? Maybe our folks have fighting the wrong enemy when the enemy is within our gates...Everyone, especially veterans, have the right, not privilege, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Isn't that a component of the Declaration of Independence? It's going to take much more than 'petitions and civil suits to destroy this regime, not system, but regime. "If the aim of a society is to harm the rights of others, the society is obviously unjust. Those whose rights have been harmed, have the right to therefore have the society blocked of destroyed" Antonio Rosmini [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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