Post by BBE on Nov 11, 2007 12:34:44 GMT -5
Today is Veterans' Day. In honor of the day, and everyone who served our country, I'm posting this article here so everyone can easily find it.
This article illustrates why the Shoeboxes at Home campaign being run by the LH Store (www.lhstore.com) is so necessary. The campaign is for helping veterans, especially our newest veterans, and showing them how thankful we are for their sacrifices. They went there, so we wouldn't have to. What greater love can there be than for one person to be willing to lay down his or her life for others?
So no matter what you think of this (or any) war, please honor the soldiers. I was shocked and saddened by this article:
One Out of 4 Homeless Are Veterans
Nov 7, 08:27 PM EST
By KIMBERLY HEFLING - Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.
And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.
The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.
In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.
Some advocates say the 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.
While services to homeless veterans have improved in the past 20 years, advocates say more financial resources still are needed. With the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to the younger veterans while there's a window of opportunity.
The VA started targeting homelessness in 1987, 12 years after the fall of Saigon. Today, the VA has, either on its own or through partnerships, more than 15,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds for homeless veterans nationwide. It spends about $265 million annually on homeless-specific programs and about $1.5 billion for all health care costs for homeless veterans.
Because of these types of programs and because two years of free medical care is being offered to all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Dougherty said they hope many veterans from recent wars who are in need can be identified early.
In all of 2006, the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that 495,400 veterans were homeless at some point during the year.
---
Associated Press writer Kathy Matheson contributed to this story from Philadelphia.
---
On the Net: National Alliance to End Homelessness: www.naeh.org/
New Directions: www.newdirectionsinc.org/
Project Home: www.projecthome.org/
Veterans Affairs Department: www.va.gov/
U.S. Vets: usvetsinc.org/
This article illustrates why the Shoeboxes at Home campaign being run by the LH Store (www.lhstore.com) is so necessary. The campaign is for helping veterans, especially our newest veterans, and showing them how thankful we are for their sacrifices. They went there, so we wouldn't have to. What greater love can there be than for one person to be willing to lay down his or her life for others?
So no matter what you think of this (or any) war, please honor the soldiers. I was shocked and saddened by this article:
One Out of 4 Homeless Are Veterans
Nov 7, 08:27 PM EST
By KIMBERLY HEFLING - Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.
And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.
The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.
In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.
Some advocates say the 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.
While services to homeless veterans have improved in the past 20 years, advocates say more financial resources still are needed. With the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to the younger veterans while there's a window of opportunity.
The VA started targeting homelessness in 1987, 12 years after the fall of Saigon. Today, the VA has, either on its own or through partnerships, more than 15,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds for homeless veterans nationwide. It spends about $265 million annually on homeless-specific programs and about $1.5 billion for all health care costs for homeless veterans.
Because of these types of programs and because two years of free medical care is being offered to all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Dougherty said they hope many veterans from recent wars who are in need can be identified early.
In all of 2006, the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that 495,400 veterans were homeless at some point during the year.
---
Associated Press writer Kathy Matheson contributed to this story from Philadelphia.
---
On the Net: National Alliance to End Homelessness: www.naeh.org/
New Directions: www.newdirectionsinc.org/
Project Home: www.projecthome.org/
Veterans Affairs Department: www.va.gov/
U.S. Vets: usvetsinc.org/