by Geraldine Palmer

President Obama declared in a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room on October 20, “Today, I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. The war in Iraq will be over.” Good for President Obama to keep his promise to American families! I do understand and agree that the end of the Iraq war is a huge turning point for the U.S. While I do not have family members that I know of in Iraq, I do have a son and therefore can imagine the anguish and sleepless nights many families are experiencing as they anxiously await the return of their loved ones. Yet, and this opinion is certainly not meant to take away from the forthcoming joyous occasion of our troops returning home, I can’t help but think about the gigantic task looming in front of housing providers. Today, one in five persons homeless in the U.S. is a veteran. Therefore, I am mighty afraid that when record numbers of veterans returning from the Iraq war hit U.S. soil—many will need combat skills they haven’t been trained for—skills to live on the streets. Sad, yes. True, yes.

Veterans have recently been dubbed the “new face of homelessness” and The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that approximately 75,000 to 100,000 American veterans are homeless on any typical night. A fair question to ask is why are veterans homeless? More specifically, why are they homeless in America? The answer does not rest in one single variable, but several. Of course there is a lack of affordable housing in urban cities across our nation, while at the same time equitable and fair living wages for all is still a distant dream. And then a lack of access to quality health care is a contributing and causal factor of homelessness at the same time. For veterans, becoming homeless can be attributed to the factors mentioned, but also to a persistent struggle with substance use and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I have a friend, Dave Rogers, who is a veteran and the executive director of VetNet, who says, “When the vet comes home from war, he is a stranger to himself and his family.” You may say, “Doesn’t the VA care?” Yes, they do, but with all social problems, the government can’t solve social problems alone.  I went to the veteran summit the VA held last week in Chicago. The summit’s purpose indicated a concerted effort by the VA to end veteran homelessness by 2015. This will be no small feat. One of the representatives at the Chicago summit shared that I believe either Chicago or maybe just the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center received only 75 HUD VASH rent subsidies for veterans who are homeless!  So, if you care…call your legislative representatives, support your local VA centers and join in the “good fight” to help end veteran homelessness by 2015!

Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric K. Shinseki said it best when he remarked, “Those who have served this nation as veterans should never find themselves on the streets, living without care and without hope.” I concur without reserve.

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