by Geraldine Palmer

Have you ever wondered why there is veteran homelessness? Todd DePastino professor and author of “Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America” in an interview with Michelle Norris of NPR news stated that,”The reason veterans become homeless has little to do with their military service but a lot to do with their background. The military draws disproportionately from poor and working-class communities, which are the very communities most susceptible to homelessness.” 

DePastino went on to say, ” It’s  a very old story that goes back hundreds of years, at least to Elizabethan times, when demobilized soldiers and sailors really contributed mightily to the first modern crisis of homelessness in history. This phenomenon was so novel that Elizabethans came up with new terms to describe it. They called them vagrants and vagabonds.  The soldiers and sailors tended to travel in great gangs and eventually they became politicized. Additionally, they contributed enormously to the English Revolution of the 1640s, which overthrew a monarch and set up a republic. So, it’s not an exaggeration to say that–our modern ideas of citizenship really come from the experience of coming home from war and placing unique demands on the polity in the state.” Mmmm, very interesting. As Pastino concludes the interview he shared that a solution for reducing the disproportionate number of veterans homeless to the general population of persons homeless is to recruit from a cross-section of America. However,  he does not leave out, that instead of working to reduce the disproportionate number of veterans homeless to the general population, how about we work to end homelessness in general through anti-poverty efforts similar to the G.I. Bill? Something for us to think about.

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans says, that in addition to the complex causal factors of homelessness such as a lack of affordable housing and access to health care, veterans become homeless when they do not get treated for the challenging issue of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse. Furthermore, the struggle with PTSD is compounded by a lack of family and social supports. Speaking of PTSD,  it’s only been recognized as a formal diagnosis since the 1980s. Sadly, some doctors and medical personnel regarded veterans suffering from PTSD as a personal weakness of the soldier or behavior unbecoming to a soldier. This makes me think that while the struggle was taking place to identify this as a formal chronic illness and find appropriate treatments, veterans were becoming homeless by the droves.  Fortunately, the Viet Nam War brought much light to PTSD and doctors sometimes dubbed the disorder as “post-Vietnam syndrome”.  Viet Nam veterans pushed forward the notion that PTSD was a serious disorder and both the military and medical communities took note.

While less than 10% of the general populations will suffer from PTSD, it is expected that 1 in 6 soldiers returning from the Iraq war will struggle with it. And, as a factor that leads to homelessness—I expect we should be prepared. So, in conclusion does the reason why there is veteran homelessness matter? I say, “Yes, it matters.  How can we fix a problem if we don’t know where the heck it comes from?” I know right now as I write this I am feeling a bit sick. How can I fix it?  Well, I know I have eaten way too many Tootsie Rolls and Smarties—so it seems reasonable I can solve this problem because I know why I am feeling ill. Therefore, if I really want to end this problem, I won’t eat anymore. We know some reasons why veterans are homeless: their backgrounds, politics, a lack of affordable housing and health care, and struggles with PTSD. Okay, so that tells me we can fix this too—but wait, that’s if we really want to.

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