Homeless Vets - Shame, shame, shame on US

Date: 8 Nov 2007 Author: National Alliance to End Homelessness Files: Full Report: Vital Mission: Ending Homelessness Among Veterans (PDF | 2.03 MB | 36 pages)"> Full Report: Vital Mission: Ending Homelessness Among Veterans (PDF | 2.03 MB | 36 pages) Homelessness Research Institute Releases New Report on Homeless Veterans (PDF | 98 KB | 3 pages)"> Homelessness Research Institute Releases New Report on Homeless Veterans (PDF | 98 KB | 3 pages) Snapshot: Vital Mission: Ending Homelessness Among Veterans (PDF | 308 KB | 2 pages)"> Snapshot: Vital Mission: Ending Homelessness Among Veterans (PDF | 308 KB | 2 pages) Veterans Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (PDF | 56 KB | 2 pages)"> Veterans Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (PDF | 56 KB | 2 pages) Far too many veterans are homeless in America. Homeless veterans can be found in every state across the country and live in rural, suburban, and urban communities. Many have lived on the streets for years, while others live on the edge of homelessness, struggling to pay their rent. We analyzed data from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau to examine homelessness and severe housing cost burden among veterans. This report includes the following findings: In 2006, approximately 195,827 veterans were homeless on a given night—an increase of 0.8 percent from 194,254 in 2005. More veterans experience homeless over the course of the year. We estimate that 495,400 were homeless in 2006. Veterans make up a disproportionate share of homeless people. They represent roughly 26 percent of homeless people, but only 11 percent of the civilian population 18 years and older. This is true despite the fact that veterans are better educated, more likely to be employed, and have a lower poverty rate than the general population. A number of states, including Louisiana, California, and Missouri, had high rates of homeless veterans. In addition, the District of Columbia had a high rate of homelessness among veterans with approximately 7.5 percent of veterans experiencing homelessness. We estimate that in 2005 approximately 44,000 to 64,000 veterans were chronically homeless (i.e., homeless for long periods or repeatedly and with a disability). Lack of affordable housing is the primary driver of homelessness. The 23.4 million U.S. veterans generally do not have trouble affording housing costs; veterans have high rates of home ownership and appear generally well housed. However, there is a subset of veterans who have severe housing cost burden. We estimate that nearly half a million (467,877) veterans were severely rent burdened and were paying more than 50 percent of their income for rent. More than half (55 percent) of veterans with severe housing cost burden fell below the poverty level and 43 percent were receiving foods stamps. Rhode Island, California, Nevada, and Hawaii were the states with the highest percentage of veterans with severe housing cost burden. The District of Columbia had the highest rate, with 6.4 percent of veterans paying more than 50 percent of their income toward rent. Female veterans, those with a disability, and unmarried or separated veterans were more likely to experience severe housing cost burden. There are also differences by period of service, with those serving during the Korean War and WWII more likely to have severe housing cost burden. We estimate that approximately 89,553 to 467,877 veterans were at risk of homelessness. At risk is defined as being below the poverty level and paying more than 50 percent of household income on rent. It also includes households with a member who has a disability, a person living alone, and those who are not in the labor force. These findings highlight the need to expand homeless prevention and affordable housing programs targeted at veterans. Further the findings demonstrate that ending homelessness among veterans is a vital mission that requires the immediate attention of policymakers. NEWSLETTER PODCAST VIDEO Q&A Permanent Housing Solutions for Homeless Veterans This audio conference covered the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program. Read More > View the Media Library Nan Roman, 2005 Annual Awards Ceremony National Alliance to End Homelessness President Nan Roman speaks at the 2005 Annual Awards Ceremony. Read More > Choose your connection: View the Video Library Take Five! Q & A with Senator Richard Burr Take a five minute break from whatever you are doing to hear about emerging issues, new research, and personal stories from experts and leaders in homelessness and housing policy. Read More > View the Document Library EVENTS 13 December 2007 Research on Youth Homelessness 10 January 2008 Substance Abuse Treatment Models for Homeless People MORE EVENTS >

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The War

The Million Dead, too, summ'd up -- The Unknown.

-- The Dead in this War -- there they lie, strewing the fields and woods and valleys and battle-fields of the South -- Virginia, the Peninsula -- Malvern Hill and Fair Oaks -- the banks of the Chickahominy -- the terraces of Fredericksburgh -- Antietam bridge -- the grisly ravines of Manassas -- the bloody promenade of the Wilderness -- the varieties of the strayed dead, (the estimate of the War Department is 25,000 National soldiers kill'd in battle and never buried at all, 5,000 drown'd -- 15,000 inhumed strangers or on the march in haste, in hitherto unfound localities -- 2,000 graves cover'd by sand and mud, by Mississippi freshets, 3,000 carried away by caving-in of banks, &c.,) -- Gettysburgh, the West, Southwest -- Vicksburg -- Chattanooga -- the trenches of Petersburgh -- the numberless battles, camps, Hospitals everywhere
-57-pass'd away since that War, and its wholesale deaths, burials, graves. (They make indeed the true Memoranda of the War -- mute, subtle, immortal.) From ten years' rain and snow, in their seasons -- grass, clover, pine trees, orchards, forests -- from all the noiseless miracles of soil and sun and running streams -- how peaceful and how beautiful appear to-day even the Battle-Trenches, and the many hundred thousand Cemetery mounds! Even at Andersonville, to-day, innocence and a smile. (A late account says, 'The stockade has fallen to decay, is grown upon, and a season more will efface it entirely, except from our hearts and memories. The dead line, over which so many brave soldiers pass'd to the freedom of eternity rather than endure the misery of life, can only be traced here and there, for most of the old marks the last ten years have obliterated. The thirty-five wells, which the prisoners dug with cups and spoons, remain just as they were left. And the wonderful spring which was discover'd one morning, after a thunder storm, flowing down the hillside, still yields its sweet, pure water as freely now as then. The Cemetery, with its thirteen thousand graves, is on the slope of a beautiful hill. Over the quiet spot already trees give the cool shade which would have been so gratefully sought by the poor fellows whose lives were ended under the scorching sun.')
And now, to thought of these -- on these graves of the dead of the War, as on an altar -- to memory of these, or North or South, I close and dedicate my book.
Walt Whitman


In Flanders Fields By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.



The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.