Helping Those Who Have Helped Us Essay

In 2009, President Barack Obama and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, set out to eliminate veteran homelessness within a six year time frame (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2015). While they may not have succeeded in eliminating veteran homelessness by 2015, their plan has certainly set things in motion. In January 2015 there were a reported 47,725 homeless veterans in the United States. This is a four percent decrease from 2014 (The State of Homelessness In America, 2016). In that same year a Point-In-Time count was taken in the State of Oregon, which showed there were a total of 1,467 homeless veterans (Homelessness in Oregon, 2015), of which, in a street survey conducted in Marion County, twenty-six homeless identified

About 1.5 million other veterans, meanwhile, are considered at-risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.

Too many veterans in the United States are living on the streets and in need of a permanent shelter. A home, a place to call their own, is a basic need for anyone. However, after so much time spent living in barracks, or in war zones, this is especially a need for a veteran. The stability of a home is an important part of adjusting to civilian life. There are few programs actually designed to facilitate veterans in finding homes. The percentage of homeless veterans is appalling. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness veterans comprise 8.6 percent of the homeless

The objectives for the desired outcomes is to ensure that every veteran, regardless of which war, receives the proper care and treatment of their ailments. This is to include housing our homeless veterans in complexes in which they will feel safe, yet give them the freedom they need to work on their journey of healing. In the process, the veterans families that are affected must not be forgotten as

Homeless veterans seem to be a defenseless population by definition, as they are a subgroup in the population that is likely to have health problems or worse health challenges because of exposure to risks unlike the rest of the population. Many research undertaken to differentiate health problems linked to homeless veterans. They are vulnerable to co-morbidity of abuse of substances, mental, physical health infections and disorders than the common homeless population. Their inability to get or refuse treatment worsens their exposure to complications.

According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV), nearly 200,000 American Veterans are homeless on any given night (Rieckhoff). NCHV - the resource and technical assistance center - reported that the number of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) - (OEF) veterans are becoming homeless much more quickly than Vietnam veterans. As the war in Iraq and Afghanistan continues the number of homeless veterans increases. The next generation of American Veterans is on its way home, and tens of thousands more will return from combat over the years to come. Upon returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan thousands of veterans are facing a new nightmare, the risk of homelessness.

“It’s like the path of least resistance... After a while, your self esteem gets really low and you don’t feel competitive any longer… Like you are already defeated.” (Applewhite ¶ 17). A quote from a homeless veteran shows how even though he has tried to relieve himself of the homelessness, it does not always end with the outcome that he wants, which leaves him feeling defeated, as well as thousands of others. About ⅓ of the homeless population are veterans, and they are usually the ones that need the most help (VA Expands Partnerships ¶5). The struggle that homeless veterans face everyday in the United States is a growing problem that needs to be fixed because it will continue to get worse. The healthy and productive success of

Imagine one making a huge decision to leave family, friends, and a familiar lifestyle to go serve and protect their country for months or years at a time. Imagine one risking their life and putting forth their time just to come back to no home, money, or health care while have developed a mental illness. The government promises all of these benefits one may never see and they end up on the streets without a home finding ways to cope which may lead to addiction. A study shows that “There are estimated to be about 50,000 homeless veterans on any given night with about 1.4 million others at risk of becoming homeless, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans said, citing government statistics” (Shaw). Many of America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, the Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, and many other wars. Nearly half of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam era. Two-thirds served their country for at least three years, and one-third were stationed in a war zone. Homeless veterans all across America come from different backgrounds and homelessness does not discriminate against gender. These veterans, including males and females, suffer from homelessness due to: being unemployable; suffering economic hardships; battling substance abuse, and lacking proper legal aid. Yes, there are plenty of resources out there to assist the homeless veterans that may help some but there are still too many veterans living on the streets.

In spite of having many advantages, veterans over-represent in the homeless population. The question “Why?” begs an answer. Forty years have passed since the Vietnam Conflict ended and homeless veterans became a representative image in American society. Surprisingly, it appears there are no studies on the factors contributing

These individuals are considered ill individual’s which need health care, training, and rehabilitation. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki had previously designed a 5-year plan which could possibly end the epidemic of homeless veterans. The joint effort of work between the US Government, businesses, veteran service organizations, and private sectors they would make the solutions work. This epidemic is a nation tragedy, which means all organizations, government, and the rest of society should help move it towards

More than a half million veterans in the United States are homeless at some time, and on any given night more than 300,000 are living on the streets or in shelters.

National Level: H.R. 251, a bill that addresses homeless veterans, is titled Homes for Heroes Act of 2015. H.R. 251 was introduced in the House on January 9, 2015 and passed the House without amendment on July 14, 2015. The bill is to establish in the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) a Special Assistant for the VA. The special assistant will make certain veterans have fair access to HUD housing and homeless assistance program, coordinate, all HUD programs and activities relating to veterans, and serve as a liaison with the VA (Congress.gov, nod).

Homeless veterans population has been a problem over the decades but over the passed few years the population of homeless veterans has increased. This is a concerning problem that needs to be attended to and human services is one of the ways to seek help. Many veterans that are homeless is due to mental illnesses such post traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), substance abuse (alcoholism and addiction), and depression. Veterans that are homeless usually have one or more issue that they are facing that is causing them to be homeless. Some veterans can be facing psychiatric, physical, and medical disorders at the same time, which is very common today (Goldstein, Luther, Haas, Appelt, & Gordon, 2010, p.312). Veterans that were deployed and fought

More than one-third of homeless adults interviewed for the Northwest Arkansas PIT census were veterans of the United States armed forces (Collier, Fitzpatrick, & O’Connor, 2015). The majority of the veterans interviewed were 92.5% male, 79.3% were white, and more than half were over the age of 45 (Collier, Fitzpatrick, & O’Connor, 2015). All of this data combined shows that the majority of the homeless veterans are from the Vietnam era (Collier, Fitzpatrick, & O’Connor, 2015). According to the Northwest Arkansas Homeless Report of all the homeless men that were surveyed about 48.6% were veterans and of all the homeless women surveyed only 18% were veterans (Collier, Fitzpatrick, & O’Connor, 2015).

A positive aspect of collaborative programs for veterans is that with fully developed collaborative programs in which the community, local, state, and federal level are involved the identification and accountability for all veterans experiencing homelessness is reached. This established