Homelessness In Hunterdon County

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.

State and federal legislators both need to make it a priority to be involved in the welfare of veterans. The issues will never get better unless the individuals in charge of the laws, regulations, funding and departments step up to the challenges. That alone will not even be enough. These issues need to be addressed on a state level as well. Housing projects and professional training need to be made more widely available. Understanding the importance of both changes made at a state and federal level for the living conditions and health status of American veterans is the first step. The next step is that it must be acted on and improved. The United States of America owes that much to its

As of 2014, there are 22.5 million veterans in the United States. According to Veteransinc.org, between 529,000 and 840,000 veterans are homeless at some time during the year. Did you know 33% of homeless males are veterans? Aside from homelessness, 70% have substance abuse problems, 45% suffer from PTSD, and there are 22 veterans who commit suicide every day. The problems don’t end there, homelessness is just one problem for our veterans. 573,000 were unemployed in 2014. There are many causes for unemployment such as PTSD, war injuries, or lack of knowledge in the work field.

Homelessness in the United States can be ended, not just maintained. Allot of cities now have plans to eradicate homelessness. Homelessness and housing instability are large issues that afflict a diverse demographic such as: Families, youth, veterans, and chronically homeless single male adults. Ending homelessness may require specialized solutions that are specific to individual needs. Factors like these make defeating homelessness a difficult task. Although solutions exist for some of the demographics, such as housing for chronically homeless adults, scaling up best practices remains a challenge. For other subpopulations, such as transitional aged youth, evidence-based interventions need to be developed. In this paper we argue that ending homelessness is a Grand Challenge that is big, important, and compelling—one that the profession of social work should be adopt. Meeting this challenge will require a focused, organized response from social work researchers, clinicians, and policymakers. Ending homelessness will require innovation and interdisciplinary or cross-sector collaboration. Key words: Housing First, Permanent Supportive Housing, rapid re-housing, prevention, poverty. The notion that homelessness in the United States can be ended, rather than managed (Mangano, 2002; National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2012), represents a fundamental shift in expectations from the 1980s and ’90s. Since the early 2000s, researchers, policymakers, advocates,

The Veterans Health Administration is home to the United States’ largest integrated health care system consisting of 150 medical centers, nearly 1,400 community-based outpatient clinics, community living centers, Vet Centers and Domiciliary. Together these health care facilities and the more than 53,000 independent licensed health care practitioners who work within them provide comprehensive care to more than 8.3 million Veterans each year. VHA Medical Centers provide a wide range of services including traditional hospital-based services such as surgery, critical care, mental health, orthopedics, pharmacy, radiology and physical therapy. In addition, most of the medical centers offer additional medical and surgical specialty services including audiology & speech pathology, dermatology, dental, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, podiatry, prosthetics, urology, and vision

The Hampton Roads of Virginia boasts of numerous tourist attraction sites, like the Virginia Beach Oceanfront and the Military Aviation Museum. Like other areas in the US with tourist sites, however, the Hampton roads area is devastatingly plagued with homelessness. According to the Union Mission Ministries, there are approximately 1800 homeless people in the Hampton roads area alone. There is not a single panacea to solving the issue of homelessness; several multifaceted approaches can be adopted to help reduce the number of vagrants on the streets.

To achieve the goal of ending homelessness among veterans by 2015, the VA has numerous programs. These include providing healthcare, rehabilitation services, employment assistance, and transitional housing for veterans, and supportive services for the families of veterans to help them better understand and deal with conditions the veteran spouse may have. Additionally, the VA works with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide long-term housing solutions for homeless veterans (Homeless Veterans, For Homeless Veterans).

The Huntington Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) located in Huntington, West Virginia provides health care to over 54,800 Veterans annually (Smith-Dikes, 2013). The mission statement of the Huntington VAMC is “to provide excellent care and service to those who have served our nation – every Veteran, every time!” (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2016). With this statement in mind, to care for the needs of homeless Veterans in the area, the Huntington VAMC opened the Huntington VA Homeless Veterans Resource Center (HVRC) (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2016). The HVRC provides homeless Veterans and those at risk for homelessness with job assistance, counseling, housing referrals and laundry and shower facilities, as well as referral to physical and mental health appointments. The HVRC also maintains a donation room and in house emergency food pantry. In pursuit of providing quality care for homeless Veterans, the Veterans Administration (VA) has also created different programs that join together social work with primary care, mental health, and rehabilitation services to deal with complex issues faced by these Veterans (Amdur et al, 2011). In 2008, a joint program, known as Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs

Current funding for veteran healthcare care is low and insufficient because of the large number of veterans, who are being discharged from the military as the country transitions to a democratic President. According to Dr. Rachel Nardin in her article about veteran healthcare, “Soldiers get excellent acute care when injured on active duty, but as revelations of poor conditions for soldiers receiving ongoing outpatient care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center highlighted, service members often have trouble getting the care they need once active duty ends” (Nardin 1)

Veterans, like anyone else, seek services such as secure housing, nutritional meals, basic physical health care, substance abuse care and aftercare, mental health counseling, personal development and empowerment. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a huge government organization that supports the veteran population by providing services in healthcare. Each year, VA’s specialized homelessness programs provide health care to almost 150,000 homeless veterans in the USA and other services to

The veteran reported that the year prior to his referral to VHN he resided in multiple VA run inpatient treatment centers and a homeless shelter in Newark, NJ. The veteran reported that he first resided at the “Dom” (VA), where he was asked to leave after he got “drunk and told the staff off.” He then went to a homeless shelter in Newark NJ that he described as a “shit hole.” He reported having to be out from 6am-4pm and all he did was walk the streets. He was offered drugs and crack again for the first time since 1995. The veteran accepted into 12B (VA inpatient psychiatric) and was referred to SHEILDS from 12B.

Day in and day out we think of the 21st century as evolved, yet in this day and age there are a large number of homeless veterans that roam our streets and overcrowd our shelters. They suffer from mental illness, struggle with substance abuse, and reintegration into society. Most veterans believe that because they fought for our country, they are entitled. That may seem to be a myth, but it is definitely true. Many depend on the Department of Veterans Affairs to save the day; only to be disappointed by the lack of consideration for those who served our country, and the amount of hoops that have to be jumped in order to receive services. Veteran homelessness is a huge problem in America, and though the Department of Veterans Affairs has set programs into place, there are a series of factors that contribute to the problem with no solid solutions.

They bring homeless veterans in and help them fight these issues until they are stable again, but there is a point when the veterans need to move into another place, as the centers need to make room for

Veterans who use these programs can better themselves gaining insight; obtain job skills to advance employment. These programs can help the veteran homeless population and prevent veterans in becoming homeless. The VA is constantly trying to better its systems to give and offer quality care for veterans. Veterans who have served and put the life on the line should not have to worry about transition back to civilian life and the VA is trying to make sure this happens. Human services, social services, and other services can also assist homeless veterans by getting them into or guide them to a right program. The VA has changed its guidelines to help and improve what is best to for treating PSTD and substance abuse due to they both can be related but not recommended to treat them together (Bernardy, Hamblen, Friedman, Kivlahan, 2011). The VA also has individual placement and support (IPS) and transitional work experience (TWE) to help veterans to obtain a job. Individual placement and support is a prompt system for job placement (Leddy, Stefanovies & Rosenheck, 2014). Another opportunity that veterans have to help them to transition back to civilian is education assistance programs. One of the programs that is popular is the GI Bill. It pays for tuition,

In the city of Philadelphia, one of the most prominent social issues is homelessness. Homelessness simply is the state when someone does not have a physical residence and resorts to living in public either on the street, in public places, and/or in public buildings. People often become homeless after living in poverty for quite some time, another huge issue in the city of Philadelphia. Personally, I am aware that walking around the city, whether on campus or downtown, I am more likely than not going to see at least one homeless person. There has been a lot of research done on the homeless and impoverished in Philadelphia and there were some very surprising statistics that were revealed. Based on these statistics, many claims also regard the