Number of Homeless Vets Called a 'Disgrace'
May 18, 2006 — -- You may see them sleeping in doorways, under bridges or on park benches as you hurry to the office each day. They are the homeless, but what you probably don't realize is that many of them are veterans.
One of every three homeless males in the United States is a veteran, and each night as many as 200,000 men and women veterans go to sleep with no place to call home, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
With Memorial Day approaching, Democratic members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee held a forum on homeless veterans.
Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chaired the forum, was blunt. "It's a disgrace that we let any of our vets get in this position. If we spend a billion dollars every 2½ days in Iraq, we can spend a lot more for those whohave served us but will be out on the streets tonight."
Filner said that when homeless providers say that government money only serves one in 10 of those in need, clearly more needs to be done.
According to recent statistics, the VA provided health care services to more than 100,000 homeless veterans in 2004, and the agency spent more than $1 billion to assist tens of thousands of homeless and at-risk veterans.
But Peter Dougherty, the VA's director of Homeless Veterans Programs, admitted more needs to be done. "As long as there is a homeless veteran out there on the streets of America who is seeking services we need to be there to provide those services, " he said.
Getting Her Life Back
One of the success stories, 45-year old Denise Randolph, of Thorndale, Pa., shared her experience with homelessness.
Randolph entered the Army at the age of 17, just out of high school. She said she was sexually assaulted early in her military career and other assaults followed. She turned to drugs and alcohol to suppress her feelings. Twelve years later, after failing to get sober at alcohol rehab, she was discharged.
After leaving the Army, she was still a substance abuser. She tried living with her mother, but that didn't work out and she found herself homeless.
She sought treatment in a VA program, but the unit was all male and so were her doctor and therapist. By this point in her life, she said she had an overwhelming mistrust of men, and she returned to drinking.
In 2004 Randolph sought treatment at the VA again and was eventually admitted to a program in Pennsylvania run by the Mary E. Walker House, located on the grounds of the Coatesville VA Medical Center, which is dedicated to helping troubled women veterans re-establish their lives.
Today Randolph is the mother of four children and works as a chef. During her testimony, as she was recounting the story of her long road back to a productive life, tears came to her eyes. After pausing, she said, "I'm happy. That's why I'm crying."