Our Warriors Today there is an outrage in our Veteran community of how terrible the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and their lack of caring and funding for our heroes. In this paper I will give facts on how terrible this problem really is, whether it is our homeless Veterans, Veterans who die waiting for help from the VA because they cannot afford other healthcare, or the horrid waiting times in order to get any help.
Homeless veterans need more help After all the things that homeless veterans have done for this country, they need more help. Many times, veterans will be seriously injured while in service. Whether it’s a physical or mental injury, they are serious.
Veteran Homelessness On any given night, approximately 49,000 American veterans are homeless, men and women that served our country and fought for our freedom (Unique Issues). Most are suffering from traumatic brain injuries, physical disabilities, and some are over the age of 50 (Unique Issues). Veteran homelessness continues to be a persistent problem. A system in which increased funding goes to housing and providing care to veterans would drastically help these peoples if not homelessness will continue to grow because of the United States’ involvement in the Middle East.
Helping our veterans should be mandatory because of their sacrifice. Even though some people believe war veterans acquire enough from the Government, others believe they deserve more for their services. Veterans of the United States of America should not be homeless since they fought for our country with a sense of bravery and commitment. Therefore, the Department of Veterans Affairs should be reconstructed, also expanded to meet the growing need of our veterans.
I chose this topic because there seems to be a growing epidemic of homeless veterans in our country. This is very sad when you think of how those men and women voluntarily signed up to serve. There are so many Americans that live by the slogan “Land of the Free because of the Brave” yet, you have so many brave men and women eating out of garbage cans and sleeping under bridges. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans there are several factors that contributed to displacement of veterans such as shortage of affordable housing, low income, and inadequately healthcare. As well as the lack of family and social support not to mention the returning home wounded veterans suffering with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression
Introduction The exercise to establish the number of homeless people in the United States is of critical significance. Homelessness poses immense challenges to efforts aimed at controlling infectious diseases and renders the homeless at immense risk of serious mental and physical health effects. This subject is particularly becomes sensitive on considering the significant number of homeless veterans in the US. Especially in the recent past, homelessness has emerged as a costly problem.
The homeless veteran population is a concerning problem to the Veteran Affairs (VA). The population has been growing over many decades. To have a better understanding why there are so many veterans being homeless this paper will discuss many of the reasons why this is occurring. Veterans who have served in high combat can suffer from physical disabilities and mental illness that affect the normal daily tasks, but also who have not served can also suffer with the same issues. Suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PSTD), causes veterans to have a hard time transitioning back to civilian life after the military.
Homelessness amongst veterans is a very big concern in the United States for those returning from the military. According to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (2014), it was estimated that there were about 49,933 veterans out at night (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs). That is a big number for people who were out there serving our country and sacrificing themselves and putting their lives on the line. Many of them are coming to be in this position because of transition issues, substance abuse, mental health issues and housing limitations. We must be able to understand and relate to these issues that the veterans are having in order to help them overcome the homelessness and find housing and employment.
also we need to consider who is homeless. Considering the Political context, we view how the government has allocated funds for these veterans to end homelessness in 2015. First, we look at the Veteran considered for VA purpose, any person that has served in active duty. With an honorable or under honorable conditions, also Veterans with other than honorable conditions that have upgraded discharges to honorable for VA purposes. Then we look at the homeless piece is the Veteran chronically homelessness or not.
Veterans and our soldiers are coming home from war or getting out of the military and when they get home they can’t afford rent or they have a mental disease from war. Homeless veterans tend to experience homelessness longer than non-veteran homeless. This should not be happening to our soldiers. This is very undesirable for our troops to come home and becoming homeless. They fight for our freedom and our rights and we repay them by becoming homeless.
It is stated that thirty-eight percent of homeless people abuse alcohol and twenty-six percent abuse drug. Some drug addicts and alcoholics become addicts when they are homeless already. However, some become homeless because of being dependent on drugs and alcohol most of their lives. Since they are dependent on drugs and alcohol their family will give up trying to help them, leaving them homeless and without any way of getting help. There are over forty-seven thousand American veterans who are homeless and seventy percent of those veterans are suffering from some form of mental illness.
Many people around the world are homeless and majority of them are homeless veterans that served in wars like the vietnam war. The age range for veterans are usually in their 50 and 60’s and the numbers are increasing rapidly. In 2016 january ,communities in america identified 39,471 homeless veterans during the point in time. Veterans homelessness should be because and should be honored because of what they do for our country and they are heroes.
“Homeless veterans deserve a place in the American dream” an article supporting veterans and the benefits they deserve. The article is written by Maria Cuomo Cole, a firm believer in veterans rights, which helped form my opinion and my essay. They gave us their lives and we can’t give them the assistance they need? Every day we hear about veterans who are losing everything and we just turn the other way. This problem won’t fix itself, and if we don’t do anything to about this problem it will never be fixed.
In 2014 it was reported 49,933 Veterans were homeless. This is only 8.6% of the homeless population, before the use of HUD-VASH Veterans accounted for 67.4% of the homeless population, marking huge leaps forward in the efforts to end Veteran homelessness. (Fact Sheet, 2015) HUD-VASH was originally created in 1992 but did not gain support until 2007 (Driscoll). Congress added an abundant amount of funding or the program after issues with Veterans returning to a low economy aroused (Driscoll).
The issue of homelessness in America has been evident since the early 1600’s. Across the country men, women and children spend their nights on the streets not knowing when or if they will ever find a permanent home. States and federal officials or city councils have tried to alleviate or at least reduce the number of homeless over the last several decades at a city, state or national level but it continues to be an ongoing problem. There is a multitude of factors that account for the growing homeless population that affects each state in the country differently. Though there are many contributing factors that contribute to the amount of people living on the street at any given night in the U.S. An effective way to address the problem of homelessness in America is to continue creating affordable housing, maintaining assistance programs, and continue creating workforce