Heroes yesterday, homeless today: Hundreds of thousands of American vets are now homeless

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"The VA is currently spending millions of dollars in ways which increase the likelihood that a veteran and his or her family will 8 SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1991 how the ranks of homeless veterans has grown over the last 20 years.

The report states: "The federal government estimates that between 150,000 and 250,000 veterans are homeless on any given night, and that possibly twice that many experience homelessness over the course of a year. The National Coalition believes the number is higher than that."

The report pulls no punches as it presents statistics that show how veterans have become victims of the ruling class's attacks on the living standards of American workers.

"The increase of homelessness among veterans can be traced to the same cause as homelessness in general: Veterans become homeless for the same reason that other Americans [over 3 million] become homeless they can't afford to pay their rent."

One third of all homeless men in the United States served in the armed forces. Veterans from every peacetime era and war since and including World War II are represented in the homeless population. Even a handful of World War I veterans, the report states, have been made homeless in the last tew years.

During the course of their survey the Coalition discovered that a number of veterans of the Gulf War have become homeless. The coalition received reports of homeless Gulf War veterans in Boston, West Virginia, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. One reservist's family lost their apartment while he was in Saudi Arabia and are now homeless.

The report states: "Hundreds of veterans who paraded in cities across the United States in celebration of the U.S. victory in the Persian Gulf War ended up marching right into the ranks of the homeless.

"The single largest group of homeless Joseph Ryan is a Vietnam vet who served in the U.S. Navy from 1962 to 1966.

become homeless...

veteran population, with post-Vietnam-era veterans constituting 20-40 percent.

Some of the report's facts are shocking: "It has been alleged that more Vietnam veterans have committed suicide since the war than died during the fighting. ...Even using the most conservative estimates of the homeless population, it is clear that more Vietnam veterans are homeless today than died during the entire Vietnam War."

A survey conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that 26 percent of the homeless population are veterans. Other studies indicate that approximately 10 percent of homeless veterans are homeless with their families.

The Coalition's report says that federal programs serve only a fraction of those in need, stating that the "performance of the Dept. of Veteran Affairs (VA) in assisting homeless vets has been poor."

"In fact," says the report, "many homeless veterans no longer try to use VA services because of verbal abuse, insensitivity and inflexibility on the part of VA. ...Many VA hospitals regularly release veterans who have completed residential treatment programs to the streets or shelters.

While the government is currently on a campaign to close VA hospitals, alleging that they are underutilized, thousands of vets with substance abuse problems and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are forced to wait for weeks or even months for a bed in a VA residential treatment program.

"Funding for programs specifically targeted to homeless veterans at the VA constitutes only one-tenth of one percent of the VA's total budget. Funding for job training programs for homeless veterans through the Dept. of Labor is $1.9 million annually for the entire country. The program is only able to serve approximately 5800 of the approximately 150,000 to 250,000 homeless veterans."

Furthermore: "The VA is currently spending millions of dollars in ways which increase the likelihood that a veteran and his or her family will become homeless. When veterans default on mortgages backed by the VA through the Home Loan Guaranty Program, the VA usually forecloses on the property instead of working with the veteran to restructure their payments."

Foreclosures on veterans' homes increased from 12,490 to 40,336 between 1981 and 1989.

As in the homeless population in general, minorities are over-represented in the ranks of homeless vets. A Washington, D.C., survey found that Black vets represented 86.6 percent of the local homeless vet population versus 69.7 percent of the non-vet homeless population.

The majority of these homeless veterans have lost their jobs recently and are unemployed or working only sporadically.

Complicating the situation further are the special problems of illness, stress, and substance abuse that afflict many veterans.

The Coalition's recommendations include the need for more adequate funding and more involvement by the VA in finding housing for displaced vets.

One of the recommendations the report makes is "the VA should immediately stop spending taxpayers' money to foreclose on veterans and their families who have defaulted on their mortgages. These funds could be better spent on helping veterans who are currently homeless get off the streets."

The Homeless Coalition's report correctly points to the economic situation as the main cause of homelessness in general, and cites some powerful statistics that demonstrate why millions of working people and veterans, in particular, now find themselves on the street.

Over the last 20 years, the report states, "shelter poor" households have increased by 42 percent. "Shelter poor" are those households that don't have enough money left over after paying rent for other necessities. There are nearly 27 million households one-third of all households—in this category.

The lack of affordable housing, unemployment and low-wage jobs have all contributed to pushing vets into the homeless population-the fastest growing population today in America.

The facts contained in the Coalition's report are a ringing indictment of an eco nomic system that puts profits first and people last.

America's veterans marched off to wars thinking they were fighting for "democracy;" in reality they were fighting for the right of America's capitalists to make profits.

The reward for veterans is much less than they expected or deserved. Allured by "calls to patriotism" and the promise of acquiring job skills for the labor market, thousands of men and women who served in the armed forces have been abandoned to the vicissitudes of the "free market" and the street.