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RANKS OF HOMELESS VETERANS GROWING: PARENTS,
CHILDREN SEEKING SERVICES -- VA official: "And in
some
places, we have waiting lists of eight to 10
people for a bed."
Isabelah Spader, 4, left, and her
brother, Ezra, 2, nap at the Covenant Shelter in New London. Their
mother is a veteran who lost her job and became homeless. (photo:
Tim Martin) |
For more about homeless veterans, use the VA
Watchdog search engine ... click here ...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessea
rch.php?q=homeless&op=and
Story here ...
http://www.theday.com/re
.aspx?re=d80f4073-0d4a-4db0-bfd5-7b92f9f56afd
Story below:
-------------------------
Ranks Of Homeless Veterans Growing
By Jennifer Grogan
Genavesse Spader depended on a paycheck from her job as an accounts
payable analyst and child support from her ex-husband to care for her
three children.
In June, her contract position with Fidelity Investments ended and, a week
later, her ex-husband was laid off from work.
“We went from two incomes to no income,” said Spader, 31.
Born in New London and a Fitch High School graduate, she moved to New
Hampshire in January to work for Fidelity.
She served in the Connecticut Army National Guard from 1995 to 2001, where
she fixed communications systems in the aircraft at the 1109th Aviation
Classification Repair Activity Depot in Groton.
Without a job, she left her apartment in New Hampshire and moved back to
Connecticut, to be near family. But there was not enough room at
relatives' homes for her and her three children so she turned to the
Covenant Shelter of New London.
“If the economy wasn't this way, I would've gotten a job in a short period
of time and it would've stopped the progression of everything else that
happened,” said Spader, who has lived in the shelter since late July with
her three children, ages 10, 4 and 2.
As the economy has worsened this
summer, local shelters and
 organizations
that assist veterans have seen an increase in the number of veterans, like
Spader, seeking their services.
Many are worried about how they will cope with the predicted influx in the
winter months, when rising home heating costs become an additional burden
on those already struggling to make ends meet.
“We're a very small operation and we have very limited funding,” said
Catherine Zall, executive director of the New LondonHomeless Hospitality
Center, which runs the overnight shelter at St. James Episcopal Church.
The 110 beds across the state used by the federal Department of Veterans
Affairs for transitional housing for homeless veterans are almost always
full.
“We have never had a May, June, July and August where we have not only
every bed that we have in the state occupied, but we have waiting lists,”
said Laurie Harkness, director of the VA's Errera Community Care Center in
West Haven. “And in some places, we have waiting lists of eight to 10
people for a bed. A bed.”
The state Department of Veterans' Affairs receives 60 to 70 applications a
month for its residential program in Rocky Hill, which includes 75 beds
for veterans with substance abuse issues and about 300 beds for veterans
who need a place to stay—a 125 percent increase in applications since
2003, said Linda Schwartz, the state's veterans' affairs commissioner.
“These folks have no other place to go,” she said. “By the number of
applications we're seeing, the need is greater and we do attribute that to
the fact that they have no money. People are living in cars, people are
sleeping on couches and that gets old.”
As the economy continues to tighten, she said, more veterans of all ages
are struggling to maintain an acceptable quality of life.
The Covenant Shelter turned away an average of more than 100 people a
month from May to July, compared with an average of about 40 a month last
summer.
The shelter has room for 14 single men, three single women and five
single-parent families.
“This is the first summer I've spent where almost every day we are full,”
Tracy Morton-Morales, case manager at the shelter for the past seven
years, said in an interview earlier this month. “The only reason I have
anything open today is I had a family relocate and two men moved out. I
guarantee by tomorrow, it'll be full again.”
She said later that the shelter was in fact full the next day.
Spader is looking for customer service or clerical work so she can leave
the shelter soon.
“It's easy to bounce back when you have one thing go wrong. It's like 'OK,
I still have transportation, I still have shelter, I just need to find a
job,' ” said Spader, who has never lived in a shelter until now. “But then
when you lose your job and then you lose shelter and then you lose
transportation, it's very, very difficult. It's a cycle — you can't get a
job if you can't get there, but you can't get a car if you don't have a
job.”
Veterans more vulnerable
Service members returning from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan are more
vulnerable to the economic downturn, according to Jim Tackett, director of
veterans' services for the state Department of Mental Health and Addition
Services, because many of them are experiencing psychological problems,
primarily depression, anxiety, anger, irritability, substance abuse and
trouble sleeping.
“It's much more difficult for individuals grappling with emotional
programs to compete successfully in the economic arena,” Tackett said.
“It's harder for them to focus on issues of livelihood when they are
depressed, they can't sleep or they're drinking too much.”
The problem can be exacerbated by some employers, who are reluctant to
hire returning service members because they hear about these issues
readjusting to civilian life, Tackett said. Of the 1.64 million service
members who have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, about
300,000 are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or major
depression, according to The RAND Corp.
And National Guard and Reserve combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are
more likely to develop drinking problems than active-duty soldiers,
possibly because of inadequate preparation for the stress of combat and
reduced access to support services at home, according to a study published
this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, some who are living in their
cars or on friends' couches, have started going to the VA's community
center for help finding an apartment or a job, or to deal with substance
abuse and mental illness issues, Harkness said.
Zall expects that some of these veterans will eventually come to shelters
like hers.
It may take years for this to happen, she said, since people will
“struggle desperately to avoid becoming homeless,” by emptying their
savings accounts and staying with friends and relatives before going to a
shelter.
“Everywhere across the country, people are dealing with veterans in crisis
and we have to assume that this is going to eventually impact us here,”
Zall said of the hospitality center.
The New London City Council recently mandated that homeless people must
pass a Breathalyzer test to stay at the overnight shelter.
Almost 13 percent of more than 800 people who stayed there in the past 18
months are veterans.
“We were a resource to veterans struggling with addiction because they
could utilize our shelter while they were dealing with this,” Zall said.
“Post implementation of the City Council's requirements, we will be
required to bar them.”
Zall said she does not know where these veterans will go especially in the
winter months, given the limited temporary transitional housing in the
state.
Members of American Legion Post 15 are hoping to build 18 apartments at
their South Main Street hall in Jewett City, with homeless veterans given
preference for the housing. The apartments will be permanent supportive
housing, which is rental housing with support services to help prevent
people from returning to homelessness.
“It's disgraceful that people who served their country come home to live
on the streets,” said post member Ed Burke.
The post applied to the state and federal government to fund the project,
which is estimated at about $5 million, Burke said. If the funding is
approved in the fall, construction could start in 2009 and the facility
could open as early as the spring of 2010.
“It'll probably be filled the day it opens,” Harkness said.
Few job opportunities
The average length of time a person stays homeless is less than six
months, Harkness said.
“My fear is that's going to grow, with the economy this way,” she said.
“Right now, there are not a whole lot of good employment opportunities out
there.”
Spader interviewed for an accounting position in Mystic, but many other
companies have not responded to her resumes.
Still, she remains hopeful that her stay in the shelter will be short.
“I'm not just going to be on a downhill spiral until life ends,” she said,
laughing. “I feel that everything happens for a reason. I always had a
caring heart and I wanted to help people but sometimes I would look at
them and say, 'Why don't they just get a job?' But now I understand that
sometimes you can't just get a job.”
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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