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HOMELESSNESS A PROBLEM FOR WOMEN VETERANS -- "The
great struggle is you have this burgeoning trend
of female homeless
veterans in a traditionally male homeless
provider network."
For more about homeless women veterans, use the
VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=homeless+women&op=and
Story here...
http://news.medill.northw
estern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=94017
Story below:
-------------------------
Homelessness a problem for women veterans
by Melissa Schmitt
WASHINGTON -- When Debra Filter enlisted in the Army in 1978 as a
22-year-old high school graduate, she saw it as a way to escape childhood
abuse, get an education, and see the world.
She didn't get what she signed up for.
On the night of her graduation from basic training, Filter said several
fellow soldiers raped her. The next day, her drill sergeant told her, in
front of the rest of her platoon, that she ought to be ashamed of herself.
It was like pouring salt on an open wound--Filter had suffered years of
sexual and physical abuse during her childhood. Distraught, she said she
did not report the rape; she went AWOL for two days.
She was discharged from the Army shortly thereafter with an honorable
discharge, according to her military records.
"I joined the military to escape abuse in civilian life," said Filter, 49.
"But I found it again in the military."
Filter bounced around over the next two decades,
plagued with nightmares, panic attacks and bouts of depression. Unable to
hold down a job, she ended up homeless, living between women's shelters
and her cousin's couch before finding out about U.S. Vets, a temporary
housing and employment assistance center in Las Vegas, NV.
She is one of roughly 7,000 homeless female veterans living in the United
States today, according to Department of Veterans Affairs statistics--a
number that VA officials expects to rise as more women return home from
Iraq and Afghanistan, where women are on the front lines as never before
in our nation's history.
Combat-related stress is a risk factor for homelessness, according to
Peter Dougherty, who is the director of homeless veterans programs at the
Department of Veterans Affairs.
"We're finding among younger women, that they play a much more
mission-critical role…in today's military, women are much more likely to
be at or near the front of a military operation," he said.
Sexual trauma, whether experienced in the military or in civilian life, is
another risk factor for homelessness, according to Dougherty.
This complicates matters for those who provide services to homeless
veterans. About 75 percent of female veterans report being victims of
sexual abuse, suffered either in the military or in civilian life.
In an ideal situation, women veterans would be housed separately from men
and receive separate counseling and other services.
"The great struggle is you have this burgeoning trend of female homeless
veterans in a traditionally male homeless provider network," said Scott
Rose, director of Way Station Inc., a Frederick, MD-based homeless shelter
that serves women veterans. He said that women veterans represent 11
percent of the newly homeless in the veteran population.
 "Many
of these women are suffering from trauma--the last thing they need is to
be in a male environment."
And it's difficult for providers to develop specialized programs for women
veterans, as most providers are strapped for resources already.
According to Dougherty, out of 500 Veterans' Affairs-run homeless
shelters, 300 can accept women, and none can accept women who also have
children. Only 15 have programs that address women veterans specifically,
or have separate living arrangements from men.
Debra Filter tried for years to get into post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) peer support group for women-only through the Veterans Affairs
mental health center in Las Vegas, in addition to the counseling she
receives about once a month.
Frustrated, she decided to fill the gap by starting her own group in
October 2006 with other female veterans living at U.S. Vets.
Called “United Women Warriors,” the group meets once a week. All are women
veterans who are homeless, and many say they suffered sexual abuse while
serving in the military or in civilian life, eventually leading to a
diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder. Many attempted to relieve
their anguish with drugs or alcohol.
"They're getting flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks and they have no
one to look at and say, 'Is this normal,'" said Filter. "They have a
therapist [at the VA] they see once a month."
Cynthia Scott, a former Army photographer who retired from the military in
1986, was one of the group's founding members. Scott was part of military
history--she was a member of one of the first female platoons to be part
of a male company when she did basic training at Fort Jackson, South
Carolina, in 1977.
"For the most part it was great, she said. "You had your bad moments. It
was still one percent of women and a large percentage of men. You were
told, 'you can't do this, you cant do that,' or 'Women can't go to combat
because they'd be afraid.'"
Scott's voice takes on a determined, focused tone.
"Give me a weapon," she said. "I'd be glad to shoot--you not only have to
worry about your enemy, you have to worry about your back."
The "back" Scott referred to was her fellow soldiers. Several years into
her military career, she was a victim of military sexual trauma while
stationed at Fort Ord, in California.
Scott reported the rape, but said the Army never found the perpetrator.
She then deployed to Germany, where a short-lived support group led by an
Army doctor temporarily helped. Then that doctor left and the group
disbanded.
"Nobody else wanted [the support group.] He did that on his own
initiative," she said. "It helped, and then it dropped. I knew exactly
where to go-- the local bar."
Scott said she was drinking up to a gallon of vodka every three days, was
out of work and was close to ending up on the street in when she heard
about U.S. Vets.
"Looking back, she said, "I had PTSD, but didn’t understand what was going
on."
Now, through United Women Warriors, she hopes to get the word out to other
homeless women veterans about the resources available to them through the
VA and other non-profits.
"There are women that need to go [to counseling], and some women want to
go to PTSD treatment and are refused," she said. "It's confusing - if you
don’t know something, you're not going to find out about it. That's one of
the things we hope we can do here. Besides housing, there is medical and
psychiatric treatment available."
"We are constantly trying to let women vets know we are here for them in
every way," said Peter Dougherty at Veterans Affairs.
He pointed out that while the numbers are too small for a targeted
outreach campaign directed at women veterans to "make much sense," there
are homeless coordinators at all veterans affairs centers that should help
direct women veterans to available resources.
And Dougherty said his department has set aside special grants for
shelters outside the VA system to develop special housing and programs for
homeless women veterans.
Rose recently applied for one of those new grants to build a transitional
housing center in Maryland that would have space set aside specifically
for women veterans and even their children. The new housing would also
offer comprehensive PTSD and military sexual trauma treatment, in addition
to employment counseling.
Rose said he believes the VA is trying their best to meet female veterans'
needs.
"I've found them to be committed. There's no lack of expertise, no lack of
faith, no waste [at the VA]," he said. "They just need more resources."
Meanwhile, Filter isn't waiting for new services for female veterans to
arrive in Las Vegas. She's doing it herself.
In addition to the weekly support groups that Filter runs for homeless
women veterans, she is trying to do community outreach.
Filter said United Women Warriors recently attended a veteran's event. She
introduced herself and her group to another veterans organization, and the
person there asked if she could send referrals Filter's way.
And soon, she started getting phone calls from other homeless women
veterans, looking for help.
For Filter, it was a big moment - they were no longer a group of homeless
female veterans, meeting once a week to help each other through their
shared troubles.
They were an organization.
"We want to make sure female vets are getting what they need, that they
aren’t slipping through the system," said Filter.
Even so, Filter still wonders sometimes if she has a right to try and
help.
"I'm embarrassed about my experience in the military," she said. "I wonder
sometimes, if I have a right to be doing all this, or to call myself a
veteran, but people tell me that [length of service] doesn't matter."
"What matters is what I'm doing now."
"If [homeless] men aren’t getting what they need," she asks, "what do you
think is happening to women?"
Military Sexual Trauma: A risk factor for
homelessness
* 23 out of 100 women who use the VA health system reported experiencing
sexual assault in the military
* Sexual assault is a risk factor for developing
PTSD--another risk factor for homelessness
Homeless Women Veterans: At a Glance
* Approximately 7,000 women veterans are homeless
* Numbers are expected to increase as more women return from Iraq and
Afghanistan
* Women veterans are four times as likely to go homeless than their
civilian counterparts
* 75 % report experiencing sexual abuse, in the military or in civilian
life
* Half suffer from substance or alcohol dependence
* One third have mental illness
* Of 500 VA veterans shelters, 300 say they accept women
* 15 VA shelters have women-only programs
* None can accept women and their children
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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