Veterans Make Up One Quarter of US Homeless

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

must be an older crowd as i never saw a vending machine in any barracks from 1980 onward.

the had them even in the dorms of basic training..off limits..unless it was the week-end..25 cents a beer..bud..miller etc....i was shitfaced many times...

so i was right

[SteveLaura 0]

Just to clarify: Dean is not a client of mine. He's staff.

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

Just to clarify: Dean is not a client of mine. He's staff.

didn't make that connection but almaty can always self administer

[Peikko 1,575]

The majority of pan handles I see claim to be vets. I have no idea if they are or not, but that's what they claim.

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

The majority of pan handles I see claim to be vets. I have no idea if they are or not, but that's what they claim.

i've run into a few that did - and more than half were frauds.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The majority of pan handles I see claim to be vets. I have no idea if they are or not, but that's what they claim.

i've run into a few that did - and more than half were frauds.

I've seen a few that do that - hard to tell apart scammers from people in real need. Its mainly for that reason that I don't give money directly to beggars, probably only done it once or twice since I've been here. The wife and I prefer to donate to shelters and charities - we figure it does more good there than giving a guy a handful of change without knowing what it will be used for.

There are a few people around NYC who IMO at least, act up the desperateness of their circumstances, one guy in particular who hangs around mid-town wears a suit of ripped newspaper - though its just torn enough that it looks like it might have been fabricated. I don't know and that's O/T anyway - but even with his 'props' it seems to me that the guy is mentally ill. As is the guy who seems to alternate between wearing clothes and a woolen blanket tied on with a leather belt. I saw him walking around the city in a New York winter last december - talking to himself.

The mentally ill BTW are another pretty large group that make up the homeless population, due to the poor standard of mental healthcare benefits (I'll have to look up my plan - but I remember my wife saying not so long ago that her plan at her old job only covered something like 10% of mental).

[GaryC 7]

I think I remember Gary mentioning that he went through some problems after leaving the Navy - be curious to know his take on this.

I was homeless after I got out. It was because of the terrible economy of 81-82. It was also a lack of character on my part. I was a lazy bum. It didn't have anything to do with the military other than my security blanket was no longer there. But a cold winter without shelter or a regular meal changed my tune pretty quick.

If a vet is homeless because of a service related problem then the government has a duty to take care of them. That isn't negotiable. I don't care who is in office. Some are that way because of choice. I know a few vets that knew there was help available but didn't take it for their own reasons. Others just don't know of the programs they have available to them, they just dropped off of the radar screen and no one knows they need help.

[peejay 327]

Many of my clients are vets. Many have alcohol problems. At least one has blamed the army specifically for his addiction, saying that a type of 'beer vending machine' was placed in their sleeping quarters. Many have PTSD. But maybe they just lack personal responsibility.

I can see that my comment in the Austin panhandling thread irked you. I wasn't blaming the mentally ill for their own plight. Of course people in the middle of psycotic episodes are not responsible for their actions. Even people that are mentally ill and are receiving treatment sometimes make poor choices in regards to their life irrespective of the fact that they are mentally ill. Of course I do not claim to be a mental health professional or have observed hundreds or thousands of cases.

Speaking from personal experience of observing the treatment of a childhood friend that was classified 100% mentally disabled by the V.A., I had to wonder whether he or the taxpayer is served by his treatment. It's a long story, but essentially this guy gets around $2200 a month. He has enough on the ball to show up for his appointments and to take his prescribed meds. He also has enough snap to squander his $2200 V.A. stipend on all the crack, weed, cigs, booze, and whatever other dope he can get his hands on. Of course he often eventually ends up homeless. At which point he shows back up to the V.A. and checks himself in.

This has gone on for years. So...at what point can we blame his mental illness and at what point does personal responsibility kick in. If this guy is 100% mentally disabled, why deposit $2200 per month in his bank account and turn him loose to manage his own life if he is mentally incompetent? I'm not saying he doesn't have a problem, but does this situation serve him or the taxpayer? At what point does this situation enable this guy to continue with this self destructive behavior?

BTW...he made it 2 months past boot camp before being discharged in the mid 1970's for going AWOL on base. He wouldn't show up for the schools he was assigned to attend. He got a "General Discharge". A nun at a homeless shelter filed papers to get him a "Medical Discharge" years later and a 25% disability. He now gets 100% disability for less than 9 months of military service. I don't know how he lucked out on this, but he did.

Personally seeing this has made me cynical. How many guys just like him are out there in "the system"? I don't know the answer, but this ain't the answer.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I think I remember Gary mentioning that he went through some problems after leaving the Navy - be curious to know his take on this.

I was homeless after I got out. It was because of the terrible economy of 81-82. It was also a lack of character on my part. I was a lazy bum. It didn't have anything to do with the military other than my security blanket was no longer there. But a cold winter without shelter or a regular meal changed my tune pretty quick.

If a vet is homeless because of a service related problem then the government has a duty to take care of them. That isn't negotiable. I don't care who is in office. Some are that way because of choice. I know a few vets that knew there was help available but didn't take it for their own reasons. Others just don't know of the programs they have available to them, they just dropped off of the radar screen and no one knows they need help.

I knew one guy who was living in same housing block as friends of mine at uni - he wasn't doing a course but was doing odd-jobs between collecting unemployment. He'd only been out for 6 months or so but I got the impression that he hadn't given much thought to career options once his service was over.