WUNRN
USA MUST DO MORE TO SUPPORT HOMELESS FEMALE
MILITARY SERVICE VETERANS
DARLENE CURLEY
AND WILLIAM T. BESTER -
This snapshot of just one
woman, one family, isolated and alone, is emblematic of a persistent national
tragedy that is largely preventable and completely unacceptable.
The Department of Housing and Urban
Development's most recent “point in time” count of homeless veterans found
roughly 50,000 on the night in January that it conducted its spot survey. Based
on previous full-year estimates, we can safely conclude that there probably are
more than 100,000 homeless veterans across
For female veterans, homelessness is an
especially dire predicament. They are more likely to be divorced and single
parents, sharing this extreme hardship with the most vulnerable in our society
— young children. And the majority of VA homeless programs lack congressional
authority to provide services to spouses and children of veterans.
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How can it be in
Over the last several years, service men and
women returning from
Women vets generally have fewer job opportunities and are paid less than men. Moreover, there hasn't been a specific initiative to hire homeless vets generally, let alone women. The scarcity of affordable housing is especially problematic for women, as they are three times more likely than men to be raising children alone. And a life on the streets, which exacerbates problems of mental illness or substance abuse for anyone, also makes female veterans more likely to be vulnerable to sexual predators.
Ginger Miller is among the lucky few who
overcame the odds. She enrolled in community college on the GI Bill, worked
three jobs, eventually earned a master's degree and started Women Veterans
Interactive, a nonprofit that assists homeless and formerly homeless female
veterans in rebuilding their lives.
But we still too often see homeless female
veterans using cardboard for a bed, taking shelter under scaffolding, wearing
rags in place of the uniform they once wore with pride. As a nation, as
individuals, as organizations with specific competencies and connections, we
have a responsibility to protect the women who once protected us. We must work
together to create services and networks to prevent all our veterans, but
especially the women, from spiraling into the abyss.
As Miller put it, “We have to give homeless
female veterans and those at risk of becoming so the same respect as when they
were on active duty. They are the same people. Get to know us. Give us a seat
at the table. Help us ensure that the words ‘homeless' and ‘veteran' are no
longer found in the same sentence.”