posted February 08, 2005 12:20 PM            

While the numbers are still small, they're steadily rising, and raising alarms in both the homeless and veterans' communities. The concern is that these returning veterans - some of whom can't find jobs after leaving the military, others of whom are still struggling psychologically with the war - may be just the beginning of an influx of new veterans in need. Currently, there are 150,000 troops in Iraq and 16,000 in Afghanistan. More than 130,000 have already served and returned home.

So far, dozens of them, like Herold Noel, a married father of three, have found themselves sleeping on the streets, on friends' couches, or in their cars within weeks of returning home. Two years ago, Black Veterans for Social Justice (BVSJ) in the borough of Brooklyn, saw only a handful of recent returnees. Now the group is aiding more than 100 Iraq veterans, 30 of whom are homeless.

"It's horrible to put your life on the line and then come back home to nothing, that's what I came home to: nothing. I didn't know where to go or where to turn," says Mr. Noel. "I thought I was alone, but I found out there are a whole lot of other soldiers in the same situation. Now I want people to know what's really going on."

After the Vietnam War, tens of thousands of veterans came home to a hostile culture that offered little gratitude and inadequate services, particularly to deal with the stresses of war. As a result, tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans still struggle with homelessness and drug addiction.

Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are coming home to a very different America. While the Iraq war remains controversial, there is almost unanimous support for the soldiers overseas. And in the years since Vietnam, more than 250 nonprofit veterans' service organizations have sprouted up, many of them created by people like Peter Cameron, a Vietnam veteran who is determined that what happened to his fellow soldiers will not happen again.

But he and dozens of other veterans' service providers are concerned by the increasing numbers of new veterans ending up on streets and in shelters.

Part of the reason for these new veterans' struggles is that housing costs have skyrocketed at the same time real wages have remained relatively stable, often putting rental prices out of reach. And for many, there is a gap of months, sometimes years, between when military benefits end and veterans benefits begin.

"We are very much committed to helping veterans coming back from this war," says Mr. Cameron, executive director of Vietnam Veterans of California. "But the [Department of Veterans Affairs] already has needs it can't meet and there's a lot of fear out there that programs are going to be cut even further."

Beyond the yellow ribbons

Both the Veterans Administration and private veterans service organizations are already stretched, providing services for veterans of previous conflicts. For instance, while an estimated 500,000 veterans were homeless at some time during 2004, the VA had the resources to tend to only 100,000 of them.

"You can have all of the yellow ribbons on cars that say 'Support Our Troops' that you want, but it's when they take off the uniform and transition back to civilian life that they need support the most," says Linda Boone, executive director of The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

After the Vietnam conflict, it was nine to 12 years before veterans began showing up at homeless shelters in large numbers. In part, that's because the trauma they experienced during combat took time to surface, according to one Vietnam veteran who's now a service provider. Doctors refer to the phenomenon as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that 15 to 17 percent of Iraq vets meet "the screening criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety, or PTSD." Of those, only 23 to 40 percent are seeking help - in part because so many others fear the stigma of having a mental disorder.

Many veterans' service providers say they're surprised to see so many Iraq veterans needing help so soon.

"This kind of inner city, urban guerrilla warfare that these veterans are facing probably accelerates mental-health problems," says Yogin Ricardo Singh, director of the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program at BVSJ. "And then there's the soldier's mentality: Asking for help is like saying, 'I've failed a mission.' It's very hard for them to do."

Beyond PTSD and high housing costs, many veterans also face an income void, as they search for new jobs or wait for their veterans benefits to kick in.

When Mr. Noel was discharged in December of 2003, he and his family had been living in base housing in Georgia. Since they were no longer eligible to live there, they began the search for a new home. But Noel had trouble landing a job and the family moved to New York, hoping for help from a family member. Eventually, they split up: Noel's wife and infant child moved in with his sister-in-law, and his twins were sent to relatives in Florida. Noel slept in his car, on the streets, and on friend's couches.

Last spring he was diagnosed with PTSD, and though he's currently in treatment, his disability claim is still being processed. Unable to keep a job so far, he's had no steady income, although an anonymous donor provided money for him to take an apartment last week. He expects his family to join him soon.

'Nobody understood ... the way I was'

Nicole Goodwin is another vet diagnosed with PTSD who has yet to receive disability benefits. Unable to stay with her mother, she soon found herself walking the streets of New York, with a backpack full of her belongings and her 1-year-old daughter held close.

"When I first got back I just wanted to jump into a job and forget about Iraq, but the culture shock from the military to the civilian world hit me," she says. "I was depressed for months. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat. The worst thing wasn't the war, it was coming back, because nobody understood why I was the way I was."

Ms. Goodwin was determined not to sleep on the streets, and so eventually went into the New York City shelter system where, after being shuffled from shelter to shelter, she was told she was ineligible for help. But media attention changed that, and she was able to obtain a rent voucher. With others' generosity, she also found a job. She's now attending college and working with other veterans who are determined to go to Washington with their stories.

"When soldiers get back, they should still be considered military until they can get on their feet," she says. "It's a month-to-month process, trying to actually function again. It's not easy, it takes time."

02-08-05 06:35 EST

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Gee, it must be nice not to fight in the war(s)!

And then the adminstration wonders why the military recruitments have been down lately!

Who wants to risk they're lives for a false war, just to come back home afterwards to find nothing there for them anymore, anyway?!

posted February 08, 2005 02:12 PM            

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Why would it matter?

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Having followed the sorry trail of the homeless industry with their grossly inflated numbers, misuse of funds, both public and private and having come to the conclusion those organizations are more political in nature than charitable, it matters to me.

Charities and so called charitable organizations number as the grains of sand on the beach. Most siphon off most of the funds intended to help those headlined in the charity name.

The more high profile the name...usually, the less delivered to the needy and the more political the organization. Children's Defense Fund comes readily to mind where Donna Shalala flew all over the country to deliver political speeches, staying at the most expensive hotels, generally making a mockery of the charity by siphoning off money intended for the children. Hillary had her fine hand in that charity too.

It matters to me.....that the money, either private or public actually goes for the intended purpose or to the intended recipient....unless the real intended recipient is the organizer(s) of the charity.

So, I ask again, what is the source of that article. It's a simple request.

posted February 08, 2005 02:19 PM            

I really don't know why you would ask that question JW, what if I decide not to tell you, what kind of expenditures would you derive from if you have nothing expound your kauri-like agnostic detest over the writer or the publisher of the story that I've posted?! What if I told you that I've gotten the story from The Christian Science Monitor, would you believe me? Or would you state the notion that the writer(Alexandra Marks, not Marx) must be a socailist "black sheep" novalist, contrast amongst her other colleagues?!

posted February 08, 2005 02:28 PM            

Surely ozone, you haven't already forgotten the source? I can't imagine a single reason you would prefer to not identify the author and source of your own article.

posted February 08, 2005 02:53 PM            

If you look back at the last post, I think that I've already stated where I've receive the artical that I've started this thread with. Unfortunatly I can't hook up a link to forward you from this site over to AOL, AOL doesn't let anyone do that for some reason! "Ya just gonna hafta find that yaself", but that's OK, it's a direct opposite to LL anyway, a place which is ran by Liberals, but is dominated by Conservatives, I'm sure that you'll feel at home there!

Gee, I guess I've lost rank in this site since I've been gone, I've went from having a Capital to my name to having no "caps" anymore!

posted February 08, 2005 03:03 PM            

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What if I told you that I've gotten the story from The Christian Science Monitor, would you believe me?

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What if I told you the cow jumped over the moon?

ACS Ripoff: Follow the $Money$
AlkalizeForHealth

See also the Cancer Prevention Coalition's call for a boycott of the American Cancer Society.

The American Cancer Society must be the most corrupt "charity" in America. The vast majority of donations go to lavish salaries, expenses, investments, retirement plans, PR campaigns, political lobbying etc. As far as I know, all the money they put into research (about 25%) goes to man-made, patentable, money making treatments that board members often have a vested interest in. People think that they are giving money to help cancer victims when, according to Dr. Samuel Epstein (see "The Politics of Cancer Revisited"), only about 16% (see the #3 story in "Project Censored" 2000 edition)of donations go directly to patient care. What a disgrace, profiting from cancer patients.
Please visit my nonprofit website;
Exposing the Cancer Indu$try.
Thanks. Gavin Phillips. http://www.geocities.com/freee80/

CHARITABLE TAKING THE ARIZONA DIVISION OF THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY EATS UP 95 PERCENT OF ITS BUDGET WITH SALARIES AND OVERHEAD. CANCER VICTIMS GET THE LEFTOVER CRUMBS.
John Dougherty
1.26.95
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/1995-01-26/news3.html

Jerry Brock slowly leans over and to his right, stretching slightly to reach the candy jar stashed behind his office desk.

Very deliberately, he opens the wrapper to a piece of hard candy, and precisely places the morsel in his mouth. The ritual gives him a moment to contemplate disturbing information.

"It's amazing. I'm shocked," Brock says in the restrained and measured voice of a successful businessman, someone who attained financial security one hour at a time over 30 years, with a "pay as you go" philosophy.

A self-educated man who made a fortune in the automobile-salvage business, Brock decided a few years ago that he wanted to make a significant financial contribution to a worthwhile cause. "I don't know why. But it was something in here," he says, gesturing toward his heart. As fate would have it, a friend asked him to join the East Valley board of directors of the American Cancer Society.

His experience on the board led him to believe the society was a model charity, one that devoted a vast amount of its resources to battling a dreaded disease and to helping those afflicted with it. More important, this good work appeared to be accomplished efficiently, with just 15 percent of donors' funds allocated to management, fund raising and overhead.

Before long, Brock and his wife, Shirley, began considering donating $100,000 to the society--a contribution that would put them at the pinnacle of philanthropists in the state. At first, their donations were much smaller, but still in the thousands. In thanks, the society gave the Brocks a set of kachinas, which sit on a credenza behind his desk. Finally, in 1994, the Brocks decided to go for broke. They pledged an additional $91,000 to the Arizona division of the American Cancer Society to finance a cancer telephone hot line for three years. The society awarded the designation "Lifetime Excalibur" to the Brocks. It is the society's highest donor honor.

The magnitude of the Brocks' donation is matched in Arizona only by contributions from syndicated writer Erma Bombeck's Family Partnership and from a foundation created by real estate magnate Harold Grossman. The donation was not something Brock took lightly. Even so, he did no research into how the society's Arizona division actually spends its money, other than reading the division's scanty, one-page annual report.

"I guess you could call it blind faith," Brock says of his trust in the society.

That faith has been rocked by a scathing report on the Arizona division prepared by two economists whom the American Cancer Society has labeled, without providing any proof, tobacco-company propagandists.

But the numbers used by George Mason University's James Bennett and Loyola University's Thomas DiLorenzo have nothing to do with tobacco. They speak for themselves. They come right out of the Arizona division's audited financial statements--statements reviewed by New Times--and paint an astounding picture.

Contrary to its popular image as a bootstrap operation scraping by only with the help of volunteers, the American Cancer Society's Arizona division is more than well-off. It has some $4.6 million in cash and securities on hand.

It is a large organization, with 75 full-time and part-time employees. It spends nearly 22 times as much on salaries and overhead as it does on delivering direct services to Arizonans.......
http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/LACSripoff.htm

posted February 08, 2005 03:14 PM              

quote:

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Having followed the sorry trail of the homeless industry with their grossly inflated numbers, misuse of funds, both public and private and having come to the conclusion those organizations are more political in nature than charitable, it matters to me.

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I agree 100%. I also live in a city where a simple walk down the street confirms the existence of the homeless. Are you denying they exist? What difference does an inflated number make in the end? Donna Shalala and her miserable kind will answer for their sins. In the meantime, homeless veterens, just home from fighting this war you so believe in, will still exist.

What are we talking about here? Unprincipled and greedy so-called "charities"? Or men and woman used up and tossed away by Uncle Sam?

posted February 08, 2005 03:29 PM            

I do not believe we're talking about men and women used up and tossed away by Uncle Sam.

posted February 08, 2005 03:39 PM            

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What if I told you the cow jumped over the moon?

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Then I say JW that we're going to need to cut the funding of the NASA program(s), for milking the system way too long now and put that money(s) into the person(s) that are living under the poor conditions of housing and livlihood of the American societies of this country abround and on planet Earth! Sheesh, it's not like as if any of us are going to move to the @$$ end of Mars anyway, anytime soon that is!

posted February 08, 2005 04:07 PM            

Before it closed it's doors pretty much to in-patient care and became strictly out-patient, the facilities themselves was rather poor and I've notice that also that even the nursing staff was rather abusive towards the older Veterans! Under what I have witnessed, I've come to believe that is another reason why alot of Veterans refused to either recieve the care or has been denied the care for past experience of broken correlations between the civilian nursing staff, the foreign Medical Phds and the American solders of the past foreign wars and has exceeded to the point of total distrust for eachother! In spite of the fact that the solders that are in desparate need of care by such, only live under the shadow of fear over the staunchest of rules that are set for them, but exempt from the ones that moderate these so-called systems!

posted February 08, 2005 04:11 PM            

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Well then I must be mistaken because I thought the article was about homeless veterens.

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quote:

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Taking care of the homeless, the children, the veterans et al. are worthy causes

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posted February 08, 2005 04:39 PM            

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Unfortunatly I can't hook up a link to forward you from this site over to AOL, AOL doesn't let anyone do that for some reason!

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Unfortunately, Ozonefiller is correct.

Search for:
cdn.news.aol.com/aolnews_photos/0f/06/20050208071109990009 or just cdn.news.aol.com

quote:

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Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.
AOLserver/4.0.9a on http://wspart.websys.aol.com

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posted February 08, 2005 04:41 PM              

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What we're talking about here...or at least what I'm talking about is unscrupulous charity organizers lining up at the trough to get their fix of funding to spend on themselves

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Well then I must be mistaken because I thought the article was about homeless veterens.

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My point is, Mr Jwhop, that I thought the suject at hand was homeless veterens. But once again, you have diverted attention away from Ozone's topic to something unrelated, which in turn is really just a disguised means of criticizing those Democrats again. This a frustrating, albeit somewhat endearing, way to abstain from aknowledging the real problem.

You just have a net full of red herrings, dontcha?

posted February 08, 2005 05:32 PM            

Did I say anything about democrat charity organizers?

Red, blue, green...name your favorite color

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You just have a net full of red herrings, dontcha?

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Those postcards are mostly photos of the Bay Pines Veterans Hospital going back to the 40's. Nice beach behind the hospital too.

You can't go in the men's restrooms TINK

posted February 08, 2005 05:48 PM              

(jwhop wants the "source" lol)

hahahhahahahaaaa

hahahah

oh my side hurts now