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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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August 7th,
2007 - Shelters Take Many Vets of Iraq, Afghan Wars |
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Shelters Take Many
Vets of Iraq, Afghan Wars Also housing those from earlier eras By Anna Badkhen Boston Globe August 7, 2007 Northampton - After Kevin
returned from Iraq, he spent most nights lying awake in his Army barracks in
Hawaii, clutching a 9mm handgun under his pillow, bracing for an attack that
never came. His fits of sleep brought
nightmares of the wounded and dying troops whom Kevin, a combat medic, had
treated over 16 months of suicide attacks and roadside bombings. He kept
thinking about an attack that killed 13 of his comrades. He hated himself for
having survived. Soon he was drinking so
heavily that the Army discharged him. He moved back in with his parents in
Narragansett, R.I., and drank even more, until they asked him to leave. Less
than two years after he returned, Kevin became one of a growing number of
veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who are now homeless. "I lived in my car, at
the Wal-Mart parking lot," said Kevin, who asked that his last name not
be published because he is considering reenlisting. He has been staying at a
homeless shelter in Northampton since early July. Kevin's tailspin
encapsulates a little-researched consequence of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. As more troops return from deployments, social workers and
advocates expect the number of the homeless to increase, flooding the
nation's veterans' shelters, which are already overwhelmed by homeless
veterans from other wars. "It's a major problem
that's not going away anytime soon," said Cheryl Beversdorf, director of
the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans in Washington, who estimates
that hundreds, perhaps thousands of troops who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan
are living in shelters.Kevin's story illustrates the lagging response of
overburdened government agencies to the needs of troops returning from wars,
said Jack Downing, who runs the shelter where Kevin and four other veterans
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are staying. "The general public
believes that when a vet comes home, he's well taken care of," Downing
said. "That's a horrible misunderstanding." No one keeps track of how
many of the 750,000 troops who have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan
since 2001 are homeless. Peter Dougherty, director of homeless programs for
the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, said 300 veterans of these
conflicts have asked the agency for help finding shelter in the last 30
months. Beversdorf's agency has helped 1,200 homeless veterans of the current
wars. This reflects only a
fraction of the total number of homeless Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, said
Amy Fairweather, who works with Iraq war veterans at Swords to Plowshares, a
private organization based in San Francisco that assists veterans. Last year,
her agency's five shelters in California helped 250 such veterans, she said. She said it is impossible to
know how many veterans have not asked for help and are "crashing on
their friends' couch, in a car, in a park ... [or are] people who live in a
church." Social workers say combat
trauma is responsible for the plunge into homelessness for many veterans
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Unable to cope, veterans turn to alcohol
and drugs, lose their jobs and the support of their family and friends, and
end up on the streets, said Larry Fitzmaurice, whose homeless shelter in
Boston is currently providing beds to seven veterans of the Iraq war. Mental problems "really
interfere with the ability to maintain a stable relationship, to maintain a
secure employment," Fairweather said. Army studies have found that
up to 30 percent of soldiers coming home from Iraq suffer from depression,
anxiety, or posttraumatic stress disorder. Dougherty and other
specialists who work with homeless veterans say the pattern of homelessness
has changed. The approximately 70,000 veterans of the war in Vietnam who
became homeless usually spent between five and 10 years trying to readjust to
civilian life before winding up in the streets, he said. Veterans of today's
wars who become homeless end up with no place to live within 18 months after
they return from war, according to Dougherty. Dougherty said the
Department of Veterans Affairs is supposed to recognize and address combat
trauma and help the new generation of veterans readjust in civilian life. But
he acknowledged that many veterans "become homeless because there is not
a support system." "There are more
services available to veterans returning today, but I still don't think
there's enough," said Allison Alaimo, who works at the shelter for
homeless veterans operated by Massachusetts Veterans Inc. in Worcester.
Alaimo said her shelter has hosted a few veterans of the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan since 2001. Joe, who also stays at the
Northampton shelter, sustained a traumatic brain injury during the invasion
of Iraq in 2003, when he manned a 155mm howitzer for the Third Infantry
Division. "My first time killing
somebody was very devastating," he recalled, saying that he fired at a
minivan carrying a family of 12 unarmed civilians. "Just one woman
survived." Joe said he spent his first
year back drinking, abusing drugs, and going AWOL from his military base at
Fort Stewart, Ga. He said he was trying to shut off the horrible fits of
screaming and violence brought on by his brain injury and his memories of the
most disturbing moments of his war. "Two months after I'm
back from Iraq I'm shooting heroin," said Joe, staring into space at the
shelter, where he has been staying for three months. Since he was discharged
from the Army in 2004, he has been living in shelters and abandoned houses
and staying with relatives and friends. He stole and dealt drugs to support
his habit. He asked that his full name not be used because he has a criminal
record. Kevin said that at least two
of his friends have become homeless since his deployment with the 25th
Infantry Division ended in 2005. One stayed in Hawaii, "because you've
got beaches you can sleep on," Kevin said. The other, he said, moved to
the Salt Lake City area, "because out there, if you're homeless, you get
meals, you get money" from Mormon charities. As the wars continue, the
number of homeless veterans is "going to radically swell," Downing
said. Downing and others who work with homeless veterans said the government
is not prepared to assist those troops; a recent report by the Government
Accountability Office said there are some 200,000 homeless veterans and only
15,000 beds for them at shelters. At least 9,600 more beds are needed, the
report said. No government agency provides permanent housing for homeless
veterans, said Beversdorf. "We're just the
fallout, you know?" Joe said in the garden of the shelter. Under the
trees, several homeless Vietnam War veterans stood in the shade, smoking in
silence. "We fall through the cracks." External link: http://tinyurl.com/2p8tzk |