Help for homeless veterans

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 America. Of these, an estimated 10,000 of them are female.

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.

Ending this situation can be achieved only through the collaboration of organizations, individuals, talents and resources to get these women back on the road to recovery and permanent housing faster. That includes working together to better identify risk factors for homelessness as women transition out of uniform and into the community.

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.

Over the last few years, the nation has made some progress in addressing homeless- ness among all veterans as service men and women returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars swelled the ranks of those without homes.

The military, Veterans Affairs, health-care organizations, veterans-service groups, and nonprofit organizations have stepped up programs, access, treatment and research. Higher education institutions, such as USC, are conducting much-needed research on methods to identify people with high-risk factors for homelessness before they take off their uniform so they can be followed as they transition to the civilian world.

Still, we 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.

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.