VA & HUD Issue First-Ever Report on Homeless Veterans

Assessment Key to Preventing and Ending Homelessness

WASHINGTON – February 11, 2011 - For the first time, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development today published the most authoritative analysis of the extent and nature of homelessness among Veterans. According to HUD and VA’s assessment, nearly 76,000 Veterans were homeless on a given night in 2009 while roughly 136,000 Veterans spent at least one night in a shelter during that year.

This unprecedented assessment is based on an annual report HUD provides to Congress and explores in greater depth the demographics of Veterans who are homeless, how the number of Veterans compare to others who are homeless, and how Veterans access and use the nation’s homeless response system. HUD’s report, Veteran Homelessness: A Supplement to the 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, examines the data in the department’s annual report to Congress in-depth.

“With our federal, state and community partners working together, more Veterans are moving into safe housing,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “But we’re not done yet. Providing assistance in mental health, substance abuse treatment, education and employment goes hand-in-hand with preventive steps and permanent supportive housing. We continue to work towards our goal of finding every Veteran safe housing and access to needed services.”

Last June, President Obama announced the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness, including a focus on homeless Veterans. The report, Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, puts the country on a path to end Veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015; and to ending homelessness among children, family, and youth by 2020. Read more about the Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness in America.

Key Findings of

Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness {continued}

First-Ever Report on Homeless Veterans -

PTSD: New War on An Old Foe

Big changes underway at the VA could mean better treatment for thousands of vets. A bureaucracy in transition.

They are the invisible wounds of war, the battered minds and bruised spirits we have come to recognize as posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. By one estimate, more than 300,000 of the nearly 2 million U.S. servicemen and -women deployed since 9/11 suffer from the often-debilitating condition, with symptoms that include flashbacks and nightmares, emotional numbness, relationship problems, trouble sleeping, sudden anger, and drug and alcohol abuse. The number of cases is expected to climb as the war in Afghanistan continues, and could ultimately exceed 500,000, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University. Mental-health experts say PTSD is the primary reason suicides in the military are at an all-time high; 256 soldiers took their own lives in 2008, the highest number since that data was first tracked, in 1980.

As NEWSWEEK and others have reported, the Department of Veterans Affairs has struggled to address this mental-health crisis, and thousands of veterans have suffered as a result. Now, thanks to new leadership and a new openness to collaboration, things appear to be changing at the VA, if slowly. Veterans still often face insufferably long waits for treatment and steep bureaucratic hurdles when filing disability claims. But there is a new sense of urgency under Eric Shinseki, the retired four-star Army general appointed to head the agency by President Obama, to change the culture within the 77-year-old VA. Shinseki has made PTSD a priority, with efforts underway to address concerns from the way claims are processed to the development of new, more effective treatments. "Brain injuries and the psychological consequences of battle are not new to combat," Shinseki tells NEWSWEEK. "We know from past wars that with early diagnosis and treatment, people can get better."...>>>>Rest Found Here

The Battle after Combat:

Homeless Female Vets - FSRN Memorial Day Documentary

While it’s hard to nail down an accurate number, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that one out of every three homeless people is a veteran. More than 150,000 vets are homeless at any given time, but many more experience homelessness at some point in their lives. Female vets often find the services that are available cater to men. Today, FSRN brings you an exclusive documentary: The Battle after Combat: Homeless Female Vets, with reporters Yasmin Madadi and Tami Woronoff.

Two Important Veterans Congressional Hearings

Yesterday, 5.19.09 in the morning, at the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs there were two important hearings. In the morning there was this Gulf War Illness Research: Is Enough Being Done?

This is an issue rarely mentioned since Gulf War I, just like ours, Agent Orange, the country, government, and possible business ties to, are pushed into the dark, and silence of denial, as those who served in these theaters suffer, as do their families.

If you would like to watch and listen to you can click on this link to bring up the House Player for the archived hearing, you should be able to read the opening statements at the above site link.


Yesterday afternoon this hearing followed the one above, another very important hearing, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Care: The Crown Jewel and Best Kept Secret

As the subject title of the hearing states, The Crown Jewel and Best Kept Secret, especially coming out of the previous incompetent administration and congresses, but especially the administrations of these agencies built on political appointies who bring in their own political ideology administrations to run them, and the last decade has brought about the same that was found by us returning from Vietnam, only now we've had Two Theaters of Occupation they sent Soldiers into.

If you would like to watch and listen you can click on this link to bring up the House Player for the archived hearing, and you should be able to read the opening statements at the site link above.


While at the House Veterans Site I caught a hearing that is scheduled for today, 5.20.09, The Growing Needs of Women Veterans: Is the U.S.Department of Veterans Affairs Ready?

Their is no information, other than the subject title of the hearing, at the site. Nothing on who may be testifying nor if it will be streamed, it is a Full Committee Hearing. It takes place at 10AM this morning and isn't listed on C-Span nether. Now yesterday afternoons hearing also wasn't listed to be streamed but it was as many went over to check and it came on. If you want to see if it will be you can use this link for the Player at 10am, I'm going to check, and hopefully they will be streaming this important hearing as well!!

UpDate: The hearing today, just above, was streamed but in audio so will probably be archived in same at same link. But one of the women soldiers, now veteran, who testified has a post up at VetVoice:

The Growing Needs of Women Veterans: Is the VA Ready? by: Kayla Williams author of "Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army"

This morning, I was honored to speak on the Hill. I've touched on some of the same themes before, and will continue to push the importance of addressing the needs of women veterans. I'd love to hear your .........

VA Press Release: Opens New Website and Blog

VA Welcoming Vets Home with New Web Site, Blog

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched its new “Returning Veterans” Web site -- Returning Service Members (OEF/OIF) -- to welcome home Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts with a social, Veteran-centric Web site focusing on their needs and questions.

“VA is entering the world of Web 2.0, because that’s where this generation of Veterans is already communicating,” said Dr. Gerald M. Cross, VA’s Principal Deputy Undersecretary for Health. “We’re opening our doors to them virtually to let them know what they can expect when they step through our doors in reality.”

The Web site will feature videos, Veteran stories, and a blog where Veterans are encouraged to post feedback. The site also will restructure the traditional index-of-benefits format found on other VA pages into question-based, categorized, and easily navigated links by topic. This will allow Veterans to find benefits of interest easily and discover related benefits as they explore.

“We hope our returning Veterans find this site easy and helpful, but also engaging,” Dr. Cross said. “As the site grows, we will be linking to Veterans’ blogs and highlighting more of their own stories from their own views. We are their VA, so we are eager to provide a forum for Veterans to discuss their lives.”

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Disability claims lawsuit begins against VA

A hearing begins Wednesday, 12-17-08, in a lawsuit aimed at cutting the time that the Department of Veterans Affairs takes to process disability claims to no more than 90 days.

Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare filed the lawsuit against VA after learning the department took as long as a year to come up with disability benefits decisions, and as long as four years to rule on appeals of those decisions. The average time for an initial decision is about six months.


VA has a benefits claims backlog of more than 400,000 cases.


Read Rest Here

Vietnam Veterans of America

Veterans of Modern Warfare