Since 2010, when the shortcomings of the V.A.'s healthcare and medical system came to light and—after being thoroughly embarrassed in the eyes of the American public—people in the VA began to actually focus on doing their job, the combined HUD–VA initiative that resulted has helped more than 360,000 veterans and their families find permanent housing. As important, the speed with which those vets who lost their housing were resettled into new homes before they became homeless was impressive.

VA Secretary McDonald made note of this when, after taking a stick to VA workers to push them to implement the program... and watching it finally begin to produce results... he recently said "The dramatic decline in Veteran homelessness reflects the power of partnerships in solving complex national problems on behalf of those who have served our nation."

In this regard, he is right on two points: i) often in government it is the combined efforts of two separate government agencies that enables a solution to be found, and ii) to make a government-to-government partnership truly work, some high ranking person within the government must sponsor and push the partnering effort. In the case of reducing Veteran homelessness, the credit goes to First Lady Michelle Obama and her personal homelessness campaign. Specifically, her efforts led to this most recent sharp decline in Veteran homelessness.

Among her efforts, in 2014, she launched the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness. This program tasked mayors across the country to commit to wipe out Veteran homelessness in their cities. Not an easy task, the results have nevertheless been stunning. Twenty-seven communities and two states say that they have effectively ended Veteran homelessness. Ended it, no less.

It’s amazing what a little bit of focus and work will do.

From among this group the two stars are Houston and New Orleans. In 2015 these two cities managed to actually put an end to the acute and ever-present Veteran homelessness that plagued their municipality since the 1950s. In June of last year Mayor Parker explained how the city of Houston managed to end Veteran homelessness, saying that they had eliminated the issue by housing 3,650 Veterans, over the course of three years, in city arranged housing. 

New Orleans did the same—using the same approach the federal government used—by bringing together agencies that hadn’t previously worked together. The result is that now when a Veteran is found to become homeless, New Orleans has a system in place to house him and his family within 30 days.

When one considers that the problem of Veteran homelessness dates back to the end of WWII, this is a remarkable feat, especially in these modern days of broken government.

However, getting Veterans and their families off the streets and into housing, while clearly the most important factor relating to Veteran homelessness, is not the only issue that needs to be addressed when it comes to the concept of Veteran homelessness. The whole concept of Veteran homelessness is made up of many small areas of concern. Other than where the houses themselves will come from is the problem of where homeless Veterans go when they become homeless. That is, finding them is just as much a part of the problem as housing them is.

In this regard the combined HUD and VA efforts have also been successful, identifying the kinds, types and sectors that make up homeless Veterans. This ability to figure out where us Vets are hiding is central to being able to do something about the problem.

This past January (2016), an effort to identify Veterans sleeping on the streets by going out and actually talking to those people who were crawled up in rags in America's back alleys, to see if among them there were Veterans, and then appealing to those who were found to trust to the good intentions of the searchers and move into temporary quarters until housing could be found—resulted in the number of veterans sleeping on the streets dropping by 56% across the country.

That's incredible. In that one month alone over 13,000 homeless Vets were helped back under a roof, into a warm place of safety.

Yet still, while this and other programs show that the number of homeless Veterans has been steadily dropping, general homelessness (i.e. non-Veterans) has dropped only minutely, by just 11% since 2007. And of course, in some cities the problem remains acute, even seeing disconcerting spikes in both Veteran and non-Veteran homelessness. New York City, for example, has seen the number of single adults (both Veteran and non-Veteran) seeking shelter skyrocket by 95% over the past decade. 

One can conclude then that when it comes to the question of how we Vets are doing, on the issue of homelessness things are looking up. That’s good, because more than 650,000 Service members served in the Gulf War—Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm—from August 2, 1990, to July 31, 1991... and while many of these made the transition from military to civilian life safely, a sizeable few failed to climb up any higher than the first rung or two on the ladder of life. Now, after some 25+ years of trying to make it on their own, many of them no longer have the strength to hold on and are falling off the ladder completely.

What happens when after 25 years of trying to make it as a civilian a Vet finds he has nothing but failures to look back on... failed marriages, sparse employment, drug  dependencies, alcoholism, homelessness, broken relationships with children and family? Thoughts of suicide set in—that's what happens.

Since 2001 the suicide rate of U.S. Veterans rose one third, a larger rise than in the wider population of the country as a whole.

Recent studies (2014) show that about 20 Veterans a day are dying from suicide, or about 7,300 in a year. While a previous study (2013, see graphic at right) showed  22 Veterans committing suicide every day, a seemingly larger number, the trend is actually increasing and not decreasing, as the number of Veterans still alive and able to commit suicide is in itself decreasing, due to deaths from old age. So while the population of us Veterans able to commit suicide is decreasing, more and more of us are opting to take our lives.

The number of Veterans included in the suicide study covered some 55 million people, from every state. The study found that between 2001 and 2014, Veteran suicides increased by 32%, while civilian suicides increased by only 23% in the same time period. Does that say something about the stress and difficulty of being a Serviceman, and the difficulty of making the transition from Service life to civilian life?

The answer is yes. The fact is that after making allowances for controlling factors like age and gender, Veterans face a 21 percent greater risk of committing suicide than those who have not served in the armed forces.

As to which of us are more prolific when it comes to ending it all, the highest suicide rate is among younger Veterans between the ages of 18 and 29. Yet because there are fewer younger Vets than there are older ones, in terms of volume, the greater quantity of dead Vets comes from us older guys. Of all of the Veterans committing self consignment, fully 65% come from men 50 or older.

Finally, two other strange statistics came to the fore from all of the recent studies done on us Vets:

1) In terms of the impact the use of VA medical services has had on Veteran suicide rates, the suicide rate for male Veterans who used VA services was the lowest, showing only an 11% increase since 2001, compared to 35% for those who did not.

2) As for women Vets, the same holds true, with the number for female Vets who sought VA help showing only a 4.6% increase, compared to those who did not seek VA help. What is not said in this statistic though is that overall female Vets have shown an astounding 98% increase in Suicide attempts since 2001.

Consider this then: why are so many female vets opting to commit suicide… to the extent that in less than 20 years the number has shot up by 98%?

Could it be the result of the effort by many leftists, social liberals, progressives, the Democratic Party, and the Obama administration to give females more social equality and egalitarianism in the military... by putting them on the front line? We'll let you draw your own conclusion.

At any rate, in terms of our original question as to how we Vets are doing, the answer is comme ci comme ça. Notwithstanding the impressive gains that have been made in addressing homelessness among Vets, overall we’re holding our own, but not much more.

The reality is that many Service members come home and face significant challenges, key among them dealing with military induced mental health problems as well as physical inequities. Homelessness and suicide aside, on this latter point of physical afflictions, incapacitating wounds, healing deformities, and debilitating injuries, technological advances in battlefield medical care and changes in combat engagement have sharply increased the number of warriors suffering with these physical imbalances.

Why, you ask? Because advancement in trauma related medical care has reduced the death rate in war (compared to previous conflicts), which in turn has increased the number of warriors that survive their wounds. So, while helping more Servicemen stay alive is good, what is bad is that they are living with significantly more complex and difficult to manage infirmities. In other words, while it is good that they are alive—as they would have succumbed to their wounds in earlier wars—they are living a much more challenging, demanding and impossible to deal with life of impairment than ever before.

In the end then, one can say that the quality of life us Vets live these days is a mixed bag. If you will indulge us here and let us classify a Vet's quality of life based on how long he served, and what he may or may not suffer from, you will likely find the following:

– On the psychological health side, most of us Vets are living below the norm. Vets with psychological disorders need help if they are to make it through life, as the impact these problems have on their happiness and mental satisfaction is dramatic to the point of being a show stopper. It's almost impossible for a man with military related psychological problems, who struggles every day just to deal with his own internal demons, to create a life of peace and comfort for his wife and family.

– On the other hand, if a Vet doesn't suffer from PTSD or other psychological problems, then sociologically speaking it is likely that their life is no better nor worse than those of his neighbors... the ones that never served in the military.

– As to our level of independence and ability to live as we wish, for those who recently left the military after only a short stint—a typical 3 years of active duty in the form of one war and out, if you will—life is proving to be a bitch. Finding a place in society for these Vets is proving to be challenging, and making ends meet is a day to day problem. Part of the reason is that these Vets tend to fall between the ages of 21 and 28. This means that they typically goofed off for a few years after they left high school and then joined the military. With Uncle Sam taking care of everything for them they never learned the disciplines needed to live life on their own. To make matters worse, after they left the military they by and large continued with their earlier lifestyle, and spent another couple of years more goofing around and living life both as they wished and for the most part without purpose. Now that they are ready to settle down they find themselves with few skills to speak of. Sure, they learned a craft while in the military, but come on, how many jobs are their for a demolition expert? These Vets need help in finding their place in civilian society. If guidance and assistance isn't provided to these Vets, it will be from this group that the next generation of homeless will come.

– On the other hand, for those that recently left the Service and put behind them a 10,15 or even 30 year career, they are finding that their life—while stable—is no better nor worse than that of the rest of middle class America. Thirty years in the military, while providing them with financial security at a somewhat younger age than the rest of America, did not give them a leg up on society. Instead, like the rest of us, their life simply goes on.

– As for those that left long ago—more than 40 or 50 years or so (like this author)—life today is what it is. And what it is is a civilian life. Sure, we may post our medals on our wall and carry the mental pride of being a Vet in our heart… but the truth is that except for our memories, our attachment to—and in many ways understanding of—the military ended long ago. For decades now we have been little more than civilians. In our case too we are no better than our neighbor next door—and while we may feel more deeply about America than our neighbors do—we can little more understand the problems of today’s young Vets than our government can.

In the end then, as to how we Vets are doing, the answer is: average.

 

 

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This page originally posted 1 September 2016