America’s homeless veterans need more assistance

THE ISSUE A new study has found that veterans comprise one-fourth of the homeless but only 11 percent of the nation's population.

AMERICA should brace itself for surging numbers of veterans who find themselves homeless as warriors return from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new study. The federal government and individual states will need to prepare for increased assistance to veterans who find themselves homeless.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness reported this week that veterans make up one in four homeless people although they comprise only 11 percent of the general adult population. The number of homeless veterans nationally totals 196,000, down from 250,000 a decade ago, as housing and medical programs have grown and older veterans died.

That is expected to change in the years ahead. The federal Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless vets from the current wars and 400 have participated in VA programs specifically targeting homelessness.

The alliance estimates Hawaii's homeless veteran population at 800, accounting for less than 1 percent of the state's 116,793 veterans. However, if Hawaii's 6,000 homeless include the same percentage of veterans as the nation, the number could be nearly twice the alliance's estimate for Hawaii and 900 on Oahu alone.

Those numbers might increase because of the rise in the percentages of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, which can cause unstable behavior and substance abuse. Repeated tours of duty in the war zones also make reintegration into families and civilian work more difficult.

Four Iraq war veterans now live in shelters for the homeless in Hawaii and two others are in transitional housing, according to Rick Velasquez, coordinator for VA homeless veterans programs in the state. At least 180 to 190 homeless veterans a day seek shelter at a 210-bed facility at Kalaeloa, opened five years ago by U.S. VETS, a nonprofit group that also operates shelters in California, Texas, Nevada, Arizona and Washington, D.C.

Hawaii has the highest percentage of veterans coping with what the National Alliance calls a "severe housing cost burden," spending more than half their income on rent, reflecting the islands' high cost of housing. Those total 4,716, about 4 percent of the state's veterans.

The government should heed the National Alliance's recommendations:

» Establish a process to assess within a month after a veteran's discharge his or her risk of becoming homeless and provide those who are at high risk with prevention services.

» Create 25,000 permanent supportive housing units for veterans with severe physical or mental disabilities or chronic substance-abuse problems.

» Increase the 1,780 housing choice vouchers by 20,000 for homeless veterans with serious mental illness or substance-abuse problems and provide a subsidy of $250 a month to rental payments to the 89,000 disabled veterans living alone in poverty.