More women vets are homeless, but housing scarce
By ERIC TUCKER,
Sunday, April 08, 2012
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Misha McLamb helped keep fighter jets flying during a military career that took her halfway around the world to the Persian Gulf. But back home, the Navy aircraft specialist is barely getting by after a series of blows that undid her settled life.
She was laid off from work last year and lost custody of her daughter. She's grappled with alcohol abuse, a carry-over from heavy-drinking Navy days. She spent nights in her car before a friend's boyfriend wrecked it, moving later to a homeless shelter where the insulin needles she needs for her diabetes were stolen.
She now lives in transitional housing for homeless veterans — except the government recently advised occupants to leave because of unsafe building conditions.
"I wasn't a loser," McLamb, 32, says. "Everybody who's homeless doesn't necessarily have to have something very mentally wrong with them. Some people just have bad circumstances with no resources."
Once primarily male veteran problems, homelessness and economic struggles are escalating among female veterans, whose numbers have grown during the past decade of U.S. wars while resources for them haven't kept up. The population of female veterans without permanent shelter has more than doubled in the last half-dozen years and may continue climbing now that the Iraq war has ended, sending women home with the same stresses as their male counterparts — plus some gender-specific ones that make them more susceptible to homelessness.
The problem, a hurdle to the Obama administration's stated goal of ending veterans' homelessness by 2015, is exacerbated by a shortage of temporary housing specifically designed to be safe and welcoming to women or mothers with children. The spike comes even as the overall homeless veteran population has gone down, dropping by nearly 12 percent to about 67,500 between January 2010 and January 2011, officials say.
"It can't get any worse," McLamb says matter-of-factly, "'cause I've already been through hell."
Veterans' homelessness, the subject of a March congressional hearing, has received fresh attention amid government reports documenting the numbers and identifying widespread flaws in buildings that shelter veterans.
"I think it's very clear that women veterans in particular lack the services they need," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in an interview.
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See my small little farm here in central Pa. If you don't mind sharing a house without plumbing i am open to other veterans male or female (who don't smoke ciggs) i quit ) please go to my site and see what i have there. I have over a hndred pictures and a 2 yr blog of my progress. I live here with my 89 yr old mom. I am USMC vietnam era... I have a 1/4 acre garden which can grow lots of food. No need for rent or utilities because my bill is just 16.00 a month.. help with the garden or chop firewood or help me with my mom. Oh i am legally female but living androgenously.. i am seeking only non sexual people and my neighbors are mostly amish and its wayyy out there with no towns nearby.. But for me and mom its home.. we burn our poo in winter and compost in summer... we use clothes and bowls to wash ourselves as we have only a springbox in the basement with an old handpump. no running water inside.. we carry all our water..
ReplyDeletegod bless you all who have survived
""click my name to see my site""