An Army of Homeless

Between 150,000 and 200,000 vets are estimated to be homeless on any given night, and about a million more struggle to pay the rent each month.

In 2005, about 2.3 million veteran renter households had low incomes. An estimated 1.3 million, or about 56 percent of these low-income veteran households, had housing affordability problems, meaning they were paying more than 30 percent of their household income for rent, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

An Army of Homeless
San Francisco,CA,USA
AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • January 2009

One out of four homeless males is a veteran

BY DONNA KIMURA

Paul Livingston was just 18 and fresh out of high school in 1979. He and his older brother applied for the same job. The factory hired his brother, so Livingston joined the Marines. He served for three years. Now 47, he’s made some mistakes and had some hard luck. He was about to be on the streets when he recently got a room at a new development for homeless veterans in Kent, Ohio. The first in his family to enter the military, Livingston has two sons serving in the National Guard, with the youngest recently returning home from Iraq.

VA news for veterans health care and tax exempt

Recent VA News Releases

To view and download VA news release, please visit the following
Internet address:
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel



VA Assisting Veterans with Health Care Costs

WASHINGTON (Jan. 6, 2009) -- For veterans struggling financially due to
a job loss or decreased income, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
offers an assortment of programs that can relieve the costs of health
care or provide care at no cost.

"With the downturn in the economy, VA recognizes that many veterans will
feel the effects," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B.
Peake. "Therefore, it is important that eligible veterans learn of the
many ways VA has to help them afford the health care they have earned."

Veterans whose previous income was ruled too high for VA health care may
be able to enter the VA system based upon a hardship if their current
year's income is projected to fall below federal income thresholds due
to a job loss, separation from service or some other financial setback.
Veterans determined eligible due to hardship can avoid copays applied to
higher-income veterans. Qualifying veterans may be eligible for
enrollment and receive health care at no cost.

Also eligible for no-cost VA care are most veterans who recently
returned from a combat zone. They are entitled to five years of free VA
care. The five-year "clock" begins with their discharge from the
military, not their departure from the combat zone.

Each VA medical center across the country has an enrollment coordinator
available to provide veterans information about these programs.
Veterans may also contact VA's Health Benefits Service Center at
1-877-222 VETS (8387) or visit the VA health eligibility website at
www.va.gov/healtheligibility


Tax exemption letters headed to Florida veterans
Gainesville Sun - Gainesville,FL,USA


By Karen Voyles
Staff Writer


Published: Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 7:12 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 7:12 a.m.
About 265,000 of the 1.8 million veterans or their surviving spouses who live in Florida should be receiving letters this week from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that can be used for a property tax exemption.

State officials said veterans with a ten-percent or greater service-connected disability who claim a homestead exemption in Florida are eligible for a additional $5,000 tax exemption. In order to receive the exemption, the veterans need to take a copy of the letter verifying their eligibility to their local property appraiser's office.

"We are working with the state of Florida to ensure veterans get the information they need to take advantage of the state's annual tax relief," said St Petersburg VA Regional Office Director Barry Barker in a news release.
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Sheriff: Parents didn't report boy missing for a decade

Sheriff: Parents didn't report boy missing for a decade
Story Highlights
Sheriff says no trace of Adam Herrman found after 1999

Parents did not report him missing until recently

Police say they don't know if he is dead or alive

Adam was 11 or 12 in 1999

(CNN) -- Authorities in Kansas are looking for a boy who disappeared about a decade ago, but was not reported missing until a few weeks ago.

"We don't know what happened to Adam Herrman past '99, when he was last seen," Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said at a news conference in El Dorado.

"Is he alive, is he dead? That one I can't answer because we don't know," he added.

Adam was 11 or 12 when he was last seen, Murphy said. At the time, he was living in a mobile home park in Towanda, a small town in southern Kansas, with his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman. The couple did not report him missing, Murphy said.

A few weeks ago, a person notified Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Children's Unit of a "concern" regarding Adam, Murphy said.

The agency did not immediately return CNN's phone call seeking additional information.

Wichita attorney Warner Eisenbise, who is representing Adam's adoptive parents, said the couple "really rue the fact that they didn't" report the boy missing.

"They feel very guilty" about not doing that, he said in a telephone interview. The couple told him the boy had run away frequently, he said, and they believed him to be either with his biological parents or homeless.

Although the Herrmans did not report him missing, "they were very worried about him," he said.

Authorities have searched the Pine Ridge Mobile Home Park, where the family had lived, and discovered an "answer" to one of their questions, Murphy said, without explaining.

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Speechless,,,,simply speechless!

Soldier's time in Iraq followed him home

Soldier's time in Iraq followed him home
Evansville Courier & Press - Evansville,IN,USA
By Garret Mathews (Contact)
Sunday, January 4, 2009

A good day for Billy Sears is when he is left alone.

"The old me went to parties. The me that's now doesn't want to be bothered."


The 26-year-old man served with the Evansville-based 163rd Field Artillery, a National Guard unit whose members have been deployed to Iraq.

Sears was discharged in 2006 after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He says he is on five different medications to deal with the anxiety and depression.

"I was comfortable in Iraq even though I saw Humvees blowing up, and there were people shooting at us. I had no nerves when I left the base. It was a feeling of excitement. My life was all mapped out. I knew what to do at 2 and 4 and 6 o'clock. Now I don't know what to do, and that's the problem."

Sears sees a counselor once a week at the Evansville Veterans Center.

"It's a good deal. I want to get the word out to others who've come back from the war. I want them to know there's a place to go for help. I think a lot of guys are masking it. They might have the same symptoms as me, but not want to admit it."

The North High School graduate joined the National Guard in 2000.

"I volunteered to go back on the unit's last tour of Iraq. We were in Indianapolis getting checked out when they learned I was being treated for PTSD. They said I couldn't be in the military with the meds I was taking.
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A soldier's story: An officer & the new president

Monday, January 5, 2009
A soldier's story: An officer and the new president
News 10 Now - Syracuse,NY,USA
Updated: 01/05/2009 08:34 AM
By: Neil St. Clair

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Jose Sanchez has served his country and paid a price for it.




"Coming back was scary. There was an explosion and I got knocked 10 feet back in the air. I broke an index finger, I lost 30 percent of my hearing, screwed up back, and I have nerve damage in my right arm."



A sergeant in the U.S. Army, Sanchez was a member of the National Guard for almost 20 years.

He spent more than a year and a half deployed in Afghanistan.



"We got into a fire fight for six and a half hours. They were just as close as you and me. They fired everything at us: RPGs, mortars, bullets. We lost one guy. He was roadside bombed. They had a daisy chain link of three explosives, it just cut him in half, he didn't even know he died."


It's scenes like that that left Sanchez not only physically but emotionally disabled.




"I get depressed, most of the time I don't even want to leave the house. I might be sitting here talking to someone and I'm gone somewhere else. A lot of times I have nightmares, anything can trigger it. It will take me back to Afghanistan."



A native of New York City, Sanchez suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

He's lived at this house in Binghamton for 10 years, but nearly lost his home due to a bank error while helping at Ground Zero during 9/11.



He's since had to file for bankruptcy, and he lost his business while in Afghanistan.

Now permanently disabled, Sanchez is still able to stay positive and hopes to head back to school to study sports management.

He says he was treated well even by strangers when he came back from Afghanistan, but one episode still haunts him.



"The only big disappointment coming back was being thrown into Walter Reed Army Hospital. It was scary, it was filthy, the conditions were deplorable. As a veteran, I think I deserve more than a crackhouse hotel and what these people were putting us in."
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Dallas native 'Ms. Vicki' helps military families cope through columns

I've read her column several times. She's usually right on the mark.
Dallas native 'Ms. Vicki' helps military families cope through columns
Dallas Morning News - Dallas,TX,USA
10:28 PM CST on Sunday, January 4, 2009
By JOANNA CATTANACH / The Dallas Morning News
jcattanach@dallasnews.com

She's the armed forces' own Ann Landers, the Department of Defense's Dear Abby – but to her loyal followers she's just Ms. Vicki, an Army wife and mom of three turned advice columnist.

Now in her 40s, Dallas native Vicki Johnson has been giving people her two cents since childhood.

"I was always the one that would sit and listen and give some kind of guidance," said Johnson, from her home in the Washington, D.C., area.

The clinical social worker has been sharing her wisdom in a biweekly newspaper column since 2005. Her topics are far-ranging, but she's best known for her niche.

"I'm the columnist for the military set," said Johnson, whose column appears in The Washington Times as well as two military publications, The Fort Campbell Courier in Kentucky and the Heidelberg Herald-Post in Germany.

"I get letters like, 'You know Ms. Vicki, I came home to flags waving and banners, and my wife wasn't there and my whole house was empty and so was my bank account,' " said Johnson, who receives 40 to 50 e-mails a week.

It's not a full-time job yet – she's a social worker specializing in post-traumatic stress disorder. But the inquiries, mostly from women concerning relationship issues, are steadily streaming into her Yahoo! account, placed on her car and pushed into her mailbox.

Wounded Warrior Returns part of Great Americans

This is just one of the videos on GreatAmericans.com site. I received an email about this site. Once I saw what the site was dedicated to, I was hooked. I know my readers feel the same way I do about the troops, veterans and the men and women serving this nation on our police departments and as firefighters. It takes a unique person to be willing to do what they do. Great Americans is celebrating them in videos and interviews. I'm very glad they did.

All too often the only reports we read are when things go wrong. When claims are not approved and veterans suffer. I post them but they break my heart. I'm rejoiced when I read about them overcoming astronomical odds yet still willing to serve, still willing to give back. This they do everyday. I've been part of different groups over the years and have never met finer individuals. They deserve all the positive coverage they can get. To tell the truth, I need to read more positive stories so that I can do what I do when they do fall through the cracks and need us standing up for them. Watch the video and then go to the site to see more.

My videos will be up there very soon and pulled from YouTube and Google. They cannot be bothered to understand what these videos are or what they mean.


Wounded Warrior Returns
This video interviews Garrett Jones, a Marine, who is an avid snowboarder, in spite of the fact that he lost a leg due to an improvised explosive device. Produced by Sgt. Jeremy Ross.

Wounded Warrior Returns - watch more videos

Interviews

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9/11 Still Producing FDNY Casualties

At least four of those failed tests were tied to firefighters suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to their work on or shortly after 9/11, the firefighters union says.

9/11 Still Producing FDNY Casualties
Firehouse.com (subscription) - USA

REUVEN BLAU
Courtesy of The New York Post


John Schroeder lost everything on 9/11 - and now it's cost him his job as well.

As a hose man for Engine Co. 10, Schroeder was one of the first firefighters to respond to both the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, reaching the 23rd floor of the north tower during the latter catastrophe.

"I saw more people die that day than anyone can imagine," he told The Post.

Afterward, he struggled to cope with the staggering loss of 55 friends and colleagues. "I turned to the drink, the whole department did," he said.

Now Schroeder, 49, is one of several scarred firefighters fighting to keep their pensions because of failed drug tests, caught between the sympathy of their colleagues and the zero-tolerance policy of the Fire Department.

Schroeder tested positive for cocaine during a random FDNY drug sweep on Oct. 24, 2004. He denies using cocaine and claims he's been sober for more than a year. His lawyers argue he's a victim of a flawed test.

The department moved to fire Schroeder through a disciplinary hearing. In a highly unusual ruling, an administrative-law judge in August 2007 recommended that the 18-year veteran be allowed to retire with dignity.

Judge Kevin Casey didn't comment on the drug-test results but suggested the FDNY allow the decorated firefighter to complete his application for a disability pension. That way, Casey said, Schroeder, who suffers from lung disease that he believes came from breathing toxic Ground Zero air, could keep his health benefits.

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Vets and depression: Returning from war to fight new battle

How many more years will we hear of the wondrous accomplishments the VA is claiming before they are actually reality? Any ideas? How much longer will they waste time instead of hiring exactly what they need to take care of all the veterans? That is, after they hire outreach workers to go out into the communities to inform veterans along with the general population exactly what PTSD is? Two thirds of the American people don't have a clue. As appalling as that figure is, it includes veterans and their families. National Guards forces and their families across the country still don't know what it is or what comes with it.

How many times do you have to read about a domestic violence issue before you understand most of them were avoidable if the family members knew what to do and what not to do to avoid escalation of simple arguments? It happens more times than you could imagine.

How long do we allow them to come home feeling they were not lucky to have survived the deployment? Honestly, that's how a lot of them feel as the lives they had before they left vanish into distant memories of what they used to be. They cannot see the person they were before is still in there trapped under a wall of pain.

I could tell them exactly what has to be done, but they won't listen to people like me. I only live with all of this everyday in my own home as I have done for the last 26 years. I know what worked for us so that we avoided a lot of problems and had the tools to cope with what we couldn't get around. I know what is needed for the newer veterans as well as the fact the older veterans need to be treated with just as much urgency as the newer veterans. I'm really tired of seeing them suffer when there is no need for any of this to be happening. The time for baby steps addressing all of this should have come as the plans to invade Afghanistan were just being drawn up, but as usual, taking care of the wounded were last on the to do list.

Vets and depression: Returning from war to fight new battle
UM Health Minute: Today's Top Health Issues and Medical Research
Reuters - USA
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- When Lamont Christian
returned from war, he often felt angry, afraid and unworthy. Years later,
Christian found himself living in a homeless shelter, a sign that time had not
healed his emotional wounds.
He went to the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System for help, and there, he
learned the root of his problems: he was suffering from depression, post-
traumatic stress disorder and anger management problems. Now, he wants others
to learn from his experience.
"If I had a message to give to veterans who are coming out of the military
now or even veterans who have been out for a long period of time, it's that
nothing is going to happen in your life unless you go and get the help you
need," he says.
Christian is a veteran of Vietnam, but his experience holds true for
soldiers returning from current battlegrounds as well.
Nearly a third of veterans who are treated at Veterans Affairs health care
centers have significant depressive symptoms, and about 13 percent have
clinically diagnosed depression, says Marcia Valenstein, M.D., clinical
psychiatrist with the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and associate professor
of psychiatry with the University of Michigan Health System.
Depression is a "very potent" risk factor for suicide among people
receiving treatment for depression at the VA, she notes, with a suicide rate
that is three times higher than that of the overall VA patient population.
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THE WAR BACK HOME -- PICKING UP THE PIECES

THE WAR BACK HOME — PICKING UP THE PIECES: Pain of war is ...
Las Vegas Review - Journal - Las Vegas,NV,USA
Women who served in Iraq, Afghanistan work to recover

BY JOAN WHITELY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

War changes a woman, in ways both great and small.

When relatives set off New Year's firecrackers, Denisse Ramos, 25, of Las Vegas notices her hands clench. It reminds her of mortar attacks in Iraq.


Whenever Sharon Dixon, 50, of North Las Vegas sits in a quiet room to read, the nonstop ringing in her ears is more noticeable and distracting. It's the legacy of surviving the blast of an improvised explosive device in Iraq in 2003.

For more than a decade, Las Vegan Rhonda Decker, 46, has been unable to sleep past about 4 a.m. Ever since serving in the Gulf War, followed by a 2004 tour to Kuwait and Iraq, she suffers from disturbed sleep patterns.

Local female veterans agreed to discuss how their post-war lives are different. Those interviewed all belong, or used to belong, to National Guard or military reserve units that deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
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