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street roots
Education * Dialogue * Independence
VETERANS/from page 1
STAND DOWN
younger veterans recently returned from
Iraq or Afghanistan, the vast majority are 45
and older. Roughly a quarter said they’d
When: Wednesday June 3,10 am-2 pm.
been homeless for less than one year. Older
veterans were becoming new to the streets,
John Means of Central City, Concern’s
Where: Ambridge Event Center, 1333 NE
Homeless Veterans Reintegration Project
MLK Jr. Blvd. In fareless square on
says their employment program is seeing
the
MAX; get o ff at Convention Center and
more and more clients who are hew to the
walk three blocks north.
streets. Two years ago, Means'says, most of
their clients were veterans considered
Questions: Cali Melissa Bensink or J o h n .i^
chronically homeless, and they’d see the
same people come back multiple times.
Means at Central City Concern,
- 1 | l g j
“Over the last year, maybe year and a half,
I H l
newer people have come in,” Means says.
“Now we’re getting a lot of people (who are)
she months, seven*months, eight months
homeless.” .
to have substance abuse land them on the
For Larry, a 48-year-old Marine Corps
streets.
veteran who didn’t want his last name used,
Fifty-four year old James Stevenson
construction work dried up. Then he was
served domestically iri the Marine Corps
laid off from a factory job. He recently found from 1972-74. He never saw combat, but he
work picking up trash at the waterfront for
did pick up a hard drug habit while he was
the Rose Festival, but he was fifed when his
enlisted. Once he left the service, he went
employer ran a background check and found
back to school and worked for a time, but he
a 20-year-old felony assault comaatinn
turned back to drugs several years later, and
“Evidently there’s a problem picking up
“it was-a downhill spiral from there.”
trash at the Rose Festival for felons,” Larry
After prison, time for robbery and 8 years
said. “It’s never gotten in my way at all, but
on the streets in S t Louis, Stevenson came
now with the economy the way it is, people
to Portland last year because his brother
are pickier.” , •
told him it would be a
That’s the case all
good place to get his,
over, says Matt
"As our Vietnam veterans
life back together.
Burroughs, the :
“(In Missouri) we
are watching this war on
Portland VA’s
don’t have a lot of
TV
look
more
and
more
director of homeless
things like they have
like the war they were in /
services. A crucial
here,” says .
component of the
Stevenson, who’s
in terms of it being kind
VA’s transitional
staying in the
of
an
occupation
against
lodging program is
Salvation Army’s
an insurgency, more and
helping veterans
Harbor Light
: secure an income,
more of them are kind of
transitional shelter
but now, Burroughs
for veterans and
getting triggered by that."
says, J t ’s hard to -
taking classes in
-----— J I M S A R D O
send people to “even
phlebotomy .so he can
find a job. "You get
the lowest-grade
. one shot and that’s it,
job.”
whether you’re a veteran or not.”
Larry has been staying at the Glisan
The VA has a number of programs geared
Street Shelter for three months while he
toward homeless veterans, though only one
looks for other jobs. Though he cites the »
economy as his main predicament, he says - in four veterans on the streets has ever
accessed them, according to the National
there must be a reason veterans become
Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
homeless in such great numbers.
The Grant and Per Diem program pays
“There’s something about being in the
outside organizations, such as the Salvation
military,” he says. “I don’t know what it is.”
Army and Central City Concern, to provide
David Boling, a tall, softspoken 62-year-
old, served in Vietnam from 1969-74. He ■ case-managed transitional housftig to about
150 veterans in the Portland area. For long­
worked as a welder and a machinist for
term housing, 70 people can use
many years but retired after injuring his
housing vouchers specifically for
back in 1997. He’s stayihg at the Glisan
chronically homeless veterans, and
Street Shelter while he waits to move into
three, buildings run by the VA provide
an apartment iri Vancouver.
low-income housing for up to 83
Boling says he’s had post-traumatic stress
veterans who would otherwise be
disorder and other mental health issues
homeless.
since returning from the war* but they
Most of those programs have
became especially acute after he stopped
waiting lists, which people can
working.
sometimes jump if they’re judged to be
“I buried it for 30 years,” he says. “It is
extremely vulnerable. In the meantime,
coming back on me... it just came back in ,,
though, emergency shelters are
the last two years, all those memories.”
packed, and some have been turned
Boling is now on medication for bipolar
into transitional housing instead as the
disorder and sees a VÀ counselor for his
strategies for addressing homelessness
PTSD.
shift.
-
Burroughs says many veterans find their
“You don’t want to put people in
situation changing as they age. They may
emergency shelter; you want to put
retire, lose a spouse to death or divorce, or
them in permanent housing,”
watch their children move out. With fewer
Burroughs says: “But you need
distractions and a weaker support network,
something in the interim to make that
emotional trauma can seep to the surface.
shift.”
Watching the wars in Iraq and
“A lot more people are ending up on
«
Afghanistan has also been an aggravating
factor for older veterans, says Dr. Jim Sardo, the street as the (places) that used to
be emergency shelter have changed,”
a clinical' psychologist who manages PTSD
adds VA social worker Keith Scheff.
and substance abuse treatment at the VA.
The VA’s transitional lodging unit,
“As our Vietnam veterans are watching
where Burroughs spends most of his
this war on TV look more and more like the
war they were in, in terms of it being kind of ? time, provides temporary emergency
housing for 36 homeless veterans - .
an occupation against an insurgency, more
most of whom are 50 and older —
and more of them are kind of getting
who’ve been discharged from inpatient
triggered by that,” Sardo says.
psychiatric hospitals. They can stay for
Several of the veterans in the VAs
45 days while social workers help them
transitional lodging unit say PTSD
secure an income and find somewhere
contributed to their homelessness,
to live permanently.
according to Burroughs. Others may use t
But that last step depends mostly on
drugs or alcohol to quell mental chaos, only
The annual Veterans Stand Down and Job
Fair is a chance for?ort|and*area veterans
to connect with services, employment
opportunities and other veterans, ■
The event is free to all veterans and will
include representatives from the Oregon
Employment Department, private
employers, legal services, medical services,
vocational rehab and other resources.
Job seekers should bring resumes to share
with employers.
outside stocks of affordable and case-
managed housing, which has grown
increasingly scarce.
ol find it’s really difficult to get people in’
housing,” Burroughs says. “There are ,
bottlenecks to people moving on.”
Burroughs says it usually take's ¡about
three months to find someone a spot in
housing — twice as long as\they’re allowed
to stay at the transitional housing unit-What
happens in between?
“I don’t sleep at night,” Burroughs said.1
Rick Stoller, who directs the Harbor Light
shelter, has noticed the same effect.
Veterans and their families can stay at
Harbor Light,-which is funded by the VA’s
Per Diem program, for up to nine months,
but even that isn’t always enough time.
“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to I
find appropriate affordable housing for folks,
because everyone’s looking for it,” Stoller
says.¿
To relieve that problem,, the VA could try
to'build more of Its own housing, Burroughs
says maybe even train veterans to build it
themselves b utthat hasn’t happened yet
S “TKéy’vé Deen in the homeless business,
but they don’t really want to be in the
housing business,” he says.
Stevenson is a few months away from
leaving Harbor Light. He wants to stay
downtown, because it’s the area he knows
and he needs access to public
transportation, but if there JsnT space he
might have to move out farther. He’s looking
forward to moving into his own place, but he
knows there will be challenges.
“Once I move out, it’ll be a lot more
responsibility on me,” Stevenson says; “It’s
like leaving your parents’ home all over
again.”
The Last Summer
Thought
By Kareem Ali
The intoxicating hatred
You kept for a distant cousin
Blooms,
Like a rose perishing in the
Winter sun.
Or the love of a fellow
Neighbor
That you captured
Like summer bees
Kept in mason jars
Buzzing against opaque glass.
The whispering of grandparents
Simmering in the honey
Of their strokes
Is a form of music.
Who knows
If the bouquet of memory
Is behind therm
The scream of corn
In dry fields
Is like the chatter
Of children
After play.
VETERANS HOMELESS ON
A GIVEN NIGHT
In Portland:
, 2007:108
2009:192
(One-Night Street Count)
In Portland VA service area (including
Vancouver):
2006:1,790
2008:2,042
(Veterans Affairs)
In Oregon: 3617 to 7,000
(Veteran's Affairs; Oregon Housing and
Community Services Department)
In the U.S.; 128,600 to 195,000
(Veteran's Affairs, National Alliance to
End Homelessness)
Even since January, Burroughs says he’s
seen many veterans who’ve lost their jobs or
their homes, so he thinks the number who
become homeless will continue to rise. But
what about thé next generation of veterans?
Will they hit the streets in the same
numbers as they come home, or 30 years
down the line?
Coming home to a job shortage is a
.challenge, Burroughs says, but this
administration is, pushing funding for
veterans that he hopes willtake care of
them before theyreacha crisis point
“I think'we do a better job of prevention,”
burroughs says. “We’re building on years
'an'dÿëafs of past mîstàkès.”
Dr. Sardo, the VA psychologist, , says Iraq
and Afghanistan veterans are prioritized for
mental health services so they can get
treatment before their issues become
chronic. But what effect that will have is still
uncertain.
“If we intervene early,” Sardo asks, “will
it make a difference? If we get them services
in the field ... will we not have the kinds of
problems and the rates of problems that
we’re having in our older veterans now?”
For the men outside the Glisan Street .
Shelter, just as important as services are
the attitudes that come along with them.
Many Vietnam-era veterans still sting from
the reception they received as soldiers
returningfrom a hugely unpopular war.
“You come back, and you’re almost
looked down upon,” said Larry, the
unemployed Marine Corps veteran. “They
used to spit on us. They don’t spit on you
anymore, but (being a veteran) doesn’t get
you anywhere.”
Tyrone Brown pûts it more succinctly:
“They’re bringing them back with a hero’s
welcome (now). I didn’t even get a
motherfucking drumroll... They wonder why
we’re alcoholics. Come on.”
Phil Ogle, 5.0, is a peacetime Marine
Corps veteran who became homeless after
his divorce three years ago and just started
staying at the shelter. He worries that
younger veterans could face the same
resentment older opes did, and that would
compound any problems they have.
“This was another unpopular war like
Vietnam was, and they’re coming back,”
* Ogle says. “We should, all do our part to
welcome vets backhand maybe there won’t :
be so many homeless vets,”
Ogle says veterans should make the most
of the VA system, which has sent him
through drug treatment and will hopefully
help him take classes in the fall. He wants
to become a social worker.
“I can’t wait to be doing something - to
get to square one,” Ogle says. “This is
square one, actually. Square two, ;square
three is getting a home.”