A panhandler gave me this (WTF related)
Electrode
Los Angeles 3,085 Posts
On the way to the thrift store this morning, a guy sitting on the freeway offramp was holding up a cardboard sign claiming that he was a vet - of which war, I don't know - and that he was hungry. He also wrote in big letters on his sign, "SKUNK WEED". Hey, at least he was honest about what he wants. I gave him a dollar worth in penny and nickel change out of my ashtray. Before the light turned green and I was about to drive off, he asked me, "What would you do if the media asked you a question?". Before I could come up with a witty response, he gave me this piece of paper and said, "THIS IS WHAT YOU TELL THEM!!!"
Comments
Most of you know my wife Nancy has been drawing the names of dead soldiers on the sidewalks of Portland. She meets lots of vets doing this, some are homeless. This is what I have learned.
15,000 - 24,000 homeless veterans in LA CA. 23% of the homeless population are veterans. 33% of male homeless population are veterans.
Here are some more #s I have found:
The VA estimates that nationally, almost 300,000 vets are homeless on any given night and more than 500,000 will experience homelessness over the course of the year.
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimates that there are almost 8,500 homeless vets in Oregon. Due to the concentration of services, a high percentage of those individuals reside in the Portland metro area.
Each year, 2.3 million to 3.5 million people experience homelessness in America. By taking 23% of that range for veterans, that would indicate there are between 529,000 and 840,000 veterans who are homeless at some time during the year.
http://www.nchv.org/index.cfm
www.iraqnamesproject.org
This guy struck me as just a highly eccentric religious fanatic with an odd sense of humor, rather than a shell shocked, mentally unstable guy who lost everything after the Vietnam war. He was relatively young, so if he was a vet, it most likely was the Gulf War.
Naturally Of Course
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Days_(documentary)
pretty good and gives you a real insight into the life of a homeless person and the community they created with each over. Also shadow does the soundtrack with cuts from UNKLE and Entroducing.
okay now back to george bush is an alien and tupac living in Tijuana controlling the Illuminati & 3rd Reich banter.
I've seen that doc. There is a new doc about homeless Iraq war vets. I have not seen that one.
Well, its available at any VA. There are all sorts of VA programs for homeless vets. Its just a matter of them actually using it. Some do, some don't.
The VA has very good mental health and drug/alcohol treatment programs. Getting into them is not always easy. Getting into a drug/alcohol treatment program when you are homeless is difficult, as the programs only have a tiny fraction of the beds needed. For those who get in the programs are good and provide transitional housing and other support. Here in Oregon and SW Washington the VA has programs with beds for about 10% of the homeless vet population.
It is a crisis and it will get a lot worse as the number of Iraq/Afghanistan vets increase. Congress has not admitted to the problem, and this administration has made it clear they will not increase funding for government run "socialized" medicine.
You can check out the link I gave earlier for more facts on the subject. I have talked to people who work with homeless vets both in the VA and with Central City Concern and Sisters Of The Road, and I know what I am talking about.