More female veterans are winding up homeless

[ensho]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/07/06/more_female_veterans_are_winding_up_homeless/?page=full


VA resources strained; many are single parents


-snip-

As more women serve in combat zones, the share of female veterans who end up homeless, while still relatively small at an estimated 6,500, has nearly doubled over the last decade, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

For younger veterans, it is even more pronounced: One out of every 10 homeless vets under the age of 45 is now a woman, the statistics show.

And unlike their male counterparts, many have the added burden of being single parents.

“Some of the first homeless vets that walked into our office were single moms,’’ said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “When people think of homeless vets, they don’t think of a Hispanic mother and her kids. The new generation of veterans is made up of far more women.’’

-snip-

But while veterans’ services have been successfully reaching out to male veterans through shelters and intervention programs, women are more likely to fall through the cracks.

-snip-

In recent days, senior members of Congress have called for an expansion of some of the VA’s programs to ensure they are properly suited to meeting the needs of the growing female population.

“Women veterans and veterans with children often have different needs and require specialized services,’’ Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat of Washington and a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

-snip-

They have sponsored legislation that calls for $50 million in extra funding over the next five years to allow the Veterans Affairs and Labor departments to make special grants to homeless veterans with children, including for transitional housing.

The legislation would also allow the Labor Department to fund facilities that provide job training and child care for female veterans.
-------------------------

first they get raped and murdered by their military mates and then they get no services or inadequate services from the Va.

they "fall through the cracks". so fill in the cracks!

[Warpy]

1. When I worked at the VA 25 years ago

female patients with menses had to wear adult diapers because the facility had no sanitary napkins. I got angry about that and showed them how to use sterile abdominal dressing pads with a liner made from plastic trash bags, all pinned into place, couldn't see why no one had addressed that particular bit of humiliation at all. Procurement at the VA was archaic, to say the least.

I doubt things have changed much for the better, the WWII soldier profile still being the one driving procurement and services for veterans.

I got yelled at because the sterile pads were more expensive than diapers but I just yelled back and did the right thing.

[ensho]

2. thanks for yelling back

nt

[YOY]

3. More expensive?

More like they didn't have the sense to contract with anyone providing them at the time...but did with whomever provided adult diapers.

They probably have established that contract by now.

Good for you for yelling.

[Warpy]

4. The VA contracts everything to the lowest bidder

because Congressmen who never think they'll need to go there have made sure it's been underfunded since the late 60s. It's a real shoestring operation and you'd better believe those ABD pads were the cheapest ones out there.

The problem was more likely that they hadn't budgeted enough for female necessity and were afraid the half dozen women soldiers on the ward were going to deplete the supply.