Tammy Duckworth comment I didn't understand

[ThomWV]

Tammy Duckworth was on C-Span's Washington Journal program earlier this morning talking about Veteran's issues and taking calls. Something she said piqued my interest, it was a comment I had not heard before about returning vets having problems finding housing. She said there was a reluctance to rent to returning vets. This was news to me. Has anyone else heard of this reluctance on the part of landlords to rent to men and women returning from our wars and if so do you know the reason?

[Captain Hilts]

1. No, I'd not heard that one. nt

[shraby]

2. Maybe because of multiple deployments?

[ThomWV]

8. You mean an inability to honor a lease?

I guess it would make sense if a landloard thought there was a good chance that the lease would not be honored because the renter's duty station changed. If this is the case then it should be dealt with, possibly the Government should cover any penality for leaving the property early in the soldier's name or even pay out the remaining time on the lease if that is what would be required. Its not like deployments are at the discression of the soldier. Besides, its not much of a price to pay for the people who might be called upon to actually defend us.

[T Wolf]

11. The military has not been "called upon to actually defend us" since 1941. Aside from that error,

you propose some actual solutions.

Another - why not have active duty personnel all live in housing on base? No longer active duty should mean no longer subject to call up.

I do not see why landlords should be forced to take on the extra risk of possible problem tenants, however.

[ThomWV]

13. In truth I meant that in a much different sense

I didn't make my point at all with that ill-chosen phrase. Here is what I wanted to hint at without starting an entirely new conversation. In the whole of the Defense budget the portion that is GI labor cost is just a drop in the bucket. We spend out money on ships and systems. So if the fix in this case was some subsidy to soldier's pay to make it possible for them to participate in the local housing that otherwise might not be available to them then it was a cheap enough price to pay because at all times in the future these are the people who's lives will be on the line. It wasn't meant to slur their current prediciment or any past service, I can assure you of that.

[Recursion]

12. You usually get BAH if you're deployed

At least in theory it's to cover your apartment at your primary duty station, though generally it magically turns into beer.

[lonestarnot]

3. Credit worthiness? PTSD risks? Don't know.

[rucky]

6. I bet it's credit.

Lots of vets come back with lousy credit. The irony is, they'd have a better chance of qualifying for a VA Mortgage loan than pass a rental screening.

[madokie]

9. I know I had problems when I first got home years ago

I'm sure being war weary and bug nuts had something to do with it too :hug:

[lonestarnot]

10. Sadness.

:patriot: :hug:

[tomm2thumbs]

4. only thing I can think of is credit or those who have lost jobs they left? but otherwise no

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=a7d54e440bc9ae46b62cbe5202f5fa26

talks a little about it

[SteppingRazor]

5. I hadn't heard of it, but I think the reasons are pretty obvious, no?

First, vets coming home have trouble getting jobs. No jobs = no money = no rent.

Second, due to PTSD among some vets, they've all been stereotyped as whack jobs. As a result, no landlord wants to deal with them.

Taken together, our veterans are being branded as mental cases with no money. And when you look at them like that, you tend not to want to rent to them.

[existentialist]

7. I've dealt with cases

where a veteran's post traumatic stress syndrome has created problems not only for the veteran and his family, but sometimes for neighbors and landlords.

Speculating slightly, but it doesn't take much to create a stereotype from a few instances.