Homeless Military Veterans Research Paper Example

Abstract

The paper is aimed at analyzing a specific population that is affected badly in United States. The paper starts with identifying the population of homeless military veterans while discussing their vulnerability. The paper proceeds to fitting this population into the definition of vulnerability. The characteristics of the population are also described in the paper including the effects of these on the vulnerability of the population. The population is susceptible to various problems that are mentioned in the paper along with the exposure, prejudice and resilience of the population. There are several support programs for military veterans initiated by local as well as federal governments which are described at the end of the paper.
The population chosen for this paper is homeless military veterans of United States. These are the individuals who have spent a major part of their lives in military service of United States. The department of US veterans Affairs reported that male are principally the homeless veterans and females are reportedly only 8% of the ratio. Homeless people are mostly those, suffering from severe mental disorders, singles, addicted to alcohol, reside in urban zones and have number of disorders. Studies have stated that around 12% veterans are the young homeless inhabitants. Estimated 40% of the veterans are from America, Africa or Hispanic.
Young people largely make up the population of homeless veterans in the overall veterans population. It has been estimated that people from ages 18-30 make up 9% of the share and people from ages 31-50 make up 41% of the share. Whereas of all veterans only 5% are the people between the age of 18-30 and between the ages 31-50 make up less than 23% share.
It is commendable to keep this point under consideration that the homeless US veterans have generously took part in wars such as Koran, world war II cold war ,panama, Vietnam ,Grenada, Persian Gulf ,Iraq and Afghanistan wars. They have also served in the cultivation anti-drug culture in South America. Statistics proved that more than half of the homeless veterans were involved during the era of Vietnam. 2/3 of the population was extensively involved in serving the nation for around three years and 2/3 were based in the zone under war. However according to estimates nearly 1,5 million veterans will be homeless because of non-availability of support, poverty, and miserable conditions of living and are living in overly crowded houses.
Homeless military veterans are highly vulnerable due to several reasons. Comprehensively coordinated and strategically designed plans and efforts are needed to provide fundamental health care facilities, wholesome meal, and housing facility, counselling for mental and personal grooming and also the exploitation and rehabilitation care. In addition to all these, veterans should also be given assessment in finding a job and training sessions for skills development.
There are several factors endowing to homelessness of military veterans but the most predominant are the non-availability of affordable shelters, non-availability of medical care, and income is not enough to meet the basic necessities of life. A large population at risk and displaced veterans have persistent effect of PSTD, it is a stress disorder and also the exploitation cases, these miserable situations are aggravating due to lack of social and family support. In addition to this, the training programs are not easily convertible to civil workforce and this is a disadvantage for veterans when applying for job .
Studies have revealed another important concern that, about 53% of homeless veterans are having disabilities as compared to homeless non veterans who account for 41% disabilities. Around half of them suffer from mental disorders, 2/3 are subjected to exploitation and several others have both of these issues with them. It has been observed that homeless veterans tend to have longer homelessness period compared to homeless non veterans. Veterans on average spend around 6 years of homelessness whereas their counterpart non veterans spend just 4 years of homelessness .
The homeless military veterans are highly exposed to bad weather conditions resulting in bad health, getting robbed, injured and accused of theft etc. In case of female homeless military veterans, there is a fair chance of rape attempts.
The prejudices or predispositions has been increasing because the government of US is dynamically struggling with a litigation filed by the representatives of disabled veterans, this litigation was filed by ACLU about past 20 months. The major litigants are the veterans of Vietnam in the lawsuit filed against the administration of US. General Eric and his executive Donna Beiter are the suspects in the lawsuit. Both are accused for maltreating the property of veterans by means of wrong deals of land ,and have violated the act of administrative procedure, they are blamed to have breached the fiduciary job as a guardian of Charity trust. They openly discriminated several mentally ill homeless veterans and have violated rehabilitation act. The U.S. federal judge recently dismissed a case that was related to providing healthcare to military veterans. The case was especially aimed at providing support to the disabled homeless military veterans .
There is strong level of resilience demonstrated by the homeless military veterans as they are trained for tough environments during the military training. The proper functioning of mental health requires skills to manage crisis, history, suicidal risk and coping styles. Former treatment for corporal, intellectual, and interactive well-being and psychosocial problems. Domestic roles and structure and the influence of disposition or rehabilitation on family interactions, child growth, and education. Styles and patterns used for interaction and decision to make choice in the family. Spirituality, faith, and/or belief. Community supports, comprise of funding systems, available capitals, and obstacles to access. Customer’s observation of communal work facilities and psychological and interactive fitness treatment, as well as previous experiences.
There are several programs initiated by local as well as federal government to reduce homelessness in military veterans. Few programs exist that help homeless military veterans regarding their health conditions and providing them financial support. One of such programs include the HVRP package. The HVRP package is intended to help homeless veterans fronting a host of obstacles to find occupation, and client requirements mostly comprise of complete range of attention: instant access to accommodation, nutrition, dress, individual cleanliness services, medical and dental care, psychological health assessment and facilities, provisional housing, conveyance support, advisory services for individual growth, legal assistance, occupation promptness and appointment services. No sole institute or administration agency can deliver all these amenities.
All organizations that contributed in HVRP, presented work-related help to homeless veterans to some notch in the past they received HVRP subvention. Few have delivered those facilities for over 30 years. Nevertheless, Homeless Veterans Rehabilitation Package has permitted public and faith-based establishments to institute work support as the main concern in their facility distribution policies. This package, DOL-VETS has approved that work is the most significant factor to effectively shift from vagrancy to self-sufficiency, self-respect and potential .
Supporting programs have been launched by HUD-VA, it is a collaborative initiative taken by urban development and housing department. Over 38,000 vouchers have been distributed throughout the country, these vouchers were given to veterans in order to subsidize their families to take asylum in rental units meanwhile VA offers services of case management. Funds are paid to house owner on account of the sharing veterans. These veterans would then only pay the difference between the subsidized amounts and the actual rent charged by the owner .

References

D.O.L. (n.d.). Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov: http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/hvrp/hvrp-bp.htm
N.C.H.V. (n.d.). Background & Statistics. Retrieved from http://nchv.org: http://nchv.org/index.php/news/media/background_and_statistics/
Rosebrock, R. (2013, Febraury 21). Justice Demanded on Behalf of Disabled Homeless Veterans. Retrieved from http://www.veteranstoday.com: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/02/21/justice-demanded-on-behalf-of-disabled-homeless-veterans/
V.A. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.va.gov: http://www.va.gov/homeless/for_the_community.asp
Veteran Homelessness Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.greendoors.org: http://www.greendoors.org/facts/veteran-homelessness.php