Louisville Battle Cry: No More Homeless Vets
LOUISVILLE, Ky. Back home from a difficult Army tour in Iraq, it didn’t take long for Kyle O’Hair’s life to unravel.
There were nightmares, anxiety and memories of death. He got hooked on drugs. He divorced. He spent time in jail. And he found himself homeless, haunting soup kitchens and shelters.
“You just want to be rid of the feelings,” said O’Hair, a 35-year-old discharged soldier who served as a .50-caliber gunner in Iraq in 2004.
Today he’s among those targeted by an ambitious veteran housing effort among Mayor Greg Fischer, the Coalition for the Homeless and the Department of Veterans Affairs that is accelerating as it nears its goal of “ending” veteran homelessness in the area by the end of 2015.
Emulating cities such as Phoenix and Salt Lake City, which have already reached the goal, Louisville is ramping up its “housing first” approach that combines federal and local rent vouchers with case management, substance- and mental-health treatment and rapid-assistance grants to return evicted vets to apartments.
Nashville is in the midst of a similar campaign, with the city’s leading homelessness advocacy group working to house every homeless veteran in Nashville before 2016. How’s Nashville, a coalition of several local nonprofits led by the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission, announced the goal in November, along with its partnership with Community Solutions’ Zero: 2016 campaign. The campaign is working with 69 communities nationwide to bring all homeless veterans into housing by December 2015.
While advocates in Louisville are still cobbling together enough housing units, advocates say getting nearly all veterans off the streets is attainable. And they say it’s urgent, because it’s unclear how long Congress will fund housing aid beyond 2016.
“We’re going to try to house all the veterans in the community,” said Natalie Harris, director of the Coalition for the Homeless, who said the city will announce a coordination plan soon.
It comes after first lady Michelle Obama enlisted mayors this year to help, accompanied by tens of millions of dollars in recent Housing and Urban Development and VA funding. Louisville advocates have since worked to identify about 360 veterans who are chronically or temporarily homeless they will target.
“This is an unprecedented amount of support,” said Pat McKiernan, the state’s VA homeless coordinator. “More than $4 million is being spent on supportive services and housing. We probably spent $90,000 five years ago.”
In Louisville this year, that includes 49 new HUD-VA housing vouchers and 80 from the Louisville Metro Housing Authority; $1.2 million in federal grants to the Family Health Centers for case management and treatment; and $2 million worth of temporary assistance from the federal Supportive Services for Veteran Families program. In addition, a Volunteers of America program will add job training and education opportunities for veterans.
It’s part of a national priority announced in 2009 that has already cut veteran homelessness by 33 percent nationwide, to 49,993, since 2010, federal statistics show. In Louisville, homeless self-identified veterans during the latest single-night count numbered 217, down from 314 in 2011. Accurate figures are notoriously difficult to come by, and while the 217 is fewer than the 360 counted recently to be targeted, advocates say many have already been helped by housing vouchers.
“We’ve housed veterans I never imagined we’d get off the streets,” including several Vietnam-era vets who spent years sleeping outside, drinking and losing toes to frostbite, said Jamie Watts, coordinator of the VA’s Healthcare for Homeless Veterans program.
While combat trauma, PTSD and disproportionate rates of substance abuse and mental illness among veterans are key factors, not all veteran homelessness is directly related to military service. Many who served after 9/11 returned to a difficult job and housing market. Others served decades ago.
Steven Popik, 48, of Louisville, said he never saw combat during his years in the 1980s and 1990s with the Navy and the Ohio National Guard. But he said he developed a heavy drinking habit in the military that led him eventually to a divorce, health woes and a string of DUIs in several states.
After bouncing among shelters and sleeping for a time in his car, today he’s staying at the Wayside Christian Mission and taking plumbing classes. He said having a stable place to live could make all the difference, and he’s grateful his veteran status could bring extra help.
“Getting your own apartment, I wouldn’t have to worry about getting evicted or where I’m going to sleep,” he said.
While housing homeless veterans can be costly, experts say it’s much cheaper than taxpayer-funded costs that the homeless incur at hospitals, jails, shelters and courts. It’s far easier to treat mental health issues or substance abuse once people are housed, advocates say, not the other way around. That’s made it an increasingly prevalent strategy for tackling homelessness nationwide, including in Louisville.
“People said, ‘You’re setting them up to fail. Those guys aren’t ready for housing,’ ” said Maria Price, director of Louisville’s St. John Center for Homeless Men. “But we don’t just give someone a key and say good luck. We provide them the support.”
Nationally, about 85 percent of homeless veterans remain in supportive housing after one year, Watts said. Price said the number of homeless veterans probably will never get to zero, since some slip in and out of homelessness and a small number may refuse such help.
One veteran who has already gotten housed is William Morris, 57, a veteran of the Army and National Guard units in Alaska, Ohio and North Carolina who served three tours in Iraq between 2005 and 2009 before struggling with homelessness and legal trouble.
He was wounded in a roadside bomb attack in 2006, after which he battled anxiety, sleeplessness, depression and anger.
Morris recently completed Louisville’s Veterans Court program, where he was required to attend counseling and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and he is moving to a voucher-paid apartment at the Interlink veterans’ shelter and treatment center in southern Louisville. The voucher can be renewed each year. Meantime, he is studying to be an automotive technician.
“It sounds corny, but it’s like building blocks. Now, I’ve got someplace I can call my own,” he said.
As veterans, housing and homeless groups meet with the city, Watts said they are in talks with HUD to provide additional vouchers to meet the goal.
Baylee Crone, director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, said enlisting local groups to coordinate the aid and supportive help is critical.
And Watts said she hopes the effort targeting a group that draws support from all over the political spectrum will spur funding to help other homeless groups.
“The homeless advocacy community is rooting for us. Because if we have success, we can take on the next group the chronically homeless and families,” she said. “We could say, ‘We were able to do it. Let’s take on the next most vulnerable group and apply the same principals.’ “
Tags: Veterans News
