To most of us, a veteran facing homelessness is an unacceptable situation. Yet 25 percent of the homeless population is comprised of them.
Just one percent of the civilian population are veterans.
There is a correlation between homelessness and military service, says Christa Pazzaglia, executive director for Hope for the Homeless, a coalition between local agencies that serve homeless individuals, including veterans.
Trauma definitely impacts a persons likeliness to become homeless. These experiences may lead to mental health problems, addiction or coping issues, she said.
Last week, Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover accepted the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness, a White House initiative to encourage cities to join nonprofit leaders in efforts to end veteran homelessness by 2015.
Funding and organizations serving homeless veterans have already been in place in Northwest Louisiana but the city challenge through the mayors office is about putting pressure on the people who can affect real change, said Pazzaglia.
In the challenge, Glover commits to supporting strategies to meet the 2015 goal and end veteran homelessness in Shreveport.
Coordinating the initiative is Hope for the Homeless, which hosts weekly meetings between groups such as Veterans Affairs, the Salvation Army and Volunteers of America on veteran homelessness.
Pazzaglia said theyve seen a 60 percent decrease in veterans on the streets in the past three years.
Volunteers of AmericaNorth Louisiana, for example, opened an emergency shelter for veterans in Shreveport in March.
The citys not late to the game, theyre right on time, Pazzaglia said. The promise to end veteran homelessness started in 2010 by first lady Michelle Obama along with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The mayoral challenge came this summer.
Glover said the most notable part of the challenge is a change in focus. More freedom has been granted to use funds to get veterans into homes before addressing issues such as addiction or mental illness.
Those had to be addressed before the housing. Whats happened is theyve adjusted the approach so we can focus additional services around them while we have them housed, he said.
More reforms for spending federal dollars on eradicating veteran homelessness include prioritizing the most vulnerable veterans for services, providing short-term rental subsidies for veterans and their families, increasing preventative services for those at risk and more efforts to reach and engage with veterans experiencing homelessness.
Theres no new funding with this challenge, but Pazzaglia said it comes with some political pressure.
The pressure is on the city and on the homeless nonprofits to amp up their services and focus, she said.
It has put some huge pressure on. The press conference last week brought to light what the challenge could do. In the same room we had the VA chiefs of staff, Louisiana housing from Baton Rouge and HUD officials from New Orleans, Pazzaglia said. You could see what this was really about was bringing together a forum for education for the people at the top who can really bring us change.
