Serving without question a land of freedom, they leave to fight a war they did not cause only to return to that land with battle scars, a Purple Heart and homeless. Leaving their families behind, not asking why, to protect a land from attack and to insure its population freedom and their reward, maybe to be recognized with only a purple heart and the battle scares that last them a lifetime. They returned home to a parade in their honor. So much gratitude and love was shown to them on the day they returned, what happened? They look around them now. The day that becomes another and another until it a year or more.. this all faded and now they are left with battle scares, a purple heart and homeless. The faces of our soldiers who served our county are as numerous as are the faces of our homeless.
Do you stop and look around at people? Did you notice the person whose eyes yours met? Was he dirty, unkempt, clothing disheveled and maybe he was sleeping on a park bench or in a car? What did you think to yourself? Did you ask yourself if he had a home or even who was he before this? Maybe the person you are looking at used to be someone who protected your freedom with his life, was injured and received a purple heart for his efforts only to be left homeless by the very government he served. There are many places one can go if they are homeless but these places offer a bed and a warm meal at least 2 times a day. Many missions do their part and help with the homelessness that is plaguing our country.
The Association of Gospel Rescue Mission is only one of the many places that offer services to the homeless. According to Phil Rydman from the offices of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions one in 3 people they provide services to happen to be an American veteran. They have been providing services for the homeless in Kansas City, Missouri for over 20 years and have compiled information about the numbers of American veterans that they have severed. They found that a lot of the homeless veterans that their mission serves are from the Vietnam War. This is not to say that all the homeless are just veterans.
Our veterans deserve so much more than being called homeless. An independent study published by the Associated Press states that one in four people that are homeless are our veterans. This is not just a problem for our old veterans that served in wars and conflicts from the past but Iraq and Afghanistan. Also according to this study 11 percent of the adult homeless are our county's veterans. There are many articles written about homeless veterans and their plight to come home and resume live as if they were not gone.
An article written by Jim Romeo told of a man named Tony who had spent 15 years as a Navy Yeoman in his article A Roof of One's Own. Tony had been homeless for 3 years when article was published. Tony lived in Norfolk, Virginia and received $361.00 a month disability payments from the Veteran's Administration. Tony panhandled to make extra money. There have to be services that our government is willing to offer our service men and women when they return home from fighting a war not of their making.
According to the National Collation for Homeless Veterans there are 200,000 homeless veterans on any night and this is around 23% of America's homeless. This is a shame as far as I am concerned. Some of our homeless veterans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and substance abuse due to what they went through during their tour of duty. This does nothing to help the fact that there is a lack of affordable housing and there aren't any funds available for single males for housing. It is believed that the veterans need to have secure housing, job assessments, training for a new job, and then somewhere to be placed so that they can become employed Americans again. Some of the soldiers come back home have no support from family and friends because they have no idea what the man or woman have been through while they have been gone.
We can not tell the homeless that we know what they are going through and can not tell them what we would do if we were in their situation. The some of the homeless people have lost every thing and cannot believe that they are in this situation. It is a scary thing not to have some place safe and warm and not knowing where your next meal is going to come from. No one can believe what some of these people have been going through as they sleep in the doorway of an abandon building or maybe they have found a cardboard box that will fit them if they curl up real tight so the cold doesn't touch their very soul or the rain doesn't soak them completely to the bone. Not all homeless veterans like living on the streets or sleeping where they can. Harold Noel is a homeless veteran and a father of three and they are homeless since he had returned from Iraq.
Harold and his family were homeless in a matter of weeks after his return home. He was so glad to be home and be with his family and friends but then the unthinkable hit... he and his family was homeless. They lived on the streets, friends' sofas or in their car. Harold told Alexandra Marks, a writer for The Christian Science Monitor, that it was atrocious to come home to nothing after giving your life for your country and leaving loved ones behind and then watching your friends die. He had nothing and had no idea where to turn for help. Harold felt like he was alone in this but he later found out that there is a lot of service men and women that come home after fighting for the country that they are so proud to serve only to have the battle scares of war and what they have seen. They may receive a purple heart but that doesn't help when you are battle scared, purple hearted and homeless.
