Lea Cello

English -
Problem Solution Essay
November 15, 2015
Homeless Veterans with Mental Illness
There are many people in our society who lay out on the streets. Many of those are the
people who have served our country and fought for our freedom. Many of those who have served
our country are proud to serve, I would not change anything because I was able to serve my
country and do things most people could not even imagine (Rodriguez). Many of those who
have served become homeless as soon as theyve finished serving. It shouldnt matter how long
they have served, they risked their lives for us. So they shouldnt be sitting out on streets cold
and completely neglected.
Those who serve our country, join to help distract themselves from personal issues or to
better themselves, the service helped me as a person; discipline, confidence, leadership,
maturity. I enjoyed the tradition, customs, history & brotherhood of being a Marine
(Rodriguez). In the USA, the percent of homeless male veterans is 40%. Those who become
homeless after retiring from service tend to, according to the United States Interagency Council,
veterans are most likely to experience long-term, chronic homelessness (Leatham). Most
homeless veterans deal with mental illnesses such as, PTSD which stands for, Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder. They may also have other traumatic brain injuries. This is because of the rough
experiences theyve had during war. Veterans experience dangerous situations like, being shot at
from a close-range, shielding themselves from big explosions, and witnessing the loss of their
peers. Former Marine, Anthony Rodriguez explains his experience through training, You will
continuously be training to be prepared to defend the country. Physical, weapons, swimming,
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chemical & biological warfare. Usually, veterans who deal with PTSD often want to be
secluded and are more likely to live unsheltered and outdoors.
The longer a person with mental illness goes without being treated can complicate their
way of living even more. It can complicate with the way they keep their houses, the ability to pay
for their medication, and how they interact with others. Often, because of their illness it makes
them unable to maintain basic skills of basic care, housing for themselves, or family and social
relationships. Veterans with severe mental illnesses roughly live on an income of $640 per
month (Jackson). The reason a mental illness can sometimes create housing issues is because
there will often be problems with landlords, or family members. These issues are caused because
of how often they will need to be in the hospital, this prevents them from being able to make
rent. If a homeless veteran is unable to pay his bills, he may use the small amount of money that
he has for terrible influences. Such as, gambling, drugs, or alcohol anything to avoid memories
of his war experience (Jackson). Mental illness must be treated with specific medication to help
remove the pain and suffering that comes with the illness. This is true especially for those who
have trauma from losing a friend or fellow vets during war. They also need more than just
medication like a program for recovery and rehab, medication is a great start to the recovery
process.
Currently, there are several organizations and programs that are made to help the
homeless veterans. One of them being an organization run by the president Barack Obama and
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki who are beginning their mission to end veteran homelessness. When
this mission was created it began in 2009 and was planned to be over by 2015 (Phillips).
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This mission has caused the VA to donate a significant amount of money to homeless programs,
For fiscal year 2014, the VA dedicated $1.4 billion to homeless programs and $5.4 billion to
clinical health services for homeless veterans (Phillips). However, even with the governments
attempts to help this problem there are still flaws with the plan. The VA department is only able
to serve about 25% of the veterans in need, leaving about 300,000 veterans each year alone to
care for themselves. Because the government has no control over this, it is then up to the
community to reach out and help. The way the homeless are viewed in society is very poorly,
because of this many stores dont want to offer jobs to the homeless. This makes this especially
difficult for the veterans that have a mental illness such as, PTSD because of all the treatments
and medications that are required for them to have. There a few simple solutions for this difficult
problem.
Even though it is almost common knowledge that homelessness is an issue, no one really
understands how terrible it actually is. It isnt expressed enough how wrong it is for people to
ignore that someone thats part of their community is out on the streets cold, especially for
someone who has served for our country. How the community can help is by making easy access
to simple basic needs like jobs, food and shelter; teach to the younger generations a different
view of the homeless and, a marathon designed to raise awareness and donations. With these
easily do-able solutions and the organizations that already exist well be able to completely
eradicate homelessness. Barack Obama made a strategic plan titled, Opening Doors it was
designed to end homelessness. However, even with great intentions it has many flaws to it.

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The main issue with the Opening Doors plan is the process. This strategic plan is
designed in five different parts so that it could prevent and end homelessness within five years.

The five points are to provide affordable housing to veterans, provide permanent supportive
housing, to increase meaningful and sustainable employment, to reduce financial vulnerability by
enhancing information and reducing barriers and the final point is to increase homeless
awareness within the community. The way each point works is that theyre all specifically
designed to help end homelessness.
The first point is very self-explanatory, in order for us to provide affordable housing we
have to make a price that is exceptionally cheap and easy to pay for. The second point is about
supportive housing. Supportive housing is helping the homeless get their own independent
housing, after a study that was part of the Federal Collaborative Initiative to Help End ChronicHomelessness, it was concluded that 95% of the veterans were in independent housing after one
year in a permanent supportive housing arrangement (Leatham). The third point is to increase
meaningful and sustainable employment. If a veteran receives a job that matches their skill it
will make their work meaningful and it will help even more because theyll need to have that job
for a long period of time (Leatham). The fourth point is to reduce financial vulnerability, reduce
financial barriers and improve access to services. This point helps the homeless veterans aware
that there are government programs available to help them. The fifth point is to transform the,
homeless crisis response system (Leatham). It is very important for our community to be open
to helping the homeless veterans, the veterans need to be aware that help is available for them
regardless of their situation. The veteran will feel a greater connection
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to the community because theyre easier to reach out rather than the government (Leatham). The
flaw with this plan is that it was created in 2011, and to this day we still have homelessness.
Although, the amount of homeless veterans there are has decreased because this plan does

require the community to help join that is the reason it is being held back. With the housing and
employment points, many people of our community dont want to take in a recent homeless
veteran because theyre unable to meet their rent due date or unable to attend work because of
their extended hospital visits.
A few of the cons for these solutions is for the teaching, any remaining ignorance and
incorrect use of money. If we teach in school about the importance of how wrong it is that this
problem exists and eradicate the ignorance people have towards this issue, it will be hitting it
straight at the root. If the teaching solution is being used for any bias teaching about the issue the
plan will result in failing. If teaching does fail, another solution is to create a run/walk designed
for the homeless specifically the homeless veterans. If a marathon is created that is as popular as
the Rock N Roll marathon, all the money that will be raised will be able to help house more of
the homeless, pay the bills for those with mental illnesses or help pay rent for those without
mental illnesses. If the money that is raised from the awareness run/walk is being used
incorrectly this will result the plan to fail. It could be used incorrectly by simply not going to
those who need it. If the awareness solution does fail there is another solution. Lastly, the
solution to create easily accessible solutions for them. This can fall under anything such as,
creating more food shelters, creating a motel type of building or simple jobs like a crossing guard

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or, once a week a program completely ran by volunteers where the homeless specifically
homeless veterans can get free check ups and medication. These should be easily accessible and
always available for all the homeless for as long as they need, this will help them get back on
their feet. They will be able to take as long as they need in order for them to get to where they
want to be in life. This plan can only fail if people still have any remaining ignorance in them, if

we open up our minds to helping out the homeless and be able to even offer jobs than we should
be able to solve this long overdue problem.
The many veterans who have risked their safety for our freedom are also the ones who sit
out on the streets at night. They risk their safety when theyre doing things such as running from
incoming enemies, dodging bullets, and counting down the days until they return home. The
worst part of being a Marine for me was being away from my family; missing birthdays,
holidays and lonely nights away from home (Rodriguez). But for the unfortunate veterans who
develop PTSD from war, they dont realize the challenges they will continue to face once they
return home. If the community continues to isolate the homeless it will become evident that we
are pushing away those who survived after fighting for our freedom and disgracing those who
died fighting. Instead of pretending that theyre not there for the sake of our communitys
reputation, we should be helping them by doing simple solutions. We can easily create things to
help raise awareness to this issue, create easily accessible solutions for them like jobs and make
those always available for them for as long as they need it.

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Works Cited
Leatham, Elizabeth. The Great American Tragedy: Homelessness Among Our Veterans.
National Care Planning Council. 8 October, 2012. 13 October, 2015.
https://www.longtermcarelink.net/article-2012-10-8.htm
Jackson, Kate. Reducing Homelessness in Veterans with Mental Illness. Social Work Today.
May/June 2013. 4 October, 2015.
http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/051313p8.shtml

Phillips, Erica E. and Kesling, Ben. Number of Homeless Veterans in the U.S. Falls Over Past
Four Years. The Wall Street Journal. 26 August, 2014. 1 October, 2015.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/number-of-homeless-veterans-in-the-u-s-falls-over-past-four
-years-1409089535
Rodriguez, Anthony. Personal Interview. 15 November, 2015.