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Photo | Natalia Aldana

Homeless Gulf War veteran Joe “Cooker” Jones sitting outside AT&T Park in San Francisco, a site he says he frequents often.

Young Bay Area Homeless Veterans Increase

May 17, 2012

Their country saluted them for their sacrifice as their mothers hugged them amidst tears and prayers, clenching them strongly as if it may be their last. They left their hometowns in handsome, clean uniforms, proudly displaying the American flag on their right shoulders. They left with a mission, a sense of purpose for country and fellow man, many of them filled with an illusion of valor and fearlessness.

They came back to a hero’s welcome. The men and women who fought overseas in the name of the United States of America arrived in their hometowns with the weight of war on their shoulders, carrying the burden of their dedication to service as their families and neighbors saluted them for their valor and fearlessness. They came back as heroes.

Many of these heroes can be seen on sidewalks and streets all across the United States today, as many of the once handsome men and women now call the cold streets their homes.

As more troops are returning home from their service in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, federal statistics are seeing a growing number of young veterans on the street, according to a 2011 joint homeless study by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

About 13,000 of the nation’s homeless in 2010 were ex-service members between the ages of 18 and 30, a disproportionately large number of the nation’s overall homeless veteran population according to the study.

California is home to nearly 2 million veterans, of which, it is estimated that over 19,000 are homeless, according to the VA.

Within the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties, the VA estimates over 6,000 are homeless.

“I did my time, I did what I was asked to do, you know, I went over there and killed people for this country. But now look at me. I’m living on the street where every damn day people just pass by me and they just be ignoring me or looking at me like I’m dirt,” said Joe “Cooker” Jones, a 40-year-old Gulf War veteran who has been homeless since 1996.

“Now, I got to compete with all these young kids coming in from Iraq who don’t got elsewhere to go,” said Jones. “I tell them all the time, ‘Don’t expect a miracle boy, I was you, I am you. Nothing is going to change. Get used to surviving.’ ”

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) states the nation’s homeless veterans are predominantly male, with an alarming rise for the female population. Female veterans make up about eight percent of all veterans, or about 1.8 million, compared to just four percent in 1990.

“What’s different about this generation of veterans is that so many of them have experienced multiple deployments and that compounded trauma over the years has really affected them,” said Colleen Corliss, communications director for San Francisco based Swords to Plowshares. “It’s so difficult for them to transition.”

Many veterans like Jones say they don’t have hope things will improve for homeless veterans.

Swords to Plowshares is one of few veteran service organizations in the Bay Area committed to assisting service members break through cultural, psychological and economic barriers veterans encounter when returning home from deployment.

Corliss said oftentimes veterans have difficulty securing employment and have tendencies to fall into poverty or end up on the streets, and as such the demand for veteran services is constantly growing.

Veterans comprise the majority of the Bay Area homeless population, as the streets of San Francisco and Oakland are abundant with signs that read, “Vietnam veteran, please feed” and “Homeless and hungry vet, need shelter.”

The U.S. Veterans Administration estimates over 300,000 retired military service members are homeless on a given night, while about 3,000 fill the streets of San Francisco.

“It’s easy to end up sleeping on the streets,” said Vietnam veteran Douglas Powell, 84. “Jobs are hard to come by and the training we receive in the military is very specialized.”
Although Powell says he has never been homeless, he admits many of his fellow veterans suffered a far worse fate.

“I was very lucky,” said Powell. “A lot of my friends have lived on the streets for years and they call them home.”

Aside from homelessness and poverty, several veterans also deal with psychological challenges after being exposed to various accounts of combat and death.

Studies show forty percent of the current generation of veterans will experience some kind of mental health illness in their lifetime.

Many, like San Leandro Veteran of Foreign Wars (VFW) commander John Duarte, a Vietnam veteran himself, say that in addition to funding for more counseling, providing more opportunities for employment, encouraging veterans to seek help and providing aid economically one of the greatest forms of solution to the rise in homeless veterans is the prevailing attitudes on who a veteran is. Duarte says this is the best way we can fix this issue.

“The typical American should look at these people as fellow Americans, look at them as if they are your brothers coming back. Don’t detach yourself from that, and that’s the big mistake by people who are so anti-war, they look at these people not as real people but as creatures crawling back from the war,” said Duarte.

“They treat them callously because of their own particular beliefs that the war is wrong and therefore they were wrong to participate in the war. We should be more empathetic; that’s the thing about humans you have the capability to be empathetic but more likely they are not especially to people you might not know, like veterans. And these are fellow Americans and they should be treated like that. Once they are treated with dignity and respect and the heroes they are, we will see less veterans homeless.”

Yet many of the vets currently on the streets do not have the same hope Duarte does.

“Listen, it’s never going to change. More guys like me will get screwed over and messed up,” said Jones. “Nobody cares about us. Once we did the job they sent us to do, they don’t give a damn about us anymore. We ain’t heroes anymore.”

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