The Department of Veterans’ Affairs estimates that 39 percent of the women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will have some sort of mental health disorder, said Katherine Dong, women’s veterans program manager at the North Chicago VA. They will have one or several of the spectrum of depression, Anxiety Disorders, PTSD and Panic Attacks.
Homeless women are significantly more likely than nonhomeless women to be veterans. (Am J Public Health. 2003;93:1132–1136).
Yet, as I know from my own experiences of being homeless, the V.A. is ill equiped to provide resources for homeless female veterans. It is an institution set up to deal primarily with men. Female homeless veterans represent an estimated 4% of homeless persons.
Nation-wide, of 260 programs in the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans' network that give shelter to homeless veterans, only eight have special programs for women.
Fact: One in every seven troops in Iraq is a woman. How is it the V.A. has failed to accommodate
female veterans? I ask you to reflect. I have been homeless two times and both times, the V.A. was unable to provide shelter services because I was a female. I didn't fit into a mold. I wasn't chemically dependent. I was the victim of poor social support and economic instability.
In todays uncertain economy, my state of homelessness is the face of society. Today, I know, that at any moment, I live just a breath away from being homeless, once again.
God Bless-
ANJYL
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