Follow-up on Homeless Veterans

Two days ago, I blogged about a CNN article on homeless female veterans, and today, I attended a presentation at Milwaukee's Continuum of Care by Barbara Gilbert, Program Manager of the Mental Health Division at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center.

She discussed the CHALENG Program, "Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education and Networking Groups" which is a program designed to improve the continuum of care by the local VA and community agencies. Using CHALENG surveys, veterans' needs are ranked-both from the consumer's perspective and from the service provider's perspective.

In Milwaukee area, the identified needs are long-term & permanent housing, immediate shelter, and Job training/emotional psychiatric services.

HUD estimates that nationally, 15% of all homeless adults are veterans, and locally, according to VA, there are an estimated 216 homeless veterans. A temporary overflow shelter operated last winter by the Hebron House of Hospitality served 131 homeless men, of which 20% were veterans.

While the local community groups (such as Guest House of Milwaukee who is collaborating with VA to increase access to supportive housing) have been very supportive of VA and efforts to serve homeless veterans, better housing, better programs and services are still needed to serve not only our veterans, but also to other people who are homeless.

UPDATE: For clarification, the Waukesha information comes from Executive Summary of the Study Group Report on the Waukesha Overflow Shelter.

Update 2: People interested in veteran mental health issues should check out the Wisconsin Warrior Summit on October 22th.