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.

Could things have been different?

What could have been done differently in the past? What can we do differently from here on?

CNN article on homeless veterans

Interesting article on homeless female veterans. The situation isn't as bad here in Wisconsin as it is in other states with a large number of military bases, but we're still seeing some homeless veterans (both male & female) in the metro area. Waukesha County has, and is projected to continue to have, an affordable housing shortage, so I wonder how Waukesha County will serve our men and women returning from military service.

The Political Environment: In Support Of Housing, UN Declarss October 5th World Habitat Day

James Rowen at The Political Environment talks about some of the issues of affordable housing in the region.

The Political Environment: In Support Of Housing, UN Declarss October 5th World Habitat Day

Key points to consider:

This is because fair and affordable housing for thousands of residents is and has been effectively limited, even denied, through a combination of a) the 1955 state law barring annexation that applies only to the City of Milwaukee, b) aggressive local zoning codes that ban multi-unit housing and c) regional enabling of suburban sprawl that has encouraged development far from the urban center in Milwaukee.