On November 10, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development held a hearing on ending veterans’ homelessness.
Melanie Lilliston, director of Technical Assistance and Finance for the Coalition for Homeless Veterans (NCHV), testified in support of S. 1237, the Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans With Children Act, sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA). She said, “One of the most daunting challenges in the campaign to end veteran homelessness is presented by the changes in the demographics of this special needs population. For the first time in American history, women comprise more than 11 percent of the forces deployed to serve in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Department of Defense (DoD) figures early this year, including more than 30,000 single women with dependent children. The VA [Department of Veterans Affairs] anticipates women will account for 15 percent of the nation’s veterans within the next 10 years…Currently more than five percent of veterans requesting assistance from VA and community-based homeless veteran service providers are women. According to VA officials, more than half of these veterans are between the ages of 20-29, a majority represent minority communities, and roughly 24 percent are disabled or were medically retired from the service. More than 10 percent of these women have dependent children.”
Ms. Lilliston continued, “Senators Murray, [Tim] Johnson [(D-SD)] and [Jack] Reed [(D-RI)], in introducing this bill, recognize [that] the same readjustment difficulties for single women veteran parents are experienced by single male parents. During the last two years, more than 11 percent of male veterans receiving housing vouchers in the HUD-VASH [Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing] program are single parents with dependent children, according to VA officials. According to VA data in its annual CHALENG [Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education, and Networking Groups] Reports, the highest unmet needs of homeless single veterans with dependent children are: child care assistance; legal aid for credit repair and child support issues; [and] access to affordable permanent housing.” She added, “These programs provide irrefutable evidence that stable, safe transitional housing – with access to health and employment services – empowers the great majority of homeless veterans to achieve self-sufficiency within their eligibility limits. The addition of child care assistance promises to enhance those successful outcomes through supports that will enable veteran parents to pursue their employment goals without having to worry about the health and safety of their children. NCHV believes this funding level would allow for immediate implementation of an employment assistance program for homeless women and homeless single parents with dependent children within an existing and highly successful service provider community, and allow for evaluation of the effectiveness of this innovative strategy.”
“Being in the Army meant the world to me because I was a soldier serving my country. I loved my job, and the soldiers I served with. We were like family,” said Lila Guy, an Iraq War Veteran. “The down side was I had a real family that needed me. I was married with three children. About a month after returning from Iraq, my unit was informed that we would be redeploying to Iraq and had to begin training for that deployment. Knowing the struggles of deployment, my husband decided he was not going to go through it again and he left. Being a single mother and trying to do field training was hard and I could not do both, especially with a child diagnosed with epilepsy. When my husband called me and told me that either I get out of the Army or he would divorce me and take my children, I had to make a decision. I chose my children.”
Ms. Guy continued, “When I left Fort Campbell, KY, I had nothing and had no idea what I was going to do. My parents had a two-bedroom house and I moved in with them. My three children and I lived in a 10’-by-12’ room. My husband and I tried to get back together and I got pregnant. That was when things got worse for us. My husband decided that he didn’t want any more children and I was not willing to have an abortion. Things were already tight for us and my father told me that there was no way we could stay there with the new baby. At that point, I had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and [had been] receiving disability from the VA. I was grateful for the help, but it just was not enough to raise four children.” Ms. Guy added, “The HUD-VASH program coordinators were instrumental in speaking on my behalf to landlords in order to get a place and, after moving in, helping me communicate with my landlord [to get] things that needed to be done in the house. I believe very strongly in the HUD-VASH program because I don’t know where I would be without their help. There are many soldiers out there that don’t think anybody cares and don’t know that there is help out there…This program needs to be able to reach out to those veterans and let them know that, yes, their service is over, but the government still cares about their welfare.”
The Honorable Mercedes Marquez, assistant secretary for Community Planning and Development at the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Peter Dougherty, director of Homeless Veterans Programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs; Steve Berg, vice president for Programs and Policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness; Jack Fanous, executive director and founder of the G.I. Go Fund; and William Wise, a Vietnam War Veteran, also testified.
