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Thursday, February 28, 2013

The Ladies / War Female Military Vets and Homelessness

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 10:25 AM

This NYT article is heartbreaking:

Even as the Pentagon lifts the ban on women in combat roles, returning servicewomen are facing a battlefield of a different kind: they are now the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, an often-invisible group bouncing between sofa and air mattress, overnighting in public storage lockers, living in cars and learning to park inconspicuously on the outskirts of shopping centers to avoid the violence of the streets.

While male returnees become homeless largely because of substance abuse and mental illness, experts say that female veterans face those problems and more, including the search for family housing and an even harder time finding well-paying jobs. But a common pathway to homelessness for women, researchers and psychologists said, is military sexual trauma, or M.S.T., from assaults or harassment during their service, which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sexual trauma set Ms. Jackson on her path. At first she thought she could put “the incident” behind her: that cool August evening outside Suwon Air Base in South Korea when, she said, a serviceman grabbed her by the throat in the ladies’ room of a bar and savagely raped her on the urine-soaked floor. But during the seven years she drifted in and out of homelessness, she found she could not forget.

Please, go read the whole thing.

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Comments (10) RSS

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Let me talk as someone who DOES volunteer work with the homeless in Seattle. I am not sure why homeless vets are held up more than what is apparently, the run of the mill homeless.

Seriously, the fact we have homeless is beyond fucked up, especially when we are creaming our pants hoping for another sports stadium filled with overpaid steroid filled adults who behave like 15 year olds.

ANY homelessness is hearbreaking not just vets or children...it's all fucking bad.

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on February 28, 2013 at 10:33 AM

Just more than 1 in 200 people in the United States became homeless at some point during the year. The odds of becoming homeless were
greater than the odds of living in the state of New Hampshire (1 in 239).

https://www.onecpd.info/resources/docume…

Page 23

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on February 28, 2013 at 10:40 AM

It is about time women started to challenge the Olde Boys Club that is homelessness. You go Grrrls!

@1: Hey, steriod use in sports is a really serious problem, and not something to joke about. For shame.

Posted by Theodore Gorath on February 28, 2013 at 10:42 AM

I remember reading somewhere that if every church in the country took in just three homeless people, the problem would be solved.

(I don't recall where I read that so I can't give a cite, sorry)

Posted by Urgutha Forka on February 28, 2013 at 10:42 AM

Page 38

Washington had the 3rd largest decrease, -12.8%, in homelessness 2010-11.

Here in Kent I've really noticed that.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on February 28, 2013 at 10:48 AM

Maybe people should stop joining the military.

Posted by Former Lurker on February 28, 2013 at 11:02 AM

@4,

They'd have to take eight.

Posted by keshmeshi on February 28, 2013 at 11:23 AM

Plenty of empty houses..

Greed is the choke collar of problem solving

Posted by samwaynesmith on February 28, 2013 at 12:01 PM

@1, re: "I am not sure why homeless vets are held up more than what is apparently, the run of the mill homeless."

For better or worse, people in the military are held on a patriotic pedestal--day in and out, they're actively protecting our freedoms from The Enemy. What's striking is how hollow that position is, given how many ex-military folks end up homeless after leaving service.

And yes, that lack of support is especially apparent when it comes to women leaving the military, who've been subjected not only to the expected trauma that corresponds with their work but the unexpected trauma of being sexually assaulted by their peers.

I agree with you, homelessness is bad, but that's pretty fucking awful.

Posted by Cienna Madrid on February 28, 2013 at 2:27 PM

sounds like those gals need a husband.....

Posted by kumbaya on February 28, 2013 at 6:05 PM