Soldiers of Misfortune, More Homeless Veterans Seeking Help (WP)

Soldiers of Misfortune
At Bottom Rung of Poverty, More Homeless Veterans Seeking Help
By Cameron W. Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 30, 2004; Page B01


Robert Slay sleeps on a wood-framed cot in a tent, set up in a clearing in the woods a few yards from the shopping centers and office buildings along upper Rockville Pike.

He spends parts of his day on a traffic median, fingering a rosary or clutching a Bible along with his appeal for help, neatly lettered on a tattered piece of cardboard. Sometimes, amid the dead-ahead looks, the cell phone conversations and the mirrored sunglasses, a window slides open and a hand emerges offering some coins, a dollar bill or two, or a sandwich. "Every night I pray for the people that have actually given me stuff," he says.

Slay, 52, is also a veteran of the Vietnam War era, and one of a growing number of aging soldiers who find themselves at the bottom rung of poverty.

Despite a Bush administration goal to end homelessness in the United States by 2012, surveys are reporting more people asking local governments and charitable organizations for food and shelter. A 25-city survey conducted for the U.S. Conference of Mayors and released in December found that requests for shelter rose 13 percent in 2003. Requests for food assistance grew 17 percent from 2002, the survey found.

Kit Angell, coordinator of the Health Care for Homeless Veterans program at the VA Medical Center in Washington, forecasts that her staff will work with more than 1,850 clients this fiscal year, an increase of almost 40 percent over the previous year. "I anticipated increases in the numbers because of the economy, and that has been the case," she said, also citing "a lack of access to rehabilitation and vocational programs."




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34442-2004Mar29.html

We give BILLIONS of dollars to other countries yet the very people who defended us and risked their lives for us are left on the street so that people in other countries have a place to live. Really f**king shameful!

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I agree fully....if you come to visit OUR Nation's Capital, you would be truly horrified (as I am) at the huge numbers of OUR Veterans lying on benches and huddled near heating vents on the streets...

some have actual infected legs from war wounds....many are mentally ill, some have been 'agent oranged' or suffer from 'depleted uranium' exposures....it is truly a war-weariness that falls upon me as I walk through OUR Nation's Capital frequently....yesterday, I was at a lecture in DC, and afterwards walked down Connecticut Avenue to the White House...by Lafayette Park....it was a truly ugly display of OUR Veterans curled up in empty business door-wells, huddled together near heating vents, and right across Pennsylvania Ave from the White House, while AWOL bush* dined in luxury, OUR Veterans hung their heads while sitting on park benches, and lying on the steps of a nearby church hoping to be let in to sleep on the floor in the church basement....

where is all that bush* compassion? and why won't reTHUGlicans consider these Veterans as part of the cost of their wars?

Wouldn't it be a refreshing change to get a president in the White House who would cut off all foreign aid and give vets the health care and assistance they need, or police our borders to keep out drugs and illegal immigrants, or reduce the amount of money they take from me so I can use it for my family?

and as far as a President who "would cut off all foreign aid and give vets the health care and assistance they need, or police our borders to keep out drugs and illegal immigrants, or reduce the amount of money they take from me so I can use it for my family" ... don't look for these things from Bush

There are a lot more out there from Viet-Nam.. In the years ahead there will be untold more poor souls from Iraq fighting the Demons inside their heads..

READ THIS IF YOU DARE.

THE WALL

"They never saw what napalm does do a little girl's skin. They never saw a 19-year-old from Iowa screaming and writhing on the ground because a mine blew his legs off. They never saw a man take a bullet through the brain, then watch his body flop around on the ground for a minute or so because it doesn't realize he's dead. They never put pieces of someone into a bag, not knowing who it was until you read the tags, because there wasn't any face left to go along with the other parts. They haven't seen the shit I've seen, and they want to do it all over again. Those bastards!

Homeless man at the Wall as told to Al Hambridge Jr.

He never overcame the types of images you describe.

I really feel for all the vets living today. They deserve better.

"They never saw what napalm does do a little girl's skin."

What a horrific haunting vision. Jesus.