TX troops returning from urban warfare to battle homelessness

AAS 1/31/10
More troops returning from urban warfare to battle homelessness
Unemployment, mental stress, pregnancy swelling numbers of younger, female veterans on the street.

TEMPLE — Last spring, on his first night of homelessness, Izay Ramos and his wife slept in his van. Then came nearly a month in a homeless shelter in Copperas Cove, where he battled depression and chronic sleeplessness and searched in vain for a job.

It wasn't supposed to be like this for Ramos, a father of three and a decorated former sergeant in the U.S. Army. A year earlier, he'd been repairing missile systems and fixing tanks and Humvees in Baghdad as he finished a military career that included two tours of Iraq. He said he left Fort Hood in March 2009 filled with hope, embarking on the next chapter in his life with his wife and three children.

"I was very positive when I first got out," said Ramos, 27. "I thought I would get a job quickly." Instead, Ramos and his wife, forced to leave their children with relatives in Mississippi, watched their savings evaporate and their options dwindle.

In Central Texas, Department of Veterans Affairs officials say Ramos is part of a troubling trend. They have begun seeing more younger veterans, often with families, living on the streets or facing eviction than they have before.

As of mid-January, the VA's homeless program, which covers a 39-county swath of Central Texas, had helped 31 veterans with families, said Paula Wood, the Central Texas VA homeless health care coordinator. The program has seen 27 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in Central Texas, but officials say they haven't counted all of the post-9/11 veterans in need of housing assistance.