(NEW YORK) MintPress — When President Obama brought his commander-in-chief stump speech this week to the nation’s largest combat veterans convention, the Veterans of Foreign Wars event in Reno, Nev., he spoke about promises he has kept to boost spending on veterans benefits programs and to wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Thanks to the extraordinary service of our men and women in uniform, we’re winding down a decade of war, we’re destroying the terrorist network that attacked us,” he said.
As a tribute to the troops, the Obama administration has also pledged to end veterans’ homelessness by 2015. One of the biggest problems the Veterans Administration (VA) faces in achieving its goal: Homelessness is rising dramatically among female vets, whose numbers have skyrocketed during the past decade, while resources for them have not kept up.
According to the VA, with women making up approximately 1.5 percent of the active duty military, and 20 percent of the National Guard and Reserves, there are currently 1.8 million female veterans, and of that number, about 3 percent, or 55,000, are homeless.
Most of them served during periods of conflict — Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan. Increases in deployment, estimated at roughly, 182,000 for Iraq and Afghanistan, compared to 41,000 in the Gulf War, correlate closely with the numbers of females suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), the two biggest causes of homelessness in this population.
Other contributing factors include substance abuse, physical and mental health issues and military sexual trauma, the one crisis rarely faced by male vets.
Vulnerable population
In the recently released documentary, “The Invisible War,” director Kirby Dick documents heart-wrenching stories of military sexual violence victims, most of whom are intimidated or discouraged from reporting their assaults. Even when assaults are reported, they can be dismissed, and the victims blamed.
In 2010, the military catalogued 3,158 reports of sexual assault, only one-sixth of which came to court-martial and for which just 175, or 1 in 20, of the assailants served time in jail.
Last December, a class action suit against the military on behalf of several victims, brought by the Director of the Service Women’s Action Network, Marine Captain Anu Bhagwait and attorney Susan Burke, was dismissed by the Court, which ruled that rape is an occupational hazard of military service.
One 45-year-old homeless vet, a former Marine, described her own story to AlterNet. After being sexually assaulted by a staff sergeant while on duty overseas, her military career ended and she started a downward spiral. She struggled with substance addiction and mental illness, couldn’t hold down a job, neglected her children and wound up on the streets.
Indeed, among homeless women veterans, more than half have experienced sexual abuse while in the military, compared to 20 percent among women veterans in general.
And reports show that some 52 percent of homeless female veterans had “pre-military adversity” such as child abuse and domestic violence, and that post-military spousal abuse is also common in this population.
Female vets are also more likely to be jobless. Unemployment for female veterans who have served since September 2001 was 12.4 percent last year, slightly higher than for their male counterparts.
Housing scarce
To make matters worse, there is a shortage of temporary housing specifically designed to be safe and welcoming to women or mothers with children.
“I think it’s very clear that women veterans in particular lack the services they need,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
This spring, the VA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) audited a number of VA-funded homeless service providers, and the results raised red flags. The OIG found that 31 percent of the providers it reviewed did not adequately address the safety, security and privacy risks of veterans, especially females.
In one case, 22 women were placed in a facility approved only for men. The residents shared bathrooms and the same living floor, without secure locks on doors. Medical records indicated that some of the women had histories of sexual trauma, while some of the male vets had criminal histories such as assault and attempted homicide.
In another instance, a female vet and her 18-month-old son were placed at the same facility as a male veteran who was a registered sex offender.
The OIG made several recommendations, including revising applications to ensure that providers clearly state the gender of the people being served and more unannounced inspections.
In a written response to the audit, VA officials said they agreed with the recommendations and were taking steps to address some of the problems.
“The agency takes the welfare and safety of our homeless veterans population very seriously,” said Dr. Robert Petzel, under secretary for health at the Veterans Health Administration.
If homelessness among vets is going to be eradicated by 2015, the agency has to take immediate measures to factor females into the equation.