We Need to do our Heroes a Solid
One of my core values in life is to not turn your back on people, especially if they have been good to you in the past. I value loyalty, if you have my back, I got yours; that’s just a guiding principle of mine. I have been thinking about how implement that core value in the wider world and it’s occurred to me that one group in has had its back turned on them by both our government and the community at large, that group is homeless veterans. As of January 2019, there were over 37,000 veterans experiencing homelessness, according to the VA (https://www.va.gov/HOMELESS/pit_count.asp). It is a truly tragic situation that has no place in our society. These warriors have put their life on the line to protect America and her values, and they come back home only to be thrown onto the streets, that’s not okay. It completely goes against my core value of having peoples back when they have served you well, and nobody has served our country more than our veterans. We need to have their back in their times of struggle, like they did for our country.
The end goal should be to eradicate homelessness within among veterans, but we can’t do that all at once but there are simple steps anyone with time or money to spare can take. There are many wonderful organizations that deal with veteran’s issues, and specifically issues related to veterans experiencing homelessness. One organization that caught my eye was the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (http://nchv.org/index.php/getinvolved/getinvolved/donate/). It is a non-profit based out of my hometown of Washington, DC, that according to its about page say it, “is the resource and technical assistance center for a national network of community-based service providers and local, state and federal agencies that provide emergency and supportive housing, food, health services, job training and placement assistance, legal aid and case management support for hundreds of thousands of homeless veterans each year” (http://nchv.org/index.php/about/about/who_is_nchv/). Just because you can’t eradicate homelessness by yourself doesn’t mean you can’t do anything at all. Knocking out homelessness among veterans won’t be a one punch knockout, it will be an accumulation of punches, death by a thousand paper cuts style. In this analogy, the accumulation of punches is your donations, you’re volunteer work, your activism, your time and effort are what will eradicate homelessness in the veteran community. It will be a slow burn that will take a long time but while going from 37,085 homeless vets to 37,084 homeless vets may seem statistically negligible, it means the world for that one person you helped take off the street and helped put a roof over their head. Often as a society, we forget that these statistics are living, breathing human beings, not just numbers on a piece of paper. These people had parents just like you, they had goals in life just like you, they had good times just like you and they have had bad times just like you. For one reason or another these brave heroes are down on their luck now, but they have served our country and deserve a helping hand. There are a lot of ways to help as outlined here by NCHV (http://nchv.org/index.php?/getinvolved/getinvolved/how_you_can_help/). The website has a wide variety of resources on how you can help on this issue and there is a section that talks about specific policies that help homeless veterans.
My hometown of Washington, DC has the highest rate of homeless vets in the country, and it doesn’t surprise me at all. I have witnessed it all over the city (https://www.statista.com/statistics/727847/homelessness-rate-in-the-us-by-state/). I feel as though we have a responsibility as a society to help our heroes and this is a prime example of how we let them down. I am asking you to do whatever you can to help these heroes, whether that is time, money or even just getting the word out, anything helps. Let’s make a better future for our great veterans!
