The VA in Martinsburg, W.Va., is helping homeless veterans escape the bitter cold by providing them with shelter through the Operation Veteran's Respite program. According to The Herald-Mail, eight West Virginia veterans took advantage of the program last week, when temperatures dropped below freezing throughout much of the U.S.
The veterans were given a bed, food and warm showers at the 465-bed Martinsburg VA Medical Center, VA spokesman Michael McAleer told the news source. He added that seven of the eight former servicemembers signed up for the VA's six-month-long counseling and rehabilitation program, which helps place veterans in permanent housing.
According to a recent report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, West Virginia had more than 300 veterans living without permanent shelter in 2013. Overall, about 2,200 people are homeless in the state. The West Virginia VA hosts six shelters for homeless veterans, as well as a transitional housing program. The state's VA has also implemented several other programs to aid the homeless veterans population, including emergency food assistance, a reintegration into life after service program and a comprehensive resources website that lists hotlines and soup kitchens, according to the West Virginia VA website.
A newly released report from the Department of Veteran Affairs found that young veterans are committing suicide at a higher rate than in years past.
According to Stars and Stripes, the study found that while the overall suicide rate among veterans has remained largely unchanged between 2009 and 2011, there was a 44 percent increase in suicides among male veterans under the age of 30. It's equivalent to two suicides a day.
"Their rates are astronomically high and climbing," Jan Kemp, the VA's national mental health director for suicide prevention, told the news source. "That's concerning to us."
Not only was there an increase in suicides among young male veterans, but there was also an 11 percent spike in the suicide rate among female veterans. However, the report did hold some good news: There was a decrease in the suicide rate among veterans who received treatment within the VA health system.
According to a VA report released in February 2013, 22 veterans commit suicide each day in the U.S. VA officials stated then that the department was establishing an "aggressive" hiring campaign that would add 1,600 new clinical staff and 300 new administrative workers to their mental health teams. The department is also training 800 peer-to-peer mental health counselors.
The controversial cuts to pensions for military retirees will most likely not affect veterans with disabilities, Capitol Hill aides told The Associated Press.
In late December, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014, a $1 trillion-plus spending bill that authorizes appropriations for defense activities and military benefits. The measure cuts annual cost-of-living increases for military retirees under the age of 62 by 1 percent, saving the Department of Defense an estimated $6 billion over the next 10 years.
Initially, the cuts to COLA applied to the more than 63,000 military retirees with disabilities, the news source reported. However, lawmakers say that it will most likely be reversed, and veterans with disabilities will no longer be affected by the COLA decrease.
After 20 years in the military, servicemembers are eligible to retire at half pay, and can begin claiming their pensions as early as age 38. According to FOX News, the cuts to COLA could result in a lifetime loss of $72,000 in benefits for a sergeant first class. Daniel Dellinger, national commander of the American Legion, stated in an Op-Ed for USA Today that nearly 2 million military retirees will be hit by these losses in military benefits.
"Military retirees and their families depend on those benefits, and they do not deserve to be singled out for penalization," Dellinger wrote.
A court specially designed for veterans who committed non-violent crimes may debut soon in Portland, Ore.
According to The Oregonian, legal officials at the Multnomah County Circuit Court have been working on creating a veterans court for those with substance abuse and mental illness disorders. Judge Julie E. Frantz, who headed the program's committee, told county officials this week that the veterans court was "ready to launch." However, it still needs approval from the county commissioners.
The proposed veterans court will work in a similar way to treatment courts used for substance abusers, steering veterans away from jail or prison time and instead providing them with treatment, counseling and other services, the news source reported. However, they will still be on probation.
"It's an initiative that invests in upfront prevention to get people on the right track, that's not only going to strengthen the individual, but their family and their community,'' Cameron Smith, director of Oregon's Department of Veterans' Affairs, told the news outlet.
Although veterans treatment courts were just established in 2008, there are currently around 130 of these courts in the U.S., The Associated Press reported. The most recent data on veterans in prison is from 2004, when the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 10 percent of state prisoners reported having previous military experience.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is hitting the road this week to visit active-duty troops, wounded warriors and defense workers at various military installations and facilities in Texas, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Hagel's first stop is Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio where he will speak to wounded soldiers and the hospital staff, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said in a statement. After San Antonio, Hagel will be heading west to Albuquerque, N.M., for a tour at Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base, which is home to the Air Force Materiel Command's Nuclear Weapons Center. Hagel will not only meet with servicemembers at the Air Force base, but will also receive security and safety briefings.
The last stop of Hagel's tour is F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., which houses intercontinental ballistic missile training and operation facilities. There, his speech to the active-duty troops will be broadcast live on the Pentagon Channel.
Hagel returned recently from a trip to the Middle East, where he made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to meet with active-duty troops stationed in Kabul, Bloomberg News reported. He told reporters that his two-day visit there "was planned for the sole purpose of working with our troops, thanking our troops."
House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., is currently looking into what unfolded at several VA hospitals over the Christmas holiday.
Military Times reported that administrators at various VA hospitals prohibited veterans organizations, schools and private donors from delivering Christmas-specific cards to their patients. Carolers singing Christmas songs were also blocked, as well as people delivering gifts wrapped in Christmas-themed paper.
Miller, along with Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., have addressed letters to Secretary of Veteran Affairs Eric Shinseki about the reported incidents, asking him to look into whether or not the VA violated its policy on distributing religious material and gifts, according to the news outlet.
"In taking it upon themselves to restrict Christmas cards, carols and gifts in certain locations, VA officials clearly ignored longstanding federal government traditions, basic common sense and possibly a 2011 federal consent decree that ordered VA not to ban religious speech," Miller wrote in a letter to Shinseki, as quoted by the news source.
The reports of people being barred from delivering Christmas cards and other items to VA medical centers have also angered the American Legion. According to Alabama.com, the organization stepped in after staff members at the Dallas VA Medical Center prohibited a group of school children from distributing religious-themed cards to veterans at the facility. The American Legion is now calling on the VA to provide answers.
A new program in Washington, D.C., is training wounded warriors in computer forensics to track down child predators. Known as the H.E.R.O. Child-Rescue Corp, the program is the brainchild of PROTECT, a children's lobbying group, and currently consists of 17 veterans.
"There's a war going on against American children. We're not sending in child advocates, we're sending special operations forces," said Grier Weeks, executive director of PROTECT.
After an 11-week training course in computer forensics and legal analysis, the veterans work as interns at Immigration and Customs Enforcement field offices for one year, according to The Associated Press. The majority of their work is focused on child pornography cases, analyzing evidence needed to prosecute suspects and determining if there are abused children still in need of help.
While the issues they're dealing with may be difficult, it has helped veterans find a new purpose in life after service.
"I feel I'm still serving my country and protecting my family at the same time," Afghanistan and Iraq war veteran Oskar Zepeda told the news source.
Although they are not compensated for their work, many of the interns receive disability paychecks, as well as monthly stipends for education assistance, the news outlet stated.
Established in 2009, the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans has been working to reduce veterans homelessness through research. Located in West Philadelphia, the center receives an annual budget of $2.3 million from the Department of Veterans Affairs to fund its mission, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Executive Director Vincent Kane told the news source that the center's 12 researchers help the VA strategize on how to eliminate homelessness among veterans. According to Kane, one of the most effective ways is through providing homeless veterans around the country with permanent shelter. While previous VA programs have focused on treating the underlying problems facing veterans, such as mental illness, the agency is now focused on moving veterans into housing before directing them to other services. This housing-first approach has been a "game-changer," Kane said.
The veterans homeless population in the U.S. has decreased substantially since the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans opened in 2009. A 2013 report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development found that, on a single night in January, there were roughly 57,800 veterans living without shelter in the U.S. Although the population is still large, there were more than 75,000 homeless veterans in 2009, according to the news source.
Veterans enrolled at Ohio colleges and universities may find it easier to live on-campus with the establishment of private, military-only housing.
The Beacon Journal reported that Hiram College, located in rural Portage County, will be opening a residence in January for military veterans. Called the Freedom Center, the residence at the newly renovated Henry Hall will feature single rooms. While the college doesn't have a large veteran population – only 10 students – developer Hiram DeJesus, whose company Patriot Development LLC is renovating the dorm facility, told the news source that the new living quarters will help attract veterans to the campus. As incentive, the college is also offering free housing for the first 20 veterans who enroll.
"Our goal is to provide the best environment for the successful transition from the military back into civilian life," DeJesus said.
Tim Bryan, a spokesperson for Hiram College, added that the college may provide additional land for the development of veterans-only townhouses.
Veterans-only dorms and residences are currently on the rise in the U.S. According to Inside Higher Education, one of the latest universities that began providing housing for its military students is New Mexico State University, which established on-campus units tailored to veterans with families.
Frustrated by the recent cuts to military benefits for retirees, many veterans groups and lawmakers are working to restore the entitlements.
According to FOX News, Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., introduced a bill this week that would rescind the cuts made by the National Defense Authorization Act to the cost-of-living adjustment for working-age military retirees. The newly passed legislation, which was signed last week by President Barack Obama, outlines defense spending for the 2014 fiscal year.
Reuters reported that the law grants the Defense Department a base budget of $526.8 billion. Although the act retains many military benefits, such as a 1 percent increase in pay, it reduced the COLA allowance for military retirees under the age of 62, including veterans with disabilities. FOX News stated that the cuts could result in a $72,000 lifetime loss in benefits for retired servicemembers.
"As a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, I believe our service members, veterans, and their families must receive the benefits they have earned and deserve," Brownley said in a statement, as quoted by the news source. "These benefits are owed to them without equivocation.
Brownley, however, is not the only one stepping up to help military retirees. According to FOX News, veterans groups such as the Military Officers Association of America and the American Legion are currently lobbying Congress to increase the benefits.