A controversial deal between UCLA and the VA which resulted in a lawsuit a few years ago has been revised to ensure that veterans have better access to health care and other improvements. This comes after the American Civil Liberties Union argued the VA was improperly allowing UCLA to lease VA land.
As a consequence of the suit, it seems the VA has announced a new plan to improve the services it provides to disabled veterans, and expand housing options for homeless former servicemembers as well, according to a report from the Daily Bruin, the UCLA student newspaper. As a result of the new plan, many local veterans believe that they're going to receive access to dramatically improved services.
Part of that involves UCLA paying $1.15 million each year going forward, to help pay for medical, legal, and recreational costs incurred by veterans, the report said. The school will also pay $300,000 per year to continue leasing Jackie Robinson Stadium, where the school's baseball team plays.
With more organizations looking to help veterans in a number of ways, the options former servicemembers may have to get assistance like medical care, housing, and so on, continue to grow significantly.
Many veterans get a lot of real-world training for future careers while they're in the service, but others may want to further their education. Now, one of the nation's most prestigious universities has a relatively new program that may be able to help them along the way.
Yale's Warrior-Scholar program has been up and running for a little less than four years, and helps get more than 200 veterans into some of the nation's best-known schools, including 30 who attend Yale itself, according to a report from the New Haven Register. It's a two-week program that helps them to better understand the process of heading back to school after spending years away from the classroom.
"Honestly, I wasn't sure I had any chance at all [to go back to college]," 26-year-old Rob Henderson, who served in the Air Force and didn't attend school for eight years, but is now a Yale sophomore, told the newspaper. "It was definitely a shot in the dark. It seemed to be kind of the solution to what I was looking for. Veterans who have not been in school for several years need to refresh their academic skills [and might] have some questions about the admissions process."
Many veterans who go through the program say that they don't feel much difference between themselves and their often younger classmates, the report said. That helps with the transition back to civilian life as much as any program probably could.
The more veterans who are interested in academics after their service can do to review their options, the better off they're likely to be. Many other college have programs similar to these and that can go a long way toward helping them achieve their goals.
A while ago, now, President Barack Obama asked cities across the country to try to end their veteran homelessness problems by the end of 2015. In Riverside, California, city officials say they did so in the 11th hour.
Originally, the city believed it only had 41 homeless veterans living there, and housed them successfully, but another survey found the number was more than double the initial estimate, according to a report from the Riverside Press Enterprise. However, city officials successfully got the 89th and last of them to be identified into a positive housing situation on Dec. 31. Since then, however, more such homeless veterans have been identified, so the city is still working to help them as well.
"Do we understand that we are never going to get to … zero? Absolutely," Monica Sapien, the city's homeless services coordinator, told the newspaper. "Homelessness is always going to exist. But there's a streamlined process now should we encounter a homeless veteran. That is absolutely huge."
This is part of a massive effort being taken by many cities across the country in accordance with Obama's goal. Many have already done what Riverside has, effectively ending their homelessness problems, and a large number are close to doing so as well. Veterans who are struggling with tenuous housing situations or homelessness therefore need to know that there are a number of avenues they might be able to pursue to help them deal with it.
Likewise, former servicemembers struggling with other types of problems, be they large or small, will probably have a number of organizations in their local areas that can help them. These can be public or private, but the safety nets in place for veterans are often quite helpful.
When veterans enter their life after service, they trade the difficulties of military culture for those of the homefront. Among the charming wonders of civilian life are the headaches associated with trying to find a good place of employment. Plenty of veterans have found that, even after successful military careers, they continue to fire off resumes to no effect.
If that's the case, it's time to reassess your candidate profile and make some adjustments. While veterans are very much in-demand around the country, job competition remains pretty fierce, and that means a fine-tuned approach is called for if you're going to land a great position.
Here are some areas to consider:
Resume
Begin with the most obvious starting point. Since your resume is an employer's first opportunity to begin to know you, it's important that you make it as noteworthy as possible. That means you highlight your strengths, abilities and value to a particular company in clear, precise language. It also means that you don't rely too heavily on clichés. Make yourself stand out.
For example, rather than write that you're a "hard worker" with "leadership abilities," point to a specific time and place where those qualities were demonstrated. Did you lead a squad overseas? Run an office on base? What exact results did you achieve? These are the kinds of concrete details employers are looking for.
Cover letter
If your resume is a first look, than your cover letter is a first impression. Imagine you're speaking to an employer face-to-face for the first time. You'd want to impress them, right? That's what your cover letter is for. It's a small piece of your personality, a glimpse into who you are as both a worker and as an individual.
Remember that the human resources staffs at most companies are usually swamped with resumes and applications. Oftentimes they'll just read the first few paragraphs of a cover letter or summary before moving on to the next candidate. You can't just be another face in the crowd. Capture their attention from the get-go and refuse to let go of it.
Qualifications
Part of the difficulty veterans face is that civilian employers don't know how to put their skills to use.
"In my experience, companies have struggled to figure out how veterans fit in their own organizations," Mike Starich, a Marine and CEO of Orion ICS LLC, told NorthJersey.com. "Many companies are making an effort. I believe they have an obligation to help veterans find the best fit inside a company."
To help employers better understand your value to their business, take a close look at the job qualifications listed in the description. You may meet all of them, or you may not. Match up your abilities to those required as best as you can. A recruiter may be persuaded to hire you based on those qualifications you do have and train you on those you don't.
Networking
Don't get entirely bogged down in pursuit of a bulletproof resume and forget the other resources at your disposal, namely, other veterans. Many returning servicemembers have found jobs simply by talking to veterans who have been out on the job hunt before. The ground you're treading is familiar to them. Ask them for advice, to look over your resume, and possibly put you in contact with employers.
Talking to people and being engaged with your community is invaluable. Whether that's through volunteer work, sports leagues or group hobbies, it gets you speaking to a wider array of people who may be able to help you find work. Don't let these opportunities pass you by.
Many veterans find discussing their war experiences difficult. Perhaps writing about them instead could provide some relief. That's the hope of cowboy poet Vess Quinlan, who took advantage of last month's 32nd National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada to address a workshop of combat veterans and their families about sharing their stories.
Quinlan is not a veteran himself, The Associated Press reported, but poems received from Vietnam veterans – men who thought Quinlan could identify with their struggle based on his writings about fighting with polio – persuaded him to reach out to veterans in their life after service.
Getting veterans to trust him and begin an honest conversation is the workshop's biggest challenge, Quinlan told the AP.
"It takes an hour before people start understanding what we're doing and that we're not there to get anything from them," he said.
Bill Jones, a fellow cowboy poet and a Vietnam veteran who assists Quinlan with the workshops, said that the national attitude was not open to discussing the war after he returned home. In an atmosphere like that, it's no wonder veterans have difficulty talking about their experiences.
"When I came back it was best not to say anything," Jones told the AP. "It was best not to say you had been to Vietnam."
Attending one of Quinlan's workshops changed that for him.
"I wrote about a lot of my experiences over there," Jones said. "Combat is a very life-changing event. After you've been in combat you look at life a little bit differently."
Quinlan hopes to continue helping veterans find their voices. He told the Elko Daily Free Press that the workshops provided an opportunity to veterans to feel free to write about and explore their memories among fellow brothers and sisters who understand their situation better than anyone.
"Their purpose now [is] to tell a story, but it's the same brotherhood," he said.
In addition to the problems directly related to veteran homelessness, many other former servicemembers deal with their own housing issues as well. However, more municipalities are starting to take action to prevent these problems, including Baltimore County, Maryland.
Indeed, the Baltimore County Council unanimously passed a bill last week which will make it easier for veterans to get the housing options they may desperately need, according to a report from Baltimore television station WBAL. Specifically, the law prevents landlords from discriminating against would-be tenants for being veterans, and in fact allows other landlords to list properties as being for veterans only.
"As vets return home, they face enormous challenges in their transition to civilian life," Councilman Todd Crandell said, according to the station. "Veteran's Affairs benefits are stretched thin, so the challenges to assist our heroes fall on the shoulders of nonprofit groups who help with issues such as adjustment to the civilian workforce, combat-related disabilities. Housing is largely unaddressed by these veterans organizations or the VA itself."
The hope is that these types of efforts go a long way toward getting more veterans into stable housing situations that are going to benefit them in the long term, and help end the problem of veteran homelessness once and for all.
Lawmakers at the local, state, and federal level are now trying to do more to end the scourge of veteran homelessness, and these efforts are largely being very well received. Indeed, one such piece of legislation recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives.
The new law would change the way the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development tabulates how much disabled veterans, or those with low income, actually make, according to the Nevada edition of RealEstateRama. Currently, any government assistance they receive is counted as part of their income, which makes it more difficult to receive aid through HUD.
"It's been nine months since the House last passed this bill and HUD's flawed aid and attendance policy still threatens our most vulnerable veterans with homelessness," said U.S. Rep. Joe Heck, a Republican representing Nevada. "The last thing our veterans should have to worry about is whether they will have a roof over their head."
More is being done to combat this problem all the time, and that's likely to be a major boon for tens of thousands of veterans across the country who are either currently homeless or dangerously close to it.
On Jan. 30, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. saw hundreds of homeless and at-risk veterans arrive for the 22nd Annual Winterhaven Homeless Veterans Stand Down.
About 400 veterans pre-registered for the event, while a total of around 700 attended to receive medical treatment, employment help and other services, Gloria Hairston, the medical center's director of public affairs and community relations, told Pentagram, a military news organization in the D.C. metro area.
Counseling, medical screening, housing assistance and a number of other services were on offer from more than 70 local, state and federal agencies and organizations. There were also hundreds of new coats, boots, hygiene kits and other items provided, the source reported in another article.
Among the volunteers there to receive incoming veterans were eight active-duty Marines. Marine Cpl. Fernando Maldonado told Pentagram he was there to contribute whatever he could to those in need.
"I always believe in giving back to the community as much as I can," he said. "Today we're essentially here to meet-and-greet, talking to veterans, seeing how they're doing. We're helping them navigate everything that's going on today. It's a huge event, so we're just bringing cheer along the way, helping any way we can."
Maldonado admitted that the event held personal significance to him.
"It means a lot because they're the ones that came before us," he told Pentagram. "We'll take care of them just like the way they took care of us beforehand…so that sometime in the future maybe some people along the line will pay it forward for us as well. They're struggling, so why not try and give as much as we can, whether it's a smile, a meal, clothing. Whatever it is, we'll try to give it back to the best of our ability."
If the national effort to render veteran homelessness extinct is going to continue to see success, homeless veterans need a place to call their own in the long term. A nonprofit group has its sights set on a vacant nursing home in Wilmington, Delaware for just that purpose.
According to The Wilmington News Journal, the Delaware Center for Homeless Veterans has already set plans in motion to purchase the former Layton Home, a 48,000-square-foot facility that will be the first in Delaware to provide permanent, subsidized housing exclusively to veterans.
"We think it is going to be something great for Wilmington," David Mosley, founder of the center and a veteran himself, told The Journal. "We are not worried about filling it. We already have a waiting list of veterans that are precariously housed."
Delmarva Public Radio reported that when the center began in November 2011, it had only nine beds in a small building in the city. Today, it has a five-year contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer 10 homeless veterans emergency transition housing for up to 90 days. An additional eight veterans are supported through other means, The Journal noted.
DCHV's scale will obviously expand with the purchase of the new building. Once it's been renovated, the facility will feature 51 apartments, 10 offices spaces available to community organizations and a number of conference rooms. Mosley told The Journal that he would likely name the home the Pearl, after his mother.
Veterans living in the facility will have constant access to the VA for veterans benefits and case management.
"When you are going through boot camp and being in the military, you develop a camaraderie," said Mosley. "That is lost when you leave, but when you come to a housing facility like ours with other veterans, you develop that camaraderie again…We believe that is the missing piece for veterans that have gone through the experience of homelessness staying housed."
There were hundreds of veterans filling the American Legion hall in Jacksonville, North Carolina on Tuesday for the Sixth Annual Veterans Stand Down event. Though statistics would suggest there are less than 10 known homeless veterans in Onslow County, events like these say otherwise.
According to 9 WNCT, a local news station, the Veterans Stand Down provided an opportunity for homeless veterans and non-veterans alike to to find food, clothing and possible employment centrally located in one place.
Joseph Ramsey, a Marine veteran, was one of the homeless in attendance. After being deployed to the Middle East, Ramsey returned to post-traumatic stress disorder and other domestic trouble. He began to use drugs, which further disrupted his life after service. Despite his lifestyle, Ramsey tries to retain a sense of normalcy for his family, and events like this one help. His primary objectives on Tuesday were to find a job and resources to support his family.
"That's why we're here, trying to get some help you know, and I know we're going to get some good help here this year," he said.
With each new year, the number of homeless attending Veterans Stand Down has grown. But so too has the number of organizations there to provide help. WITN reported that 40 agencies set up tables at the most recent event.
"Anybody can come in and get a haircut, if they need to take a bath they can go next door and take a bath. We have shoes. We have hygiene goody bags if they're homeless, actually sleeping outside we have tents, we have sleeping bags," Kelley Hamilton, a disabled veterans outreach specialist, told 9 WNCT.
Some of the agencies in attendance were there to assist veterans with other types of issues, like mental illness, PTSD and addiction.