MWHITF: Meeting 3 - Veterans

Revised: December 2018

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

A homeless veteran's camp off Portland Road

Based on the most recent census data, there are about 21.8 million U.S. veterans alive today (5/11/16).  Of that, fewer than 50,000 are homeless, according to the latest HUD Point in Time Counts (PITC), which also indicate that that number is trending downward.  See here and here.

So, let's say roughly 4% of U.S. veterans are known to be homeless.

If the information given the Task Force at its third meeting was correct, there are 7,500 veterans living in Polk County and 25,000 in Marion County, so, Marion and Polk combined might be home to as many as 1,300 homeless veterans (32,500 x .04 = 1,300).  See the Power Point presentation here.

That number seems high, given that the last Marion/Polk PITC identified only 116 homeless veterans, and staff at The ARCHES Project put the total at around 300 in a recent Salem Weekly article.  See "Meaningful Hope for Oregon Veterans", 3/17/2016, here.

Looking at the numbers another way, only 7.3% of Americans are veterans (by gender, 13.4% of males and 1.4% females).  See here.  But, based on the national PITC figures, 8.6% of all homeless were veterans in 2014, and in 2015, that figure rose to 11%.

Based on the most recent local PITC figures, 6% of the homeless in Marion and Polk Counties are veterans (116/1,660 = .06).  See here.  Omitting the homeless school children from that equation increases the percentage to 10%, which approximates the national average.

From the PP presentation to the Task Force

So, it was a bit of a surprise to hear the Task Force at its third meeting told there are something like 3,586 (827 + 2,759) homeless veterans in Marion and Polk Counties, based on the "national average." See graphic at right. 

It would seem that someone got confused and applied the percent of homeless who are veterans (11% nationally) to the number of veterans (7,521 in Polk and 25,086 in Marion), instead of the number of homeless (1,660 in both Marion and Polk).

Eleven percent of 1,660 puts the estimate at 183 homeless veterans in both counties, a figure that's comfortably higher than the most recent PITC of 116, but lower than the ARCHES staff estimate of 300.

One of the presenters, acknowledging the estimate of 3,586 was "skewed", said the true number was something like 5,000 across the state.  However, he did not say where that number came from.

Oregon counted 13,176 homeless across the state in January 2015, the most recent PITC figures available, of whom 1,467 or 11% reported being veterans, about what you would expect.  See here.   

Looked at another way, Oregon has an estimated 331,632 veterans.  See here.  If 4% are homeless (second paragraph above), that's 13,000.  While 5,000 seems more reasonable than 13,000, that's not an insignificant difference.  The question is, should the Task Force be making decisions based on what appear to be SWAGs?

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans advises that the first thing to do to help homeless veterans is, "Determine the need in your community."  See here.  But there was not  a single question from the Task Force about the numbers presented at the meeting.

It wasn't really that kind of meeting.  It was a yellow ribbonny kind of meeting.  One Task Force member was even observed crying.  See the video here.

Although told at the beginning of the meeting (correctly) that a majority of homeless veterans are Vietnam-era vets (i.e., over age 50), at least some on the Task Force misunderstood that to mean most are Vietnam vets (i.e., served in-country) and suffering from combat-related PTSD and system trauma.

The meeting was plainly emotional, and the message was clear: in offering homeless veterans aid and assistance is the promise of redemption for not having "welcomed them home in their own time."  The strong sense was that veterans, unlike other homeless, are "owed."  It was said more than once during the meeting that the words "veteran" and "homeless" should not be in the same sentence.

Yet, it appears that the causes of veteran homelessness are the same as for everyone else:  lack of affordable housing, lack of living wage income, lack of job skills, lack of access to mental health and addiction services. 

What ultimately distinguishes the veteran homeless population from non-veteran homeless populations is that there are definite and deep resources available to veterans that are not available to non-veterans. 

On the one hand, the Task Force members seemed to care a great deal about veteran homelessness, and on the other, they appeared to be unfamiliar with all the veteran-specific programs and resources in the area.

For example, they didn't seem to know much about Salem Housing Authority's HUD-VASH program, including how many are assigned to Salem (63).

Mr. Pygott and Ms. Strike

The person in charge of veterans' programs for MWVCAA said she couldn't "speak to details about that [SHA's HUD-VASH program] because I don't know all of the details."  She barely said more about her own "SSVF" and "EHA Vet DRF" programs, which she referred to only by their acronyms.

The meeting's consequent emphasis on the details of the private, non-profit program at Home of the Brave (closed six months later), reprised the subtle message of earlier Task Force meetings: government just gets in the way, or in the case of veterans, caused the problem in the first place.        

So, it was no great surprise that nothing was said about the Salem Housing Authority application to the Oregon Health Authority for a grant of up to $1.25M for a Housing First-type program that would assist as many as 30 homeless and at-risk veterans to secure permanent supportive housing. 

To be eligible for Home of the Brave, a vet must be ready and willing to deal with issues like mental illness and addiction.  In the two and a half years of its existence, 32 veterans graduated into permanent housing.  But, 73 others were turned away, many, if not all, of whom would be eligible for  the program SHA is developing, which will take veterans "where they are", and not require participation in services.

Mr. Sparks, Mr. Smith, Mr. Bobb, Mr. Crowder, Mr. Hall

So, maybe the Task Force should consider government for some things - the harder things that others can't or won't do.

After the "information" portion of the meeting, committee assignments were announced, followed by a draft "strategic plan."  This inspired several rounds of self-congratulation.

Mayor Clark was particularly enthusiastic:

"This is a moving train.  This has already left the station.  People are already starting to make a difference, and I couldn't be prouder than to be a part of a community that says, let's go, let's do this." 

"I'm starting to see some meat on the bones, basically.  When I came in here four months ago, February, I was, "We need to move, we need to move now."...But I'm starting to see the constructs of a real animal with muscle on it...I think we're going to do real well by what we're doing right now, taking the time to analyze, to break [the problem] into pieces, look at those pieces, and get answers...I applaud, actually, Commissioner Carlson for starting this whole thing out, so, thank you."

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 6, when the Task Force will focus on the mentally ill, addicted and therefore chronically homeless.  That will also be the focus of the July meeting.  See here.