Homeless Shelters Gear Up For Returning Vets

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_shelters_122804,00.html

Bay State shelters are bracing for an influx of Iraqi war veterans, concerned the returning troops will be confronted by costly housing, cheating wives and a tight job market when they get back home.

"We do expect to see veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts in the shelter. It's just about inevitable," said Stephen Spain of the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans in Boston.

Quincy is opening a lodging house with a floor designated for veterans, said John Yazwinski, executive director of Father Bill's Place, a shelter where vets make up 20 percent of the population.

"We are going to see people struggling with employment, housing and mental health and substance issues," said Yazwinski.

more

I think cheating "spouses" would have been more appropriate than the cheating "wives" that the writer used in this piece. Men cheat too.

[soothsayer]

1. A lot of shell-shocked, angry, amputeed homeless

What a mess!

[AngryOldDem]

2. Yep

...and some homeless veterans I have talked to say government services such as the VA are complete jokes. They serve, and then come back here with nothing, except for maybe some very serious health and psychological issues.

The situation of the homeless in this country is rapidly approaching critical mass. Veterans are going to add to this immeasurably.

But enough with that... what's Pickles and the girls wearing to the second coronation?

:nuke:

[Southpaw Bookworm]

3. It's already happening

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2939612

[diamond14]

4. these 'HEROES' are already living in cars and trailers..(PHOTOS/link)

"I'm this great picture of the Army."

SPC. JOSE MARTINEZ, 20, 101st Airborne, was injured April 5, 2003 in Karbala when the humvee he was driving hit a land mine. Martinez was trapped in the explosion and suffered massive burns to his face, head and body. He has spent the last year in surgery and recovery at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. Photographed April 3, 2004 at his home in Dalton, Georgia, while on a brief hospital leave.






"I'm burning on the inside. I'm burning."

Cpl Tyson Johnson III, 22, a mechanic with 205 Military Intelligence, was injured in a mortar attack on the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad on September 20, 2003. He suffered massive internal injuries and is 100 percent disabled. He's living his car, in Prichard, Alabama May 6, 2004.

Shrapnel down the back, shrapnel that came in and hit my head, punctured my lungs. I broke both of my arms. I lost a kidney. My intestines was messed up. They took an artery out of my left leg and put it into this right arm. They pretty much took my life. Pretty much.

I was supposed to be going to physical and occupational therapy then they canceled it because I missed 3 days in a row. I was throwing up, I couldn't hold anything in my stomach. Now I have to do OT myself. I'm trying to teach my son how to count on his hand. And you can see my fingers is messed up. Sometimes my hands will be so red, so fire red, I'm not able to drive. I've got to put on my gloves. I'm not able to touch anything.

I got a bonus in the National Guards for joining the Army. Now I've got to pay the bonus back and it's $2999. If I would have continued and finished my contract I wouldn't have to pay it back. The Guard wants it back. It's on my credit that I owe them that. I'm burning on the inside. I'm burning.







Spc. Sam Ross, 21, combat engineer, 82nd Airborne Division, was injured May 18, 2003 in Baghdad when a bomb blew up during a munitions disposal operation. He is blind and an amputee. Photographed in the woods near his trailer where he lives alone in Dunbar Township, Pennsylvania October 19, 2003.

from "Purple Hearts: Back from Iraq"...bush* DISPOSABLE HEROES
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/purplehearts_intro.html

[Southpaw Bookworm]

5. Kick

Because we all need to see this, and send these images to our congresspeople, our friends and family, and anyone who supports this war while screaming "Support the troops"

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. So what can we do, as a forum and as individuals? Ideas, anyone?

I am not sure about shelters here in Maine, but I do know we have V.A. hospitals.

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