Homeless Veteran Campus Initiative

Health
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Program Outline: Homeless Veteran Campus Initiative

Objective

To create a network of homeless veteran campuses in every state, providing sustainable housing and support services to veterans experiencing homelessness. One goal is to help reduce hopelessness and suicide rates among the veteran population.

Key Components

  1. Campus Establishment

    • Location: establish at least one campus in each state, may be adjacent to or on existing VA properties, with additional campuses in or near high-density population areas.
    • Land Acquisition: Authorize the purchase of sufficient acreage to support tiny home villages.
    • Tiny Home Villages: Designed for veterans to live affordably, covering only utility costs or a sliding scale based on disability rating to cover utility costs for disabled veterans where 100 percent disabled would be free.

  2. Population-Based Sizing

    • Each village shall accommodate at least 80% of the local homeless veteran population in recognition not all homeless veterans will voluntarily take up residence.
    • Regular assessments of local homeless veteran populations to adjust capacities.

  3. Transportation Access

    • Each village must be located on or near public mass transportation routes.
    • If not, include funding for either organic or contract transportation links to local transit systems.

  4. Facilities and Services if several small villages are near within 20 minutes of each other these may share centralized support facilities and services to ensure cost efficiency.

    • Community Center: A space for social activities, meetings, and support groups. Depending on local climate indoor or outdoor pool is highly encouraged.
    • Outpatient Clinic: Provide healthcare services tailored to veterans’ needs.
    • Pharmacy: On-site to ensure easy access to medications.
    • Dining Facility: Offer nutritious meals and communal dining experiences.

  5. Funding and Resources

    • Identify federal, state, and local funding sources for land acquisition and construction.
    • Explore partnerships with non-profit organizations and private sector businesses for additional resources.

  6. Program Implementation

    • Task Force Creation: Form a task force involving veterans’ organizations, local governments, and community stakeholders.
    • Pilot Programs: Initiate pilot campuses in select states to evaluate effectiveness and gather best practices.
    • Evaluation and Adjustment: Establish metrics for success and a process for regular evaluation and adjustment of the program.

  7. Community Integration

    • Foster partnerships with local organizations to integrate veterans into the community.
    • Provide job training programs and employment opportunities within the villages.

  8. Advocacy and Awareness

    • Promote awareness of the program through veterans’ organizations and community outreach.
    • Encourage public support and volunteer engagement to enhance community involvement.

Conclusion

This initiative aims to provide homeless veterans with a safe and supportive living environment, access to essential services, and integration into the community, ultimately reducing homelessness among veterans nationwide.

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I would be open to looking at the topic in detail but I believe the issue is more complex than this proposal recommends. For one it assumes homelessness = VA disability of some sort or need/want of VA services.

The VA is notoriously bad at serving the vet community that actually qualified for it. The vet must have a service related disability that was recognized during service or has been recognized post service by the VA as related to their time in service(the later of which is very hard to get).

Example of this is children of Agent Orange exposed vets. The VA recognizes very few, extremely few disabilities, in children as coming from the exposure to Agent Orange and thus those children qualifying as VA recipients. Yet multiple civilian studies have found Agent Orange exposed vets’ children to have diseases that are normally only found in families who’ve previously had that same disease (passed through genetics only) but in the case of Agent Orange vets, suddenly their children have these diseases. Spinal bifida is one the VA recognizes and supports the children. My brother and I both have diseases that were previously not seen in our family. Both normally passed through genetics. Agent Orange exposure by our father is the only known explanation for the mutations at this time. The VA does not recognize either disease even though multiple studies including those done by the Department of Defense show correlation. VA plays blind man when it comes to taking responsibility they have been mandated to by their own stated mandate for being.

That leaves out a lot of veterans and innocent civilians the VA should actually be helping and veterans they have no reason to help. I personally wouldn’t support anything where the VA was involved. They have proven themselves incapable of managing resources or caring about our veterans.

A separate entity that would build villages (and manage once built) where the homeless encampment already is or near to there or an area where those who are homeless, by majority, say they would move to - sounds more reasonable to me. The VA can’t handle what they’ve already been given.

Villages could possibly be built where the homeless vets are, not by state. I can’t imagine too many homeless vets in Alaska where homeless means human popsicle in the winter. I could definitely be wrong but I can’t imagine it. And I doubt the smallest state in the nation has much of a homeless population problem - veteran or not. They just don’t have the land mass or climate to have much of an issue.

So I don’t believe that every state should naturally have a village but some states, due to size of land mass and/or climate may need multiple villages and those areas without enough of a homeless vet population will need other solutions such as subsidizing the housing available ($ for rental properties in Alaska or purchase of land to put a cabin or two on for example).

In larger cities, buying a building with multiple units may be more cost feasible to tackle homeless veterans or part of a building. A village of tiny homes would be impractical in NYC or Chicago for example, where individual plots of land is expensive but building skyward is the only way forward.

This is why I would be more inclined to support a new Veterans Homelessness Administration with broad powers to tackle the problem rather than a single cookie cutter solution. And I would not support VA homeless campuses.

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“…The vet must have a service-related disability that was recognized during service or has been recognized post-service by the VA as related to their time in service (the latter of which is very hard to get)…”

Absolutely not true. Service connection has nothing to do with eligibility for VA healthcare. There are lots of veterans who have no service-connected conditions and receive VA healthcare.

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Funny. My Dad, a Vietnam vet, keeps getting denied because his heart problems aren’t service related. Don’t know who you’ve talked to but the only vets I know who get care at the VA have service related injuries and they have to wait for hours to be seen when they have appointments. As I said, I wouldn’t trust the VA to manage anything.

My Dad, myself, my ex, my ex’s Dad are all vets who don’t have service related injuries.

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They don’t want to end veteran homeless, because they want to campaign off unresolved issues. They absolutely know how to end veteran homeless. You end veteran homelessness with Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) at the rental market rate and Veteran Base Housing. Veterans can’t depend on donations that’s a hit or miss. The government has to fund it for it to be successful and provide permanent housing. Veteran Base Housing should be on or near a VA hospital and this will allow veterans without transportation access to the VA hospital. They should have a commissary and dining facilities. It should look just like a military base, but retired to service connected veterans. It should provide discounted affordable, but quality housing for veterans and their families living with them. There should be a museum to honor all history of the military and fallen soldiers. Every street on the Veterans base should be in named in honor of a fallen solider. Veteran bases should be created all over North America. When active duty military leave service if they are a service connected veteran they will have the option to live on a veteran’s base if they can no longer live on a military base. This will start the process of eliminating veteran homelessness all over North America. Veterans have to fight for the right to be housed with honor. The Government can spend billions everyday funding other countries and illegal immigrants. All that money should’ve gone to building veterans housing. Housing veterans is a humaniterian issue at home and its time that they put focus back on veterans. Stop funding businesses with VA grants for veterans temporary rental assistance, basically selling the veterans VA records to random businesses. That’s VA money belonging to veterans and it should be paid in the form of BAH. Businesses should not be requesting record releases trying to get their hands on veterans VA records and service records in exchange for rental assistance this is an invasion of privacy. Veterans should sue, because the VA is reckless. The VA should pay BAH keeping businesses out of veterans records.

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Well, as a veteran myself, also a nurse who works for the VA, and have 3 immediate family members who are veterans and receive healthcare in the VA, none of whom are service-connected, I don’t have to go far to disprove your statement. I’m not saying that the VA doesn’t need to change some things, not at all. But your blanket statement that someone must be service-connected to receive care is incorrect, that’s all.

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Thank you for the information.

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I am a Vietnam vet and have been using my local VA facility, Detroit Dingell Center, for over 20 years. I do not have any service related disabilities but have had heart trauma repair, a knee replacement and hearing aids provided with no problem. Yes there are wait times , but that goes for any med facility. And the larger campuses are not immune. All in all the care has been very good. My advice is don’t believe all the stories you hear about VA care. Don’t pass it up. If you have a heart issue it doesn’t matter if it is service related… GO and register and be seen! It cost s you nothing. Well let me temper that. They do have a means test and it is a sliding scale as to what you pay for specialist visits and meds. The cost is equal to or lower than most co-pays. My knee replacement and 3 months of therapy were $0. Please get the hep you need and deserve. Godspeed my brother!

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