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Homeless Veterans and America: Still No Room At The InnBy Rick Tingling-Clemmons—Rick Tingling-Clemmons While most of us sit listening helplessly to reports of illegal insider trading, of drugs linked to the President's Iran-scam/Contragate, of our great nation's status as a debtor—our modern Pied Pipers of industry (steel, auto, manufacturing) play the tune of "more profits" while continuing to lead our jobs overseas, often in countries where we unemployed veterans fought so these workers can be exploited. The threat of nuclear war is ever-present as people struggle for survival. The effort to find drugs and dealers by the government is far greater than its efforts to find gainful employment for the millions; and struggle for the right to vote can still land you in jail, especially if you are of color. More babies die per thousand before the age of one in this great country that in a number of underdeveloped ones; justice in our courts is more Jim Crow than ever; and Native Americans' land and livelihoods are still being stolen with government approval. Further, racial, sexual and ageist antagonisms continue on the increase as we fight over crumbs. Hunger and homelessness are feared as much as getting Aids as we live on paycheck and one sexual encounter away from disaster. And we find that one-third of the homeless men in our great nation are veterans; more vets have committed suicide than were killed in Vietnam; veterans comprise one of the largest subsets of incarcerated men of color.... and all this makes me mad as hell. Veterans in this country have been getting the short end of the stick as far back as "Shays Rebellion" following the Revolutionary War. Government militia were called in to put down veterans who had taken up arms against the opportunistic bankers who had foreclosed on and stolen the homes and farms of Vermont soldiers away fighting the war, leaving many of them homeless. And there were many other times such as earlier in this century when veterans and their families built a tent city on Anacostia Flats (now a predominantly black, very poor section of Washington DC with its own history including being home to Fredrick Douglas). The veterans had come to their nations capital from around the country during the Great Depression seeking a promised and badly needed bonus payment. When they refused to leave (many were already homeless as were so many others during the depression) they were charged by cavalry units commanded by General Douglas MacArthur assisted by Eisenhower and Patton in their pre-general days. It appears that we have not done much better than in the days of Mary and Joseph when there was no room at the inn. According to a draft report from the Council of the City of New York Select Committee on the Homeless—Report on Homelessness and Veterans (February 10, 1987), chairperson A. Abraham Gerges states in the summary, "Almost one third of all homeless men are veterans. Most of these homeless veterans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a neuro-psychiatric disorder, which is the principal cause of their predicament." Very few programs exist to help the homeless veteran, despite the vast array of social payments and benefits supposedly available to veterans. One program, a the Homeless Veteran program, provides outreach to the veterans in the city's shelters. There is little attention given to this concern to date other than a homeless veterans shelter in Florida and one in California. Here in the district of Columbia, the Metropolitan Washington Union of the Homeless embarrassed the Veterans Administration when they took the boards off a VA foreclosure and moved four homeless veterans into the vacant home. The vets were later evicted by the police. The VA subsequently offered to sell the city a number of such houses to be resold to veterans, a proposal that is still under negotiation. Despite a failure to capitalize on the long history of squatting in this country, the group (linked to the National Homeless Union, based in Philadelphia and lead formerly homeless organizer Chris Sprowal believes in moving beyond shelters; it's motto is "Homeless, Not Helpless") forced a response by drawing public attention to the issue. One vet remarked, " They allocated enough money to put a Vietnam War monument downtown...now veterans are on the street. We're not taking it anymore." The New York report further attributes veterans' homelessness to unemployment, generally poor education, and the fact that veterans are not immune to forces which cause homelessness in the general population. Homeless veterans additionally experience deinstitutionalization (getting out of prison, half-way houses, etc.), your basic housing crunch (no housing available), and drug (including alcohol) abuse problems, according to the report. The report has already received its share of criticism from local veteran and activist advocate groups in New York City, principally Black Veterans for Social Justice and the Veterans Upgrade Center. Off the top, the report provides no overview of the systemic nature of homelessness, nor of the well-founded and documented racial and class bias exhibited by the historical maldistribution of housing in this country, and who usually gets the short end of the stick. They merely needed to look at other parallel areas of veterans' problems such as those faced by a atomic vets or Agent Orange victims, or those veterans who faced discrimination in the military, in the job and housing markets when they got out, and who ended up with long-term employment in a service career with no benefits, or those who now face retirement with no pension or social security benefits. The Housing Situation In recent years, a combination of gentrification, corporate and banking greed, revenue losses, and lack of government commitment to ensure the rights of its residents to housing have made the renovation or maintenance of low-income housing less and less profitable. National housing bills, past and present—1949,1968,1974, and other bills never met their goals according to Barry Zigas, National Low-Income Housing Coalition. A low-income policy statement adopted by the Coalition in March, 1984, took the view that "The federal government has the responsibility and the resources to ensure that adequate housing for low-income people is provided throughout the U.S.: in inner cities, in suburbs, in small towns and rural areas. Only the federal government can mount programs which provide uniform standards and protections, while leaving flexibility to states, local governments and other institutions, including the private sector, to adapt them to the range of housing needs which exist in our country. Further, ...federal housing expenditures should give highest priority to those with the most critical housing needs: people living in inadequate housing; people displaced or threatened with displacement for whatever cause; and people whose incomes are too low to bear the high cost of decent shelter." Public housing wasn't even designed to be permanent in the first place. Initially proposed in the 1930;s, in the midst of recovery from the Great Depression, it was designed to give construction jobs to thousands of unemployed workers and to provide them with temporary shelter until they could save money to find better private-sector housing. Consequently, the plumbing, the wiring, and even the structures themselves weren't always up to snuff. With the buildings still occupied year after year, the maintenance problems grew larger. Funds were cut which made some of the problems insurmountable. Not all public housing facilities are collapsing. Come smaller agencies are able to control deterioration, mainly because their smaller size makes maintenance easier. Yet, the overall picture is bleak. The Reagan Administration with its fiscal year '86 appropriation of $8 billion has presided over a 70% cut from the $30 billion program of 1981. The population in U.S. Public housing is about 3.4 million (according to the Wall Street Journal) of whom the vast majority receive social security or other federal assistance benefits. About one-half are elderly and most of the rest are in families headed by women. It is a common belief that many families are forced o double-up, a theory substantiated, in part, by the criminally long waiting lists. Without this doubling up, the nation's homeless problem would be even worse than it is. To add insult to injury, the giant military-industrial complex, an unholy alliance of the largest military-industrial monopolies and the militarist circles of the government apparatus have exerted decisive influence on the foreign policy course that keeps them in business and our country at or near war. Many of these wars are undeclared, as in Nicaragua, the Middle East, and other parts of the globe where the control of labor, markets and resources are key to U.S. Imperialist interests who are getting rich in the name of fighting communism. The policy of bombs before books, houses, food and healthcare, has brought our nation to a new moral low, to say nothing of the unacceptable numbers of poor, reminiscent of the Great Depression. Actors, artists, musicians and the American people in general have been far more compassionate than their government, raising and contributing to many aid concerts and other efforts to aid the hungry and homeless. Yet these responses are only touching the tip of the iceberg. The response to our housing problems must be more comprehensive, beginning with the realization that the wheel has already been invented. A historical view of housing and the lack of housing show plenty of instances of workers fighting back. Wherever we want real change, we must get organized! I am presently working on a project in Northern Virginia where 3,000 low-income Latino, Asian and Black residents are being evicted from the last remaining low-income developments in that area. Developers have had an orgy of buying low-income housing and gentrifying them under the code name "condo conversion." A lawsuit was filed charging racial discrimination. I and other organizers embarked on the long and delicate task of building a tenant-controlled organization and began a carefully planned-out media strategy. We got the media to follow us to the mayor's plush home, then to a city councilperson's; and two weeks ago, took over a city council meeting demanding decent and affordable housing and a half to the evictions. Two days later a judge ruled in favor of the residents, halting evictions. This, however, is only the beginning. WHAT WE CAN DO Vets can work through their own organizations and support and work with other existing efforts. We can support the Jesse Gray Housing Bill (H.R. #918) which proposes the gradual construction of five million new public housing units over a 10-year period, restoration and renovation of existing public housing units, employment opportunities for the residents and others through new construction and renovation. The bill also places a ceiling on rental rates—25% of gross annual income. Another bill, H.R. #4 would appropriate $12 billion for low-income housing; while worth supporting, this bill is not as comprehensive an approach to solving the problem. The National Low-Income Housing Coalition has a set of 8 principles which provide a useful focus for broad organizing efforts:
There is no single approach which, in and of itself, will solve our housing problems. Making decent, safe and affordable housing a reality will require a range of policies and programs. Housing is a right, not a privilege. The issue of homeless veterans is a subset of the larger housing crisis in this country, and a subset of the larger issue of fair treatment for veterans, a struggle which we know all too well. Yet, there is no progress without struggle, as Frederick Douglass said; and we as vets should join the struggle for quality housing for all because it is our struggle too. As we continue to fight for a better life, for veterans and their families, we remember the men and women whose work has brought us to 1987 and the 20th anniversary of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and we thank you all. You know who you are, and you ARE marvelous!
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