Our Northwest

All About Homeless Vets

This FAQ is from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.  Their goal is to end homelessness among veterans by shaping public policy, promoting collaboration, and building the capacity of service providers.

Who are homeless veterans?

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) states the nation’s homeless veterans are predominantly male, with roughly five percent being female. The majority of them are single; come from urban areas; and suffer from mental illness, alcohol and/or substance abuse, or co-occurring disorders. About one-third of the adult homeless population are veterans.

Home and Homelessness, A Conversation with Sociologist Beth Fussell

(Flickr photo by Hellojenuine) 

This month we are reporting on “Home.”   What is “home”?  Is it a place, or a feeling, or is it just a name?  The idea of home permeates our language: there’s home town, home coming, home run, home team, phone home, and home on the range.  A home is one’s place of residence. Most people associate it with a sense of comfort and belonging.  Although I’m a grown man, honestly, when I think about going “home”, I think about going to see my Mom – to the house where I grew up.

Home is central to our sense of security and community.

So, what happens when we lose our homes? I recently spoke with Associate Professor of Sociology, Beth Fussell.  Professor Fussell’s research explores how people from New Orleans coped with the loss of their homes and communities after Hurricane Katrina.

Listen here

Chelan and Douglas Counties Effort to End Homelessness

The following piece was produced in December of 2005. Since then, Chelan and Douglas counties have continued the fight to reduce homelessness. Here is the updated status on their plan to end homelessness.

 

[2005] When you think of homelessness ... you probably picture people living on the streets of a big city. In fact, homelessness is also an issue in RURAL places. But often it's not as visible. Correspondent Austin Jenkins recently traveled to Central Washington where Chelan and Douglas counties have teamed-up to reduce rural homelessness.

Counting the Homeless

SEATTLE - Census Bureau workers in the Northwest are trying to find ways to get a more accurate count of the homeless. They're in the midst of a three-day effort to visit soup kitchens, shelters and the streets to find people without addresses. At the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle, workers passed out hygiene kits to spread the word. Cecilia Sorci[SOAR-see] is spokeswoman for the Northwest census office.

Cecilia Sorci: "We have to actually reach out to these folks and let them know. And it's primarily...the shelters and meal sites, that's the easier place to count folks. But it's those living outdoors, maybe those who may be mistrustful of government, may have reservations about sharing their information, thinking that it won't be kept safe."

Accurate census counts matter because federal funding is distributed to local governments based on population. Sorci[SOAR-see] acknowledges her agency won't catch every homeless person during the three-day push. But she hopes it will be an improvement over past census counts.

Copyright 2010 KPLU

Final Resting Places for the Indigent

("David" by Mary Larson. Photo by John Ryan.) 

Economists like to keep tabs on various sectors of the economy: Retail sales. Housing starts. Interest rates. But one of the truly invisible indicators of just how bad the economy has been lies at the county morgue. The number of unclaimed bodies left at the morgue has risen in the last year.
In part that's because families can't afford to come pick them up, and put them to rest.
It's a trend that's happening all over the country. In some places, the body count has risen as much as 50 percent over the last few years. But in King County, there's an effort underway to make sure even the unclaimed get a proper memorial. Carol Smith Reports.