Homeless veterans in Butte County are struggling to find housing, but with the help of programs fewer are ending up on the streets.
A recent Butte County survey showed that military veterans make up 13 percent of the county's homeless population.
Due to many factors, veterans have untreated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Traumatic Brain Injury and in many cases have self-medicated and found themselves involved with the criminal justice system.
“The Butte County rate of homeless veterans is lower than the national estimate, which is 23 percent according to a recent Urban Institute study,” said survey coordinator Meagan Meloy.
This
reflects a 2 percent increase over the numbers of veterans surveyed in
2010.
- Chico:12 percent
- Gridley: 17 percent
- Oroville: 13 percent
- Paradise:11
Part of the reason veterans are not having sufficient services are due to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs' own rules that can affect the delay of paperwork.
One of the Veteran Affairs' policies prohibits veterans from paying a lawyer or other consultants to assist with their complicated paperwork or even other veterans or individuals involved. Some veterans rely on the help from veterans service volunteers and employees of non-governmental organizations that have minimal training. Leaving questions unanswered can have documents withdrawn and ends up leaving veterans with an unclear explanation.
“I see many mistakes the veterans service officers make,” said Hannah Williamson, a employee of Butte Veteran services that assisted a veteran and his family. “In fact they demanded their money back.” she said.
For them to receive their benefits remains time consuming and complicated. Veterans are not automatically enrolled to receive benefits when they finish their military service.
Many veterans need assistance finding services by completing complicated applications, going through the process and appealing rejected claims. The Veteran Butte Service employee mentioned that those whom are disabled and unable to work due to war trauma or injury are waiting months, sometimes years for benefits they were promised. This ends up in results of veterans being homeless or in some cases worse.
More than 1.5 million veterans are eligible for billions of dollars each year. Many are not receiving the help they are eligible for because they do not know programs for benefits exist.
“There are many people who are willing to donate or lend a hand to make care packages for our local veterans. It’s makes you feel great to know you’re giving someone who helped our country,” said Susan Contreras, a local that enjoys lending a helping hand for veterans.
Some programs can be used in a veteran’s home, assisted living communities and other long-term care settings. There are services throughout Butte County such as USDVA Educational Services, US Dept. of Veterans' Affairs, California Dept. of Veterans Affairs and more, that take donations to make sure veterans have services that help them survive.