Understanding Homelessness

Old Guard Riders Inc.

"The Old Guard"

Riding for America's Homeless & forgotten Vets

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Understanding the Problem Facilitates Resolution

The first step to solving any problem is understanding the root cause of the problem. Resolving the homeless veterans problem is no exception. Homelessness is the result, not the problem. Understanding why veterans become homeless requires identifying all of the internal and external issues that lead a veteran to become homeless. Once the root issues can be identified and overcome, the result will resolve itself.

The following is a study of homeless veterans. It's purpose was to identify the root causes of homelessness among veterans.

Factors Present During and After Military Service.

Although researchers have not found that military service alone is associated with homelessness, it may be associated with other factors that contribute to homelessness. The NVVRS (National Vietnam Veterans Survey) found an indirect connection between the stress that occurs as a result of deployment and exposure to combat, or “war-zone stress,” and homelessness. Vietnam theater and era veterans who experienced war-zone stress were found to have difficulty readjusting to civilian life, resulting in higher levels of problems that included social isolation, violent behavior, and, for white male veterans, homelessness.

The 1994 study of Vietnam era veterans (hereafter referred to as the Rosenheck/Fontana study) evaluated 18 variables that could be associated with homelessness. The study categorized each variable in one of four groups, according to when they occurred in the veteran’s life: pre-military, military, the one-year readjustment period, and the post-military period subsequent to readjustment. Variables from each time period were found to be associated with homelessness, although their effects varied. The two military factors — combat exposure and participation in atrocities — did not have a direct relationship to homelessness. However, those two factors did contribute to (1) low levels of social support upon returning home, (2) psychiatric disorders (not including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)), (3) substance abuse disorders, and (4) being unmarried (including separation and divorce). Each of these four post-military variables, in turn, contributed directly to homelessness. In fact, social isolation, measured by low levels of support in the first year after discharge from military service, together with the status of being unmarried, had the strongest association with homelessness of the18 factors examined in the study.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Researchers have not found a direct relationship between PTSD and homelessness. The Rosenheck/Fontana study “found no unique association between combat-related PTSD and homelessness.” Unrelated research has determined that homeless combat veterans were no more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD than combat veterans who were not homeless. However, the NVVRS found that PTSD was significantly related to other psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, problems in interpersonal relationships, and unemployment. These conditions can lead to readjustment difficulties and are considered risk factors for homelessness.

Factors that Pre-Date Military Service.

According to research, factors that predate military service also play a role in homelessness among veterans. The first category consisted of nine factors: year of birth, belonging to a racial or ethnic minority, childhood poverty, parental mental illness, experience of physical or sexual abuse prior to age 18, other trauma, treatment for mental illness before age 18, placement in foster care before age 16, and history of conduct disorder. The military category contained three factors: exposure to combat, participation in atrocities, and non-military trauma. The readjustment period consisted of two variables: accessibility to someone with whom to discuss personal matters and the availability of material and social support (together these two variables were termed low levels of social support). The final category contained four factors: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), psychiatric disorders not including PTSD, substance abuse, and unmarried status.

Conclusion (paraphrased)

The problem most associated with homelessness among veterans was post military readjustment difficulties.

Social isolation, measured by low levels of support in the first year after discharge from military service, together with the status of being unmarried (including separation and divorce), had the strongest association with readjustment difficulties.

Low levels of social support can be measured by accessibility to someone with whom to discuss personal matters and the availability of material and social support.

The two military factors — combat exposure and participation in atrocities — did not have a direct relationship to homelessness. However, those two factors did contribute to (1) low levels of social support upon returning home, (2) psychiatric disorders (not including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)), (3) substance abuse disorders, and (4) being unmarried (including separation and divorce). Each of these four post-military variables, in turn, contributed directly to homelessness.

The NVVRS (National Vietnam Veterans Survey) report provided the following information about Vietnam War veterans:

PTSD

The estimated lifetime prevalence of PTSD among American Vietnam theater veterans is 30.9% for men and 26.9% for women. An additional 22.5% of men and 21.2% of women have had partial PTSD at some point in their lives. Thus, more than half of all male Vietnam veterans and almost half of all female Vietnam veterans -about 1,700,000 Vietnam veterans in all- have experienced "clinically serious stress reaction symptoms."

15.2% of all male Vietnam theater veterans (479,000 out of 3,140,000 men who served in Vietnam) and 8.1% of all female Vietnam theater veterans (610 out of 7,200 women who served in Vietnam) are currently diagnosed with PTSD ("Currently" means 1986-88 when the survey was conducted).

PTSD

Other problems of Vietnam veterans