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©Saratoga County Rural Preservation Company 2009 all rights Reserved |
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Homelessness and Women Veterans A.C. (Budd) Mazurek Executive Director, Saratoga County Rural Preservation Company One of the fastest growing segments of our homeless population is women veterans Women comprise 14% of our military forces; 11% of the military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are women; women are serving side by side with the male personnel, being placed in harm’s way more than ever in our nation’s history. The effects of this basic change of the role of women in our military has led to women experiencing the same challenges that face the male veterans, placed in combat situations – PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), TBI (traumatic brain injury), alcoholism, drug addiction, inability to reintegrate into civilian society, strained family relationships; for women, add to this list sexual assault, rape and unplanned pregnancies. These women return home to find that they can’t find a job or are unable to hold on to a job, due to the challenges they must deal with. Ultimately, these women veterans find themselves homeless – in fact, women veterans are four times more likely to become homeless than non-veteran women! The National Alliance to End Homelessness is reporting that there are 4,000 homeless women veterans in New York State out of a total women veteran’s population of 68,000 – meaning that one in 16 women veterans in this state are homeless! In Eastern Upstate New York alone there are estimated to be between 160-175 homeless women veterans on any given day. The federal government appears to be getting serious about ending homelessness among our veteran population; President Obama has pledged his support to aid our veteran population, in general, and the homeless Vet in particular. Locally, there is a grass root effort to establish a women veteran’s transitory shelter in Ballston Spa, to house up to 12 women; the organization behind this effort is the Saratoga County Rural Preservation Company (RPC), which has operated a male veteran’s transitory home for the past 18 years, offering shelter, advocacy, case management, employment opportunities and permanent housing options. RPC plans to apply this successful model to the women veteran’s facility. Homelessness with either gender is a national disgrace – while there exist a small portion of the homeless that wish to remain so, the vast majority want to get their lives back, want to get the treatment they need, want to gain meaningful employment, want to have a decent, permanent place to live and want to establish or re-establish relationships – and ultimately to re-join society as productive and contributing citizens. For more Information please contact Mr. Mazurek at (518) 885-0091 |
