Helping Homeless Veterans Regain Independence, Security
Kathryn Jacob, Executive Directior, Housing Crisis Center
Kathryn Jacob, Executive Director, Housing Crisis Center
Housing Crisis Center works to prevent homelessness and stabilize families, the elderly, and the disabled in decent, affordable, and permanent housing. HCC empowers these groups to solve their own housing problems in the future by providing free legal services for Dallas County residents, short- and long-term transitional shelter as well as permanent supportive housing and emergency financial assistance.
When we see the homeless on the streets, we often ask ourselves these two questions:
What happened here? Could this happen to me?
The conditions that lead to homelessness are rarely limited by a single issue, often combining financial and medical crises, and mental illness.
Of the 5,800 homeless men and women in Dallas County, at least 800 are also veterans.
In the case of homeless veterans, the path to homelessness is often sparked by a traumatic experience – sometimes during combat and at times unrelated to a combat experience.
In a story that unfortunately repeats itself all too often, the trauma triggers a painful mental illness –depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder – that leads to a rollercoaster of symptoms that lead to homelessness. In some cases, that rollercoaster includes a dangerous cycle of self-medication through illegal (or illegally used) substances such as crack, heroine, alcohol, or prescription medications. This is a recipe for disaster – and the longer a homeless veteran struggles with this, the longer it will take to pull him or her out of the situation.
The Housing Crisis Center recently received its second grant to offer permanent supportive housing for veterans and their families. We can now house 80 veteran households on any given night in Dallas County. Permanent supportive housing has been available since 2005 and offers lifetime – if needed – case management, housing, and other services. It is ideal for those who face very complex challenges. Veterans are strong candidates for this service as often there are substance abuse disorders, physical, or mental disabilities that limit their self-sufficiency.
The program works to eliminate barriers that prevent a client from living independently. Services can include assistance with rent, utilities and furniture, money management training, daily living skills, landlord-tenant education and access to supportive counseling services for the veteran and his or her family.
We often ask of ourselves: Are we taking care of those who have risked their lives to protect us?
While the number of those served by the Housing Crisis Center is just a small fraction of the need in our community, the services in our permanent supportive housing program are comprehensive and intense. If you know a veteran who is in need of long-term housing or you would like to help us in serving those who have served us, please contact the Housing Crisis Center at 214.828.4244 ext. 102.
To identify available resources in your community, dial 2-1-1 or go online to 2-1-1 Texas, the statewide referral network for health and human services. Learn more about how area agencies are helping North Texans in need on the Community Voices page of KERA’s Economy Web site.
Community Resources, Families, General, Health Care, Housing
emergency housing, homelessness, Housing Crisis Center, Kathryn Jacob, KERA Economy Project, social services, veteran services, veterans
Thank you, Housing Crisis Center, for all you do to prevent homelessness in Dallas County. The homeless are especially on our mind when it’s so cold out, but they need help every day of the year.
It is nice to know that you were here since 2005. Why wasn’t I referred to your program through 2-1-1 or any other organization in 2006?
Now, when I went through my crisis, I had full contact with the VA Hospital in Dallas, was employed in a job that seasonally had full time hours, and used my contacts and education to try to find assistance for a hand up for a short time to stabilize my housing issues (I couldn’t find an apt to rent that I could afford with two children because I was in the middle of converting my Chapter 13 bankruptcy to a Chap.7).
Because I chose to be a responsible parent, I could not get services; I had asked the my children’s father to allow them to live with him until I could find housing and a good job. When I ran low on money, and all I could afford was gas to get to and from work, I was denied emergency food stamps. I was told that I was considered “properly sheltered” because lived in my car. My income was considered adequate to support me, with no consideration of my responsibility as a custodial parent because I wasn’t dragging them around on the street with me. I didn’t have a lease and could not afford a hotel room. I was turned down for program after program because my daughter was almost 16, and because my children “were not with me”.
I was fortunate to have a very large tax return in March 2006. I saved me…after a brief stay in a women’s shelter who took me in because I was still recovering from injuries and PTSD from domestic assault.
Repeatedly, I have had to “save me”. I wasn’t abusing drugs, alcohol, my kids, my dog, or unwilling to work; I did not have a criminal record of any kind, had never been arrested, and used to hold a high level military security clearance…yet, the model for “homeless programs” doesn’t address people like me, despite being a veteran. I didn’t fit a mold, I wasn’t “far enough down” to get the help I needed. I just think it is perverse to have to fall completely to the bottom of the ladder, when all that was needed was help holding onto the rung I was still on!
I lost custody of my son to his biological father, but retained custody of my daughter in the end. Dad was secretly working with a lawyer behind my back with the full intention of making a custody grab. When I went to court to fight it, I was treated like I was a loser, incompetent parent…like I had done something wrong by asking for his help, keeping my kids stabilized in school, maintaining employment while seeking better paying work, and still paying for their needs. I was wrong to be living in my car, rather than subject my children to a homeless shelter. They DID have a safe place to go…WHY would I ever put them in harms way to get help for myself. NEVER!
My point of writing this, as a Navy veteran, is that the people who think they have a cookie cutter plan of action that is one size fits all…are wrong. Homelessness can happen suddenly…but is precipitated often by a series of destabilizing forces. I spent 2 years “at risk”. There needs to be an organization willing to meet the challenges that any given individual is facing. Shopping around for a program was futile for me…I didn’t fit the “mold” or stereotype. I also got tired of being treated like I was addicted or substance abusing, or people assuming I was a prostitute.
Today, I have a great job again and my daughter is in college. One program bent their “rules” and stabilized my living situation for 6 weeks. It was just enough time for me to get back up. But overall, it was what I would call a bootstrap experience. I have less faith in social programs and our great “safety net” than ever before…I fell right through the damn thing! I commute to work in downtown Dallas daily, but the memories of this experience have changed me…I no longer see wooded areas as beautiful natural scenery. I instead see, a place to hide for safety, a place to camp for the night, a place to bathe privately and safely…I see my world in survival mode and experience wonder when I pull into my driveway at my house every night.
I slept in a car and bathed and dressed in the woods. I went to work in a suit or business clothes…my makeup was flawless, my hair clean and shiny. Who would have guessed I was eating 3 day old pizza and was sending every extra dime to my kids and a bankruptcy lawyer? Who would have guessed I later lived in a women’s shelter? I remember every day I step in the shower and the water is as hot as I want it to be.
I just wonder if the next “me” has already passed through your doors only to be told that “they do not meet the program’s criteria”.
Pamala McBrayer