•    Post Vietnam vets at higher risk for homelessness than "Nam Vets
•    Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are so far under-represented on the streets

Researcher: Combat No Predictor of Vet Homelessness

By Rick Rogers
DefenseTracker.com

Information emerged from the Department of Veteran Affairs Homeless Summit that might raise some eyebrows: The psychological trauma of combat is not the main reason most homeless combat veterans are on the streets.

According to Robert Rosenheck, a researcher and director of VA’s Northeast Program Evaluation Center in West Haven, Conn., a host of factors other then combat conspire to produce homelessness in those veterans who have seen action.

In surveys of veteran homeless, 59 percent said military service had nothing to do with their homelessness.

“The reasons veterans are homeless are mainly the reasons other people are homeless. It’s not their combat service for most of them,” Rosenheck concluded.

Another finding: While 40 percent of homeless veterans are Vietnam-era veterans, it’s the post-Vietnam veterans — the first generation of volunteer Army veterans — that are more likely to become homeless.

This group of veterans, aged 35 to 44, represent 14 percent of the general veteran population, but a whopping 34 percent of the homeless veteran population, according to Rosenheck.

“You are 3.2 times greater to be homeless in the post-Vietnam era if you are a veteran than if you are not,” Rosenheck said.

The reason for the disproportionate numbers, argues Rosenheck, is thus: Because the military was not held in very high esteem after Vietnam, the people it attracted were largely motivated to join by economic necessity. That meant that when they left the service, they had less of an economic cushion and therefore were more likely to fall victim to the kind of financial downward spiral that could lead to homelessness.

As for younger veterans, Rosenheck’s data doesn’t show Iraq and Afghanistan veterans following the same path – so far.

While OIF/OEF veterans represent 4 percent of the population, they compose just 1.3 percent of the homeless veteran population. Rosenheck added that the last time an in-depth national survey of the homeless population in America was taken was in 1996, and that it’s  time for an updated one.

But what might be true is that is just too early to tell. Rosenheck said that, on average, it takes veterans 12.5 years after their military service to end up on the streets.