Our own Bob Pratt spoke recently with the Santa Monica Daily Press about efforts to convert more VA buildings into housing for homeless veterans.
With estimates of over 15,000 homeless veterans on the streets of LA county, the article states that Santa Monica Mayor Bobby Shriver has been pushing for years for available buildings to be re-purposed to provide housing. The dire lack of such facilities is a problem exacerbated by "the large numbers of compromised veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and the appalling lack of mental health services available to them," especially as they suffer from high rates of PTSD and traumatic brain injury.
The article goes on to mention that around 15% of homeless veterans are women, often with children that enter homelessness alongside them. Bob Pratt describes his hopes for more housing opportunities for this particularly vulnerable group, as according to Pratt, female veterans' adjustment back to society is 'more and more severe,' due to 'negative sexual experiences on top of the PTSD.'
To read the full article and the rest of Bob's comments, click here.
