Veterans Left Behind

We bury our veterans. As a nation we are, perhaps, ill-equipped to deal with the human consequences of our conflicts, so we bury them. For our country's fallen soldiers, it is a somber tribute. But, metaphorically at least, we also have a tendency to bury the living – the veterans who return to our shores with devastating physical and mental injuries. The inadequacy of the treatment returning vets receive is well documented, from the travesty of neglect at Walter Reed to the sharp climb in homelessness. Collaborative governance offers a potential roadmap to ameliorate this public ill.  Using New York City and its veteran community of 237,302 people as an example, several distinct dilemmas , including: homelessness, unemployment, and additional demand for support services, highlight areas where collaborative governance can ensure that veterans' needs are more effectively met.
Start with homelessness. Veterans are homeless at a rate significantly higher than the rest of the population.  The City of NY and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) created the Operation Home Task Force (OHTF) (itself an instance of collaborative governance), which between 2006 and 2009 reduced veteran homelessness by 62%. But the OHTF failed in the “… reintegration of veterans back into the community through housing, employment and cash assistance as appropriate.”

Unemployment is also a salient problem for the veteran community. According to a report by Senator Gillibrand, in 2008-2009, there was a 4,300 person increase in the number of unemployed veterans, bringing the total to 17,300.  Simultaneously, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) reports that the unemployment rate for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, specifically, averages two percent  higher than that of their civilian peers.  These trends are indicative of extraordinary barriers to veteran employment. Veterans often fail to gain employment, according to the IAVA, because many civilian employers do not know how to interpret their qualifications.  Community organizations can provide a remedy by providing an array of career support services specific to veterans helping them identify and overcome obstacles to employment, and making them more competitive in the current economic downturn.  Mentoring programs in Fortune 500 companies can smooth the transition for vets entering a non-military workforce, and agencies can help design and implement these programs, and help veterans find and take advantage of them.

Of course, a substantial number of veterans are frankly incapable of getting and holding a job, a key component in reducing veteran homelessness. The New York Times recently reported that the suicide rate within the Army has risen dramatically over the past several years, while the IAVA emphasized that the rates for veterans are likely higher.  The suicide rate is fed by post-traumatic stress disorder and a host of psychological ailments plague returning vets. For many vets, access to VA healthcare is limited to two years following discharge; additionally, the VA system is overextended and many veterans are afraid of losing their benefits (or do in fact lose them) because of alcohol or substance abuse problems, making them unlikely to approach the VA at all.

There needs to be greater entree for veterans to various support services, including addiction counseling for drug and alcohol abuse problems, and counseling for depression and PTSD. Getting unaffiliated community organizations more involved through collaborative governance efforts - creating links between VA and civilian organizations bolstering and supplementing existing resources, and enabling third-party support networks - offers a more benign alternative.

By creating avenues between the community services provided to the population at large and the services provided specifically to the veteran community the likelihood of solutions will increase. While the public policy issues specific to veterans’ – homelessness, unemployment, psychological support services, and care giving solutions – present a population at risk and a community that must be strengthened, the barriers to success are not insurmountable, and can be addressed in part through collaborative governance behaviors.