This week one of our Oregon WAND members wrote a Letter to the Editor that appeared in the local newspaper. It read:
Recently, as I was leaving my building to go to dinner, there was a homeless man in my building’s outer foyer. Knowing that someone would call the police to have him evicted, I asked him to please go outside.
He almost cried and said, “Where can I go? I’m cold and tired and wet. Where can I go?” He was not drunk.
During the day there are places homeless people can slip into for a few hours, but at night?
I need an answer for the next time that happens.
Where can he go?
Carol Lavery
Eugene Register Guard Letters to the Editor, October 24, 2012
Homelessness is an issue that touches us all in one way or another. The answers are complex and poignant, and often just out of reach.
My suggestion on How to help military Veteran Homelessness: PAY VETERANS THEIR BENEFITS PROMPTLY instead of putting them on a hampster wheel of denials. Veterans for Common Sense says it takes an average of 4.4 years for a Veteran to appeal his claim at the BVA (Blinded Veterans Association). Many Vets can not wait 4 years for their benefits and become homeless while on the long waiting list. The VARO’s (Veterans Affairs Regional Office) keep making the same mistakes, over and over again, denying Veterans and never learning anything from the court cases that reverse the denials.The Veterans Benefit Manual published by Lexis Nexus demonstrates that there are 22 common errors made by the RO’s requiring Veterans to appeal or forfeit their benefits. These common mistakes, repeated by the VARO’s over and over again, result in Veteran homelessness en masse.