Advocates Seek Aid For Homeless Female Veterans

Advocates Seek Aid For Homeless Female Veterans

By ANN MARIE SOMMA Courant Staff Writer


Caroline Contreras says a rape at Fort Dix, N.J., 20 years ago derailed her military career and sent her on an inexorable path of addiction and homelessness.

But what the 48-year-old veteran says she remembers most painfully is how her government let her down when she finally sought help.

Last year, Contreras showed up at the U.S. Veterans Administration facility in West Haven homeless and ready to sober up and deal with the trauma of the sexual assault by fellow servicemen.

She completed the VA's substance abuse treatment program, restored her self-worth after working with a therapist and shed her destructive coping skills. When she was ready to leave the program to rebuild her life, the VA had no place to send her.

Women-only shelter beds in the state were full. Transitional housing wasn't available. The best the VA could offer her was a bus ticket to a shelter in Massachusetts.

"It brought me back to the way I felt when I was raped," Contreras said. "I was insignificant. I wasn't worthy. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the respect of a male veteran."
go here for more
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJUL08/nf072808-7.htm