Some homeless veterans have just given up hope

If you want to judge a homeless veteran, next time, think about how they ended up there.

Reaching out to homeless veterans on Chattanooga's streets
by Yolanda Putman

Within three weeks, an outreach specialist will drive in a Veterans Administration van looking for homeless veterans living on Chattanooga's streets.

"If there's a veteran on the street who needs medical, housing, employment services ... we're reaching out," said Dan Heim, Health Care for Homeless Veterans program coordinator with the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System.

Medical, addiction and dental services also are available to veterans.

The outreach specialist also will do outreach in mission shelters and halfway houses looking for veterans who may not be aware of the services available to them. The outreach specialist will have an office in the VA Outpatient Clinic off Brainerd Road. The goal is to educate veterans about VA services and to end veteran homelessness by 2015.

But Vietnam veteran Ronald Walker, 62, said veterans in Chattanooga do know of the services available to them.

"Most veterans realize where they can go to get help. It's just that a lot of them have given up hope," said Walker, while lounging in a chair at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen, which provides the homeless with food, day shelter and more.
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When I Came Home
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Iraq War veteran Herold Noel suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and lives out of his car in Brooklyn. Using Noel's story as a fulcrum, this doc examines the wider issue of homeless U.S. military veterans-from Vietnam to Iraq-who have to fight tooth-and-nail to receive the benefits promised to them by their government.