Homeless veteran carries baby

Battling veterans' homelessness
WXYZ.com
Jennifer Lin
January 7, 2014

PHILADELPHIA - For Megan Bergbauer, her first years out of the Marine Corps were tough.

After serving three years at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, Bergbauer, now 30, moved back to Ambler - about 16 miles north of Philadelphia - in 2010 with a young daughter, marriage problems and no job. "You go into the military and they pay for your housing, they pay for your food," said Bergbauer, a former field radio operator and mail clerk in the Marines. "Then you're out, and if you don't find a job, it's like, 'Uh-oh.' Then what?"

She stayed with relatives and sometimes slept in her car. Bad turned to worse. Bergbauer cycled in and out of shelters, even sleeping for two weeks in LOVE Park in the Center City neighborhood.

"It was a nightmare," Bergbauer said.

A national nightmare, as it turns out.

Each year, about 150,000 veterans become homeless - about one in 10 former military men and women, said Dennis Culhane, an expert on homelessness at the University of Pennsylvania.

Many are dealing with combat trauma, while others are struggling to find work with skills that do not necessarily translate into today's workforce, he said.
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