November Cause – Veterans Homelessness

According to Volunteers of America, There are many factors involved in veteran homelessness – shortage of affordable housing, difficulty in finding a job with a livable wage that utilizes their military experience, dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and access to health care.   

Stars and Stripes says although the homelessness rate among veterans have been decreasing over the past 10 years, one homeless veteran is one too many.  Although The HUD-VASH program has vouchers for veterans to use, many veterans don’t take advantage of them because of the rising cost of housing and housing related expenses in some parts of the country.

This Month, we are shining a spotlight on Veteran Homelessness.  Being a Veteran family (Karen was in the Navy Nurse Corp and her father was a Marine), we want to work with organizations to raise awareness of veteran homelessness and provide links to resources and websites that can help. 

• US Department of Veterans Affairs – Veterans Experiencing Homelessness

• VA National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans – NCHAV – Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) – Established in 2011 to rapidly re-house homeless Veteran families and prevent homelessness for those at imminent risk due to a housing crisis.

• National Call Center for Homeless Veterans  877-4AID-VET

• National Conference of State Legislatures – Veteran Homelessness: Overview of State and Federal Resources

• The Military Wallet – Help for Homeless Veterans

• National Alliance to End Homelessness – Veterans

Here are some charities/non-profits to help homeless veterans.

• Disable American Veterans (DAV)
• Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of American (IAVA)
• National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
• U.S Vets
• Volunteers of America

We are active members of several Facebook Veterans-related groups and here are some of the charities/non-profits and other organizations we found to be good resources:

• Veterans Matter
• Final Salute Inc
• Change Haven
• Veterans Integration Centers
• Operation We are Here

We are still talking with several organizations and will be announcing the organization we will be partnering with during our November Cause – Veterans Homelessness. Above Artistic is a T-shirt Company with a Cause and we will be donating $3 of every shirt sold online to our partner.  Check Back to see who our partner will be!!

Above Artistic Team