Lynn seeking public’s ideas on helping homeless

LYNN – At a time when the ranks of homeless veterans are growing, the city is preparing to determine how well it assists local homeless men and women.Anyone with ideas on housing and serving the homeless can offer them on Feb. 12 at 9:30 a.m. in the community room at 10 Church St. off Neptune Boulevard near the YMCA.Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development officials are required under federal law to consider comments offered at the public hearing in determining how to spend federal money on homeless assistance.About 1,500 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have been identified by the Department of Veterans Affairs as homeless. About 400 of them have taken part in VA programs designed to target homelessness.The 1,500 are a small, young segment of an estimated 336,000 veterans in the United States who were homeless at some point in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.Still, advocates for homeless veterans use words like “surge” and “onslaught” and even “tsunami” to describe what could happen in the coming years, as both wars continue and thousands of veterans struggle with post-traumatic stress.Mental illness, financial troubles and difficulty in finding affordable housing are generally accepted as the three primary causes of homelessness, including veterans’ loss of long-term shelter.Iraq veterans are less likely to have substance abuse problems but more likely to suffer mental illness, particularly post-traumatic stress, according to the Veterans Administration. And that stress by itself can trigger substance abuse.Some advocates say there are also some factors particular to the Iraq war, like multiple deployments and the proliferation of improvised explosive devices that could be pulling an early trigger on stress disorders that can lead to homelessness.The VA spends about $265 million annually on programs targeting homeless veterans. And as Iraq and Afghanistan veterans face problems, the VA will not simply “wait for 10 years until they show up,” Pete Dougherty, the VA’s director of homeless programs, said when the new figures were released.The VA now has more than 200 veteran adjustment centers to help ease the transition back into society, and the existence of more than 900 VA-connected community clinics nationwide.