I-Team Blotter
Kaiser Report: CT Medicare Costs Sixth Highest In Nation
Little Progress Made On Health Disparities, New Report Shows
Settlement: Depakote Maker Injects $6 Million Into State Coffers
Nursing Homes Fined For Patient Death, Failure To Administer Drugs
Two Connecticut Doctors Lose Licenses in New York State
Over 500 Docs And Nurses Providing Care In Medical Homes
Medical Board Reprimands Doctor, Physician Assistant
Smaller Hospitals Struggle With Deficits
Nursing Homes Fined For Choking Death, Weight Loss
Breast Cancer Gene Patent Case Heads Back To Appeals Court
Medical Board Revokes Doctor’s License
Theresa Sullivan Barger reports
Three CT Nursing Homes Make 2012 ‘Honor Roll’
Yale, St. Raphael’s Detail Plans For Merger
Three Nursing Homes Face Fines For Patient Injuries
Medical Board Fines, Restricts Doc’s Surgical License
Transitional Housing Planned For Female Vets
by Tom Puleo | Dec 6, 2010 6:23 am
(1) Comment | Commenting has expired | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Eye on Veterans
The state’s female war veterans are about to get new transitional housing in Bridgeport that could serve as a national model.
The 15-bed facility - planned at a former rooming house at 66 Elmwood Ave. – will provide women with gender-specific services such as mental health counseling, life-skills coaching, vocational training and job placement.
About five percent of homeless veterans are women, the most in the nation’s history, as record numbers of women return from active combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Women veterans are a growing and very young population,” said Shalini S. Madaras, a director at Female Soldier: Forgotten Heroes, the group behind the $1.3 million project that gets underway in January.
“We have over 200,000 women rotating into the military nationally,“ Madaras said. “It was never that way before. We’re not equipped for this. When they come back, they can’t just go right back to being a sister or a wife or a mother. There’s that transition period they need.”
Women veterans are 3.6 times more likely to become homeless than women who never served in the military, according to research cited by Female Soldier: Forgotten Heroes.
A 2007 study by the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that female veterans are more likely to experience severe housing cost burdens than male veterans. Women represent only seven percent of veterans but 13.5. percent of veterans with severe housing cost burdens, the report found. Lack of affordable housing is a primary catalyst for homelessness amongst all veterans, according to the report.
Female Soldier: Forgotten Heroes recently purchased the building and secured zoning approval after several false starts at other sites in the past two years. The white, gabled structure would become Connecticut’s first housing facility designed specifically for women.
Connecticut has about 4,000 homeless veterans in general - with up to 300 of them women. The women are something of an invisible population, advocates say, because they don’t always seek help, opting instead to stay with friends or sleep in their cars.
Many left unstable housing situations while deploying overseas and struggle to find housing when they return. Connecticut has about 125 beds set aside for veterans, but less than 10 specifically for women, with most of those in institutional settings.
Madaras said the new facility is ideally located in a residential area.
“These are tech-savvy, smart women who can go out and do amazing things,” she said. “But they need that help, that little bit of a transition period, and it just has not been available. “
Post a Comment
- Commenting has closed for this entry