The Hidden World of Homeless Veterans: Part 1

The retired vets with vehicles take care of the younger vets

Chattahoochee National Forest – Georgia: The startling statistics of homelessness in America, and among veterans in particular, were known when this writer began his interviews. According to several veterans organizations, roughly 1/3 of the +/- 3 million homeless Americans are veterans. Initially the assumption was that the finger of blame would be pointed at a duplicitous Veterans Administration or an indifferent Congress.  Local TV news teams, if they cover homelessness at all, will often go to a convenient inner city location, infer that the veterans are homeless due to alcoholism, then meet the other members of their staff for drinks and dinner.  The actual events which caused the veterans, interviewed, to be homeless had nothing to do with either the federal government or alcoholism.  The real villains will surprise most readers.

It is difficult to make generalized statements about homeless veterans because their current living locations are so dispersed.  National forests are attractive sites for homeless camps because the water is generally pure and the locations are hidden.   However, in most national forests, camp sites must be moved every two weeks.  In some states, the camp sites must be moved as far as ten miles.  This distance completely eliminates homeless people, who are also carless – IF they abide by the two week rule.  There is no way for them to move their belongings ten miles. Thus, the homeless with personal transportation are faced with the options that include violating U. S. Forest Service rules (i.e. breaking the law,) living in abandoned structures in violation of local zoning ordinances, or moving to inner city areas where tent cities for the homeless are concentrated. 

The writer set up a tent camping site in a remote area of the Chattahoochee National Forest, then hiked or drove around the backwoods areas looking for homeless people.  Because of the increasingly hostile attitude of the U.S. Forest Service toward the homeless, their compounds are difficult to locate without inside information.  Homeless Viet Nam War veterans are often of retirement age these days and therefore more visible. They tend to live in small recreation trailers. 

The writer found several retired vets living in recreation trailers, and then, after convincing a vet named Jim, of his trustworthiness, Jim arranged a meeting with some younger veterans. Jim, one of the retired Viet Nam vets, said that he acted as a mother hen for the younger guys, since he had a truck. The majority of homeless vet camps are not visible from either roads or trails frequented by hikers.

Contact was made with some Desert Storm and Iraqi Occupation veterans near Suches, Georgia.  Only three agreed to show their faces and talk at all. They were in the process of moving to another camp site.  There was one Winnebago trailer pulled by an older model Ford pickup. It is suspected that the older vet, who owned the truck, bought food and supplies for the others, but no one stated this. The remainder of the men (and possibly women) evidently lived in tents of varying sizes and condition.  I saw absolutely no evidence in the Chattahoochee National Forest of the consumption of alcoholic beverages or illegal drugs.  The men actually looked much healthier than the typical group of aging warriors.

Apparently, all the younger men were there because they were unemployed could not afford conventional housing and they were in arrears with their child support payments.  Like most states, Georgia severely penalizes fathers, who are tardy with their child support payments.  This will be discussed in more detail later.  Only one homeless vet in the camp whom we shall call Jack, was willing to discuss his personal life at all.

Jack was a Marine Lance Corporal in Desert Storm. After leaving the military in 2000, he had risen to being manager of a very successful sporting goods store franchise.  He formerly owned a house in the affluent Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta.  Then in 2005 disaster struck.

Jack severely cut his left thigh while sawing wood in the backyard.  His job required considerable floor walking.  After his medical leave expired, he was fired by his employer.  While his wound was healing, his family sold their stock and used up most of their savings to maintain the same lifestyle as when he was the store manager.  He eventually found a job as a retail salesman at less than half of his former salary.  His wife had to go back to work. 

In 2008 the economy began collapsing in the Atlanta Area.  Jack was laid off again.  Between his wife’s salary and his unemployment, they were unable to simultaneously make payments on their two cars, house note and car insurance.  First, his car was repossessed because of no insurance (not being in default on the loan.)  The mortgage payments were falling behind, when he found another job, making even less money.  He thought that his family had just gotten “over the hump,” when his wife announced that she had fallen in love with a man at her office.  She had already pulled their remaining savings out to hire a lawyer.  He could not afford a lawyer.

Jack was saddled with a child support payment based on his income as a store manager the previous year.  He quickly defaulted on the payments and went to jail several times.  After his ex-wife’s lover got a divorce and married her, the new husband hired a lawyer to get Jack’s child support payments reduced to zero.   However, Jack has been unable to find another job and has been living in the woods since spring of 2009.

It was obvious to the interviewer, that emotionally Jack was a broken man. His self-esteem is so crushed that it is unlikely that he will ever have a significant job again.  He has spent several months in the Fulton County Jail as if he was a real criminal.  His “crime” was not being able to afford an attorney in a divorce and child custody case.  One must also question the credentials of a judge, who would order $3000 a month child support from a man, who was only receiving $600 a month in State Unemployment benefits – AND who did not own a car.

In the next part of this article, we will interview a vet, who was able to say more about his personal life.