Air Force Veteran Deborah Caldwell, 29, just recently found out that she was eligible for assistance from the Veteran's Administration. Caldwell and her three children have been living at the Road Home homeless shelter since July 4. (Leah Hogsten / The Salt Lake Tribune)
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No one even asked if she was a veteran.

And Deborah Caldwell wouldn't have known that was a problem, except that she happened to notice that the social worker who was checking her into The Road Home shelter in Salt Lake City had skipped over a box labeled "veteran" on the paperwork.

The 29-year-old single mother figured the shelter would want to keep good records about who it was serving. So Caldwell mentioned, off-hand, that she had been in the Air Force.

And that might have been one of the most important decisions she made all year.

If the Department of Veterans Affairs is going to make good on an ambitious plan to end homelessness among military veterans in the next five years, an essential first step will be identifying, among America's ever-shifting homeless population, those who have served in the nation's military. And doing that is going to take a change in the cultural perceptions of who homeless veterans are.

VA social worker Jennifer Eaves, who works to identify homeless veterans throughout the Salt Lake Valley, said the majority of her clientele are older men, "but we're definitely seeing more and more young veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan."

And increasingly, she said, those young veterans are women.

More than 6,000 female veterans are homeless nationwide, according to VA figures. Eaves, who has been on the job for just 10 months, has identified at least a dozen women vets who are homeless in Utah.

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"And there's more out there," she said. "We're finding more all the time."

Put away the stereotypes of disheveled, gray-bearded men in old Army jackets and it makes plenty of sense. Women make up about 15 percent of the U.S. military and are serving in the nation's ongoing wars at unprecedented rates. Once home, they experience post-combat stress disorders -- mental health ailments that sometimes make it difficult to maintain relationships and employment and are key risk factor for homelessness -- at rates similar to their male counterparts.

They're also more likely to be single parents, another significant risk factor. And, as illustrated by Caldwell's case, women veterans seem to have more opportunities to fall through the cracks.

"I know I don't look like a veteran," Caldwell said. "I look young. I guess I don't look like I've served."

Even though she made sure her paperwork was accurate, a step that resulted in a referral to a VA counselor, Caldwell didn't immediately pursue the lead. "I didn't know there was anything out there for me," she said.

Once Caldwell did call the number she was given, she was put in touch with Eaves. The social worker helped lead Caldwell to health, welfare and employment resources. Eaves was also able to expedite paperwork to help Caldwell get her family out of the shelter and into subsidized housing -- a move that could come any day now.

But Eaves knows there are other women, maybe hundreds of other women, who either don't know they have access to VA programs or are reluctant to pursue those resources.

"Women are more likely to leave the military with a few less reasons to trust the system than men," said Eaves, who herself is a veteran of the U.S. Navy. "It's still true, today, that women suffer from humiliation, intimidation and sexual harassment."

A VA report from 2005 indicated that more than half of all female National Guard and Reserve military members report having been sexually harassed, assaulted or raped while serving in uniform. The problem is so pervasive and so psychologically debilitating that the armed forces have a name for it: "military sexual trauma."

"It's really no wonder they're not looking to us for help," Eaves said. "We've got to change the way all veterans see the VA, especially women."

For her part, Caldwell is sold. "I've gotten a lot of support," she said. "I'd like to make sure other women do, too."

And she already has. Everyone who goes through the intake process at the Road Home is now asked if they are a veteran.

 

mlaplante@sltrib.com

blogs.sltrib.com/military

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The annual Homeless Veterans Standdown will be today at the George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City.