Caban on homeless, incarcerated veterans and system failures

I also want to acknowledge veterans experiencing homelessness and veterans involved in our criminal legal system.

I was a public defender for a long time and a lot of our clients that, you know, came in persistently and consistently on low-level offenses that were born out of housing insecurity, mental health issues, substance use issues,

a lot of them were veterans.

And it's, again, that is another indication of the failure in our systems of care.

In both cases, untreated mental health and substance use needs are often at the root of how someone ended up unhoused or incarcerated.

Veterans should never fall through the cracks between city, state, and federal systems.

But too often, that's exactly what happens.

A veteran in crisis may end up in our shelter system or in police custody, rather than with someone trained in trauma-informed veteran-competent care.

This points to a larger truth.

Mental health care cannot be delivered in isolation from the rest of a veteran's life.

It's inseparable from whether they have stable housing, income, transportation, and providers who actually talk to one another.

Housing instability in particular is both the cause and consequence of untreated mental illness.

A veteran facing eviction is far less likely to keep a therapy appointment or stay in therapy, no matter how good that treatment is on paper.

And the same is true of food insecurity, unemployment, and lack of transportation.

These aren't peripheral issues.

They often determine whether a veteran can access care at all.