#156 Winter 2008-09 — Financial Crisis

Housing a Rising Homeless Population: Female Veterans

In Dayton, a 27-unit apartment building on the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Campus has been renovated to serve as housing for female veterans, one of about a dozen such facilities around the country.

The number of homeless female veterans far outstrips the affordable housing available for this increasing demographic, but a new housing complex in Dayton, Ohio, hopes to, at the very least, put a small dent in that number. According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there are an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 homeless female veterans, and that number continues to rise as female enlistment in the armed services increases. In Dayton, a 27-unit apartment building located on the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Campus has been renovated to serve as veterans housing and signals a growing trend around the country to establish housing for returning military personnel. But Dayton’s all-female housing project is one of about a dozen such facilities around the country.

The housing complex will make services including day care, job training, and drug and alcohol counseling available to vets. According to the V.A., women account for 5 percent of homeless veterans, up from 3 percent a decade ago. 

OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE

  • Gardening? It’s Gone to the Goats

    January 15, 2009

    The Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles is cutting its brush- and weed-clearing budget in half—by employing 100 goats.

  • Location, Location, Location

    January 15, 2009

    In an effort to promote inner-ring Philadelphia suburbs and unsung city neighborhoods, a regional planning commission has launched a high-profile informational campaign. The initiative, “Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia,” created […]

  • Chicago Public Housing Museum in the Works

    January 15, 2009

    The Chicago Public Housing Museum will trace 70 years of public housing through the stories and artifacts of six decades of residents of the red brick Addams buildings along Chicago’s West Taylor Street.