Just Asking Questions
this is a pic of yesterdays blog subject of the planting of rhubarb by my crack staff.
The other day I
was coming off I 77 and exiting at Fulton rd. to head over to Harbor Freight at
Whipple and on the side of the road in a spot where I had observed him before
was a homeless veteran, or so the sign says homeless veteran panhandling for
money. Now I am be getting into a touchy area by even saying anything about
this but I have heard quite a bit about homeless veterans and think it is a
travesty at least, that we can’t take of our homeless veterans at least, let
alone homeless in general. We have a multitude of supposed charitable services
ranging from churches to organizations which specifically seek funds from the
public for that specific purpose and include it in their general statement;
still we have people standing beside the road.
close up of rhubarb plants mulched in straw - a nice rain is pinnng the straw down nice. always a plus after placing. beats a good wind to blow it all away at 6 dollars a bale.
Number one, I question I legitimacy of the
person standing there and wonder if the sign isn’t a convenient heart tug aimed
at getting those that feel that immediate sense of sorrow at the thought of one
of our nations defenders lowered to soliciting spare change along the road, and
if this is further strengthening the
hype associated with a lot of what you hear on the media. According to current statistics
it appears as though there are currently 50 000 homeless veterans who are
experiencing issues of mental health associated with drug use or a variety of personal
issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder. And about which I don’t really
want to deny these people are not qualified to receive help in one way or
another. Instead my point of interest in all this is the fundraising that is
going on, on behalf of the veterans in an effort to get them off the street.
A real eye opener and the one agency who supposedly are advocates for veterans and actively seek funds for them and by their own reports was a source for information on veterans is the Department of Veteran Affairs and on their website supported by the taxpayers I have found this information available by which they offer vouchers to homeless veterans and is funded by taxpayer dollars –
VA Programs For Homeless Veterans
On
this page:
Housing
U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH)
This collaborative program between
HUD and VA combines HUD housing vouchers with VA supportive services to help
Veterans who are homeless and their families find and sustain permanent
housing.
How
It Works
Through public housing authorities, HUD provides rental assistance
vouchers for privately owned housing to Veterans who are eligible for VA health
care services and are experiencing homelessness. VA case managers may connect
these Veterans with support services such as health care, mental health
treatment and substance use counseling to help them in their recovery process
and with their ability to maintain housing in the community. Among VA homeless
continuum of care programs, HUD-VASH enrolls the largest number and largest
percentage of Veterans who have experienced long-term or repeated homelessness.
As of Sept. 30, 2015, HUD had allocated more than 78,000 vouchers to help house
Veterans across the country.
It seems as though the federal government is doing its part by offering housing
to displaced veterans, and when you do a search for homeless veterans’
organizations doing fundraising efforts on behalf of veterans and you will find
a myriad of different organizations that say they are in fact helping veterans
secure housing and are advocates for their general health. Yet the media and
different political entities claim we are lacking in our approach to handle
this sad situation.
I did some research and checked out the financial reports required by nonprofit
organizations that claim they are in fact supporting veterans and one I will
share with you on here is the Disabled Veterans National Foundation who spent
25 million dollars of 37 million it brought in in fundraising expenses. This was
further reduced by 2 million in administrative costs and an additional amount
was further reduced by a law suit, brought on by the state of New York questioning
their fundraising financials. Almost 67 per cent of the money collected went to
fundraising which I guess is an allowed expense. That seems to be quite a waste
when it comes to actually helping veterans. According to what I read they were
able to help 5000 veterans who shared 6 million of the 37 million dollars
brought in by donations to veterans with what they had left. Where did the rest
of the money go?
told you it would rain, could feel it in my bones.
Like all charitable organizations they are supposed to publicly account
for every dollar in their public financial statements. That seems like a disproportionate
amount of money spent for fundraising and surely I would like to see the rest
of their full disclosure which appears to be hidden in another report. Even half
of that 25 million or 12.5 million spent on fundraising activities could have
been spent actually doing something for veterans. They did say their
administrative costs had increased due to defending themselves from the lawsuit
by the state of New York as a reason for not being able to help as much as they
wanted to.
This is one of a multitude of nonprofit charities set up to help veterans.
Still I see this guy on a regular basis standing in the same location with the
same sign claiming to be homeless. Is part of the reason we are still seeing
this guy out there is that he has found it more lucrative to prey on society,
or are there other mitigating factors like we really don’t want the homeless
veteran programs to go away. This would dry up fundraising abilities and reduce
charitable donations.
It just seems to me like there is plenty of help out there or there
should be if a charity is truly righteous in their desire to help the homeless
veteran. And at that I call on our nations churches of whom our nation supports their religious
freedom and wonder why of all people to help, they haven’t stepped forward to
help those who would need it most. If nothing else they need to throw open
their doors and house the homeless veterans there. At the very least there
should never be a homeless veteran in our society in America today. The money
is there and a desire to end the problem yet we are still constantly bombarded
by the media and by those out there that really don’t want the problem to go
away , but instead keep it full frontal, in plain view to keep those
fundraising efforts alive.
I am sure there are new cases coming to light daily of servicemen and
women who are in need of help and that
continuing the fundraising efforts helps to head off those needs. Still I wonder
who is actually benefitting from any of this fundraising and why does it cost
so much to take money for free. Emails are still free and of course, should be
the preferred way for nonprofits to secure funding. I am sure someone is living
a comfortable life in a nice home as a result of these fundraising efforts. Lawyers
, veterans , others , who is sharing this 25 million dollars? Printing firms ,
who knows, but I am sure their programs are not working. I still see homeless
veterans standing beside the interstate with signs. What gives?
lily and firsty , her firstborn playing
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