Shelter: America's Homeless Veterans - Al Jazeera

After years of waging war overseas, US veterans returning to civilian life struggle with PTSD, homelessness, addiction.

Roger Schultz served as a cannoneer sergeant in the US Marine Corps. He liked serving in the army, because "I learned how to be a Marine and nothing else. You always had somebody on your side."

Eventually he quit the army to be back with his family, but his wife left him the following year and his life spiralled out of control. Schultz ended up living out of his truck, barely getting by.

In search of a place to stay, he finally checked into a Veterans Resource Center (VRC) in California, which provides housing and group therapy for former members of the military. 

"This is my readjustment therapy... The way of life I learned in the Marines, it just doesn't mix in society. So we're learning how to adjust that, so I can maybe have a relationship with my children, my ex-wife, and next employer that doesn't turn destructive," says Schultz.

Scarred by war, many returning soldiers struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Their inability to adjust from combat life to civilian life often leads to substance abuse and addiction, thus, finding support for healing and recovery is a constant challenge.

The VRC and its counselors help returning veterans find jobs and sort out supplemental government income, healthcare needs and their housing situation. 

"[The purpose of] A 30-bed transitional programme for homeless veterans... is [to have] self-sufficient income, so we help them apply for benefits, we help them go back to school or get employment," explains Kendra Barter, VRC's clinical director. 

"Each veteran is different, their needs are different and so we're able to treat them to the root issues, whether it's addiction, whether it's mental health," says Barter.

As the veterans come together in the VRC, they reveal the scars that the brutality of war have left behind and the importance of human connection in the face of a life-long emotional and psychological battle. 

"Part of the pathology of trauma in a veteran is them wanting to isolate from society, from each other; you just want to be left alone and that's our biggest challenge," says Marc Deal, VRC's executive director.

"We fight desperately to get them out of their comfort zones and get them back together and get them to sit at a table, to make friends, you know, to do things that people in normal society do."

Based in Santa Rosa, California, the nonprofit VRC was launched in 1980 by Vietnam veteran Peter Cameron to help returning members of the military find homes, jobs and healthy relationships. Funded mostly by federal grants, it has served over 13,000 veterans, with 13 branches in California, Nevada and Arizona.

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