Lawmakers raise issue of homeless, incarcerated vets

For Tyrone McMullins, a Vietnam War veteran, the real troubles started when he left the Marine Corps in 1970. With few skills, he struggled to find a job. Then he turned to drugs.

"I found myself right back into that void," said McMullins, 60, a Wilkes-Barre native serving a two- to four-year sentence in state prison in Chester for selling drugs.

While communities honored local veterans with celebrations and parades yesterday, two political rivals turned their attention to less visible military service members: the homeless and incarcerated veterans.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter met with four previously homeless veterans at the National Constitution Center to raise awareness about federal programs available to veterans facing homelessness. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, who will challenge Specter in the May Democratic primary, met with McMullins and three other incarcerated veterans and later visited a ministry in Chester that aids the homeless.

Sestak, a former three-star admiral who served 31 years in the Navy, said he wanted to ensure that veterans who ended up in jail or prison had proper health care, including mental-health and substance-abuse intervention.

"I am advocating for a seamless transition in which VA doctors communicate with the physicians at the local, state, and federal level charged with providing medical care to prisoners and ensure veterans receive the treatment they require," he said in a statement. "We cannot leave them alone in prison until we have made every effort to help them become well and whole again."

In a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, Sestak urged that incarcerated veterans get medical care that is coordinated with Veterans Affairs.

All four veterans who met with Sestak yesterday said they struggled with alcohol or substance abuse. One Marine Corps veteran who served a combat tour in Vietnam said some veterans hadn't been prepared for what they would witness in war.

"You develop an attitude that every day could be your last day," said the veteran, who gave his name as Paul. "The only way to relieve that was to go to town and drink some beer. It was accepted. No one said there was anything wrong with that."

During the Vietnam era, the military had fewer resources for veterans suffering mental-health problems, and many turned to drinking, he said. Paul, 61, a Lebanon County native, is serving three to seven years in the Chester state prison for vehicular homicide after a drunken-driving accident.

"We have to do much, much more," Sestak said.

In Philadelphia, Specter had his own Veterans Day event to promote federal aid available to homeless veterans and a new federal program aimed at ending veterans' homelessness in five years.

Federal programs have helped veterans like Yvette Quinn, who found herself homeless after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Quinn, 30, a native of North Philadelphia who moved to Louisiana after her service in the Marine Corps, said she was never able to get back on track after the storm and ended up staying in homeless shelters.

But through a program run by Veterans Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Quinn found financial help. She and her children are now in an apartment in Northeast Philadelphia, and she receives cash assistance and food stamps while she looks for work.