$1.4 million for homeless veterans

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WWLP) - They served our country, but many veterans come back to no place to live.

Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans’ Services Coleman Nee told 22News, “They have challenges and problems and sometimes those challenges and problems lead them to be homeless. That's not fair we need to be able to support these folks."

Those returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have some unique struggles and veterans advocates gathered Thursday in Northampton to discuss how better to serve their changing needs.

Lt. Governor Timothy Murray said, “The challenges that each generation of veterans faces is very different the signature weapon of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the IED we see PTSD and TBI affecting as much as a third to a half of those that have served."

Women are the fastest growing segment of the military; they're also the fastest growing part of the homeless population, and they're coming back to a system that was designed primarily for men.

Craig Coldwell, who is the Mental Health Service Director of the VA New England Healthcare, said, “We at the VA we know we have a long way to go to adapt to our current military that's a significant minority are women and our facilities are really geared towards men because those were our customers back in the day so we're adapting."

Coldwell says it's incredibly common that these woman and even some men faced sexual harassment and trauma during their service.

Convincing these veterans to get help and use the services available is part the challenge.

In Western Massachusetts, finding ways to get veterans to those services is also an issue.

Jim Seney of the VA of Central and Western Massachusetts said, “We have mostly rural areas, some urban center but providing transportation to veterans to and from is a real challenge."

Massachusetts received $1.4 million in federal money this month to increase support to homeless vets in the state, focusing on peer services or veterans helping veterans.