最新杏吧原创

It was a little after 9 p.m. in late May.

鈥淚鈥檓 in a bad way,鈥� she wrote me. 鈥淚鈥檓 forced to sleep in my car tonight. I just want someone to know.鈥�

We had met earlier that month. Buskuehl called me after I wrote a column about the city of 最新杏吧原创 giving a reprieve to the 鈥淩iverfront Community,鈥� a tent camp of homeless people along the Mississippi River, near Laclede鈥檚 Landing.

When most residents think of the homeless, Buskuehl told me, they think of people on the streets, living in tents, walking downtown asking for change, or flying a sign near a highway intersection. But there鈥檚 a whole lot of homeless people like her who never show up in the statistics 鈥� the 鈥渉idden homeless,鈥� she calls them.

鈥淎mericans tend to go by what they see,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey turn a blind eye to others in the middle.鈥�

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, female veterans are of the unsheltered population in the country. Buskuehl鈥檚 story helps explain why.

Patricia Tina Buskuehl is a 61-year-old Army veteran. She grew up in Ferguson. Since her long-ago military service 鈥� she was honorably discharged in 1980 鈥� Buskuehl has bounced among various places, mostly in California and Missouri. She survives on military disability payments and suffers from mental illness, which mostly goes untreated these days.

Buskuehl keeps her long, gray hair in a ponytail. She drives a 2013 Volkswagen Jetta that seems in good shape but is cluttered with clothes and belongings.

When she can afford it, she stays in hotels, finding deals and moving around a lot. She doesn鈥檛 like the older extended-stay hotels along Interstate 70 that sometimes serve as de-facto homeless centers. She likes to be near her storage unit in Ballwin, where she keeps her paperwork and other possessions. At least a couple of nights a month, she likes to stay in a nice place. It makes her feel human.

I met her the first time outside the AC Hotel in Chesterfield. When she can find a good rate, she has even stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton. She paid only $89 for one night, after a bit of haggling. Most nights she鈥檚 in a Hampton Inn or one of the chains of hotels found in every suburban highway exit in America.

On the night she texted, she had found a parking lot in a church along Manchester Road.

She texted me again the next day.

鈥淚 found a safe place to park last night,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淭hanks.鈥�

鈥楾hey get missed in the counts鈥�

For veterans, particularly those with post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health issues, being homeless is not an uncommon situation, even when some have disability income of up to $3,000 per month, as Buskuehl does.

Jason Kander, the former Missouri secretary of state, who wrote about his own struggles with PTSD in his new book says homelessness among veterans is such a huge problem because so many of them have untreated mental illnesses. Day-to-day tasks become hard to handle, even if money isn鈥檛 the most pressing issue.

鈥淚t鈥檚 much more common than people realize, that people who are homeless have an income,鈥� Kander says. 鈥淏ut when you鈥檙e dealing with things like PTSD or other mental health issues, things that might seem like minor issues to some people can be major issues for those who are homeless. Being homeless can become a full-time job. It takes so much energy to make sure you know where your next meal is, or where you will sleep that night.鈥�

Kander is a top executive with the Kansas City-based nonprofit , which was founded by combat veterans in 2016. The mission of the organization is to build 鈥渢iny house鈥� communities to help veterans who are homeless transition into full-time housing.

One of those tiny house communities is being built on North Grand Boulevard in 最新杏吧原创, just north of the John J. Cochran Veterans Hospital, where many veterans like Buskuehl have received treatment for PTSD.

The site hopes to open its first houses, and start providing other wrap-around services, in November. Some of the houses are being framed now. When finished, the community will have 50 houses. The 10 family units are about 320 square feet; the others will be 240 square feet. Every home will have a bed, television, kitchen, desk, chair and recliner.

Adam McBride, the executive director of VCP-最新杏吧原创, says the story of homelessness among veterans is often similar to Buskuehl鈥檚 story. Every year, a national count of homelessness is conducted in January, but it mostly accounts for people in shelters and on the streets, with volunteers hitting the streets in cities across the country looking for unsheltered people and making a point-in-time count.

The last count found more than 37,000 homeless veterans nationally. The count identified 488 homeless veterans in Missouri and 690 in Illinois. McBride is sure the real count is much higher, particularly among female veterans, who, he says, based on Veterans Administration statistics, are two times more likely to become chronically homeless than men.

鈥淭here are a lot of homeless veterans whose primary residence is their vehicle,鈥� McBride says. 鈥淭hey get missed in the counts.鈥�

One of the most important elements of the community being built in 最新杏吧原创 鈥� as well as those in Kansas City, Colorado, South Dakota and Oklahoma 鈥� is they include offices for case managers to help veterans access services for PTSD treatment, bus vouchers and various housing programs. The goal is for veterans to stay in the tiny house community for up to 11 months while they seek permanent housing. When a veteran leaves the community, they get to take all their possessions, including furniture, from the tiny house.

鈥淔or veterans with cognitive issues or mental health-related homelessness, assisting them with financial aid will not solve their housing instability,鈥� McBride says. 鈥淚t is the income and assistance with money management that allows the veterans to move into a permanent housing readiness state.鈥�

VCP-最新杏吧原创 won鈥檛 have income restrictions, and it will have homes reserved for both women and families.

PTSD caused by sexual trauma

For many women who are homeless veterans, PTSD is caused not necessarily by combat, but by military sexual trauma, says Kathryn Monet, the CEO of the .

鈥淢ilitary sexual trauma is a risk factor for experiencing homelessness,鈥� Monet said.

The VA鈥檚 research indicates that veterans who suffered a military sexual trauma are 1.5 times more likely to end up homeless, she said.

So it was for Buskuehl.

In her first year in the Army, she was raped by a superior officer at a base in California. The rape was never investigated, though her personnel and medical files are full of details as she has reported them for years during therapy sessions. Shortly after the rape, she sought to leave the Army, no longer feeling safe. Her request for honorable discharge was granted.

All too often, this is how the military deals with sexual assault, one of Buskuehl鈥檚 therapists wrote years later, in a letter to the VA explaining her difficulties.

鈥淚t is also not uncommon for commanders 鈥� to have the service member sent to behavioral health and seen by a chaplain, to support the commander in his efforts to initiate a discharge from the military,鈥� the therapist wrote.

Sexual assault has long been a problem in the military, with most rapes 鈥� more than 75%, 鈥� not even being reported. That鈥檚 in part because the military has long had a spotty record on following through on such investigations. The same study suggests more than 60% of service members who have been sexually assaulted say they have been retaliated against after reporting rapes up the chain of command.

Buskuehl says she was proud to serve her country in the Army. Her records show that before the rape, she had good marks in various evaluations. She was planning on making military service a career. She says her life, so well planned out until that moment, has been mostly a shambles since.

鈥淲hen a human being is denied justice, especially at an early age, when they can鈥檛 make sense of the world yet, they continue to be victimized,鈥� Buskuehl told me. 鈥淚鈥檝e been disabled since Nov. 20, 1979. I just didn鈥檛 know it.鈥�

A fall into aimlessness

Buskuehl grew up in Ferguson, the child of first-generation immigrants. Her father drove a truck for a living. Her mom worked as a waitress at a restaurant downtown.

Buskuehl attended St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School. She was a good student and a member of the National Honor Society. She hoped to go to the University of Missouri-最新杏吧原创, but a counselor told her the military might be a better option. Her senior year she lived away from home for a while, in a friend鈥檚 basement. She enlisted in the Army after graduation.

After basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, Buskuehl came back to Ferguson to work as a recruiter. Then, in fall of 1979, it was off to Fort Ord in California. The rape happened the first week she was there.

In a VA report, one of her therapists described the effects of the rape on Buskuehl鈥檚 life, detailing a fall into aimlessness, as well as mental trauma that would render her unable to hold a job.

鈥淭he veteran reported that she was never asked whether she was assaulted even though symptoms of severe abdominal pain reflected that a trauma occurred and didn鈥檛 receive proper care for the trauma,鈥� the therapist wrote.

For the bulk of her adult life after she was discharged from the Army, Buskuehl buried the rape deep in her memory banks. She bounced around odd jobs and relationships, never quite stable, but most of the time not homeless either.

In 1998, she came back home to Beardsley Court to take care of her ailing mother, who died two years later. Buskuehl stayed in the house. At the time, she wasn鈥檛 receiving military disability payments. She wasn鈥檛 in therapy. She knew her life was a mess but she didn鈥檛 know why. Or she couldn鈥檛 remember, anyway.

That changed in May 2011. That鈥檚 the first time she remembers telling a VA therapist about the rape. Various therapists, veterans鈥� advocates and even the office of former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill would work over the next few years to get her financial aid for her PTSD, a diagnosis confirmed by multiple physicians and therapists.

By this time, Buskuehl was functionally homeless, and all alone. Her parents and siblings had all died. In December 2010, a pipe burst at the family home in Ferguson, rendering it unlivable. She didn鈥檛 have the money to fix it, so she abandoned the home. Every couple of years, she鈥檇 get caught up on back taxes, but she stopped living there. The empty house deteriorated. Eventually, she sold it for a fraction of what it was worth so she didn鈥檛 have to keep paying the back taxes every year.

鈥業 don鈥檛 deserve to be homeless鈥�

Without her home, Buskuehl was rudderless. When the VA first approved her for PTSD payments in 2013, she received about $1,200 a month. That鈥檚 because the federal government didn鈥檛 yet recognize military sexual trauma as a cause for her PTSD, which would eventually spur a larger payment.

She found affordable housing for veterans in Long Beach, California, near where her grown daughter lived. When, in 2014, the VA upped her disability payments, after recognizing she was 100% disabled, she made too much for the complex where she lived and she had to move.

Unable to find housing in California, she came back to Missouri. Buskuehl hasn鈥檛 had regular housing for years. Now, with the post-pandemic rise in rents, Buskuehl believes finding a regular place to live is a hopeless endeavor.

鈥淭here are no caps on how much people can charge for rentals 鈥� and the government is not raising fixed income at the same level as housing rates are rising,鈥� Buskuehl says. 鈥淒isability income is not enough to qualify for an apartment, even in 最新杏吧原创. I live out of my car and I live in hotel rooms, which eats up all the disability income. That鈥檚 not right for a disabled veteran.鈥�

Buskuehl is hardly alone, says Donald Burnes, founder of the in Denver.

鈥淎 fair number of people experiencing homelessness receive disability,鈥� Burnes says. 鈥淏ut typical disability checks are far short of providing sufficient funds to pay rent. The overall benefit system is really failing so many of our poorer brothers and sisters, in part because many of the benefits are tied to the federal poverty level, a grossly outmoded and unfair basis for providing benefits to anyone.鈥�

Buskuehl carries thick folders with her, held together with paperclips and wrapped with rubber bands. One has some of her military records; another includes various printouts of her apartment hunts. She visits the VA regularly but doesn鈥檛 get much treatment these days for her PTSD, in part because every time she goes there she insists somebody help her unravel the story of what happened in November 1979.

She is still seeking redress for a rape more than four decades ago. She can鈥檛 move on.

鈥淚 was Patty Buskuehl for the first 19 years of my life,鈥� Buskuehl says. 鈥淭he rape left me with a new identity. I can鈥檛 get those 32 years back.鈥�

So she muddles on, a night in a hotel here, another night in another hotel. One night last week, it was a coffee shop parking lot in Kirkwood.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 deserve to be homeless,鈥� Buskuehl says.

You won鈥檛 pass her on the street, asking for money, or sleeping on a bench. But she is there, wandering around 最新杏吧原创, wondering where she will sleep tomorrow night.