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More than 30,000 U.S. military veterans are homeless, though that number has gone down in the past decade, according to government data. The Trump administration has promised new housing for vets, but President Trump has also issued an executive order that aggressively targets homeless people, and veterans advocates fear that includes vets. NPR's Quil Lawrence rode along with some street-level outreach workers in Long Beach, California.
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QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Veronica Hood, with the group U.S.VETS, is loading up with hygiene kits and some hot meals, key tools for doing outreach to homeless vets.
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VERONICA HOOD: Oop. I'm so sorry.
LAWRENCE: The truck's stereo starts blaring.
HOOD: My phone just automatically connects.
LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Old school - Flock Of Seagulls. Woah.
PEDRO JAUREGUI: (Laughter).
HOOD: Pedro's like stop, turn this off.
JAUREGUI: Make it stop.
LAWRENCE: That's Pedro Jauregui, her partner today.
JAUREGUI: My name is Pedro Jauregui. I served two tours in Iraq.
LAWRENCE: They're both veterans with years of military service between them, and at this point, about as many years doing street outreach.
HOOD: So the first veteran we're going to go meet, his name is Curtis.
JAUREGUI: Curtis.
LAWRENCE: And they have a formula - a list of known homeless vets by name and a philosophy called housing first, where they try to get the vet indoors and then after that, tackle whatever other problems he or she has.
HOOD: And without sharing too much information, that's his first name - 87-year-old man.
JAUREGUI: Yeah.
HOOD: Navy veteran.
LAWRENCE: OK.
HOOD: And...
LAWRENCE: Eighty-seven? Wow.
HOOD: Yes.
LAWRENCE: You heard that right. We're looking for an 87-year-old vet living in his truck.
What's your guess about how long he's been on the street?
HOOD: It's hard to say 'cause he gives us different dates.
JAUREGUI: Yeah, I think it's been at least 20 years. I don't think - I think that after he got his divorce and he lost his housing, it's just not been consistent housing since then.
LAWRENCE: What's he driving around?
HOOD: It's a Dodge truck, maroon color. I can't - I don't know...
LAWRENCE: That's where he sleeps or...
HOOD: That's his whole livelihood. He switches around so we might have to search for him a bit.
LAWRENCE: U.S.VETS, the group they work with, has a bed lined up for him. And it doesn't sound hard - right? - to convince an 87-year-old man that even temporary housing is better than living in his truck. But he's reluctant.
HOOD: I think he might think he'd be a burden on people. So he really just wants to do it on his own.
JAUREGUI: And what proud man or vet wants to be a burden on anybody.
LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah.
JAUREGUI: Right?
LAWRENCE: Jauregui and Hood say it can take months or a year of dropping by with coffee or a hot meal to get from hostility to the trust that will lure a veteran off the street.
So you guys are, like, these experts in convincing people to (inaudible).
HOOD: Yes (laughter).
JAUREGUI: We're experts in building relationships.
HOOD: Yeah, that's it.
JAUREGUI: We build relationships, and then we use whatever we can to get the veteran the help he needs, you know?
HOOD: It's the same thing, like, how I would want Pedro to be treated, I'm sure how he would want me to be treated and...
LAWRENCE: And here's the issue that they're talking around, maybe to avoid the politics - President Trump made an executive order last year titled Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets. It leans heavily toward institutionalizing homeless people against their will. This winter, NPR obtained a proposal following up on the executive order that would include veterans in that plan. It's called Safe Harbor. Then in March, the VA put out a memorandum of understanding with the Justice Department about state court guardianships for veterans.
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DOUG COLLINS: We have veterans - not homeless, just veterans - who are in our facilities. They have no family.
LAWRENCE: That's VA Secretary Doug Collins speaking at the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans Annual Conference last month.
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COLLINS: They have no representation, and they really are not in a position to actually take - make competent choices for their own healthcare.
LAWRENCE: Collins rejected the idea that VA is going to start bringing homeless veterans into treatment against their will. He said the deal with the DOJ is just for vets stranded in VA hospitals.
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COLLINS: The court will find somebody in the community - not a VA employee, not a VA attorney - will then represent that veteran with respect to their medical well-being, moving them along, getting them the healthcare that they need.
LAWRENCE: Collins says Safe Harbor, still just a proposal, was leaked, and he accused the lead Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Mark Takano, of distorting it.
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COLLINS: And somebody in our building leaked it to the Hill. And guess what? Representative Takano happily put out information that wasn't correct. But when it came out that we were attacking homeless and going after homeless, I wanted to puke. I've got veterans who are sitting in hospitals who can't make competent choices for themselves to get better care in the next level care. We're helping them do that. The attorney general agreed with us on this.
LAWRENCE: Takano told NPR he doesn't believe the VA secretary's claim that Safe Harbor is just a proposal. Takano says his staff have compiled lists of cases where VA is asking courts to put homeless veterans under guardianship and strip them of their rights. Several veterans advocate groups have expressed similar concerns.
HOOD: Well, are you guys ready?
JAUREGUI: Yeah.
HOOD: OK. I'm going to ask him if it's OK.
LAWRENCE: Back in Long Beach, our two outreach workers have found Curtis Ervin. He's sitting in his pickup, which is pretty full of stuff. He's got a beard gone mostly white and hair sticking out under a worn Oakland Raiders cap. He's happy to see them.
CURTIS ERVIN: I was in engineering.
LAWRENCE: Ervin served in the Navy just after the Korean War.
ERVIN: I was an engine (inaudible) diesel mechanic. And on the ship, that means you everthing in engineering.
LAWRENCE: What ship were you on?
ERVIN: The last ship I was aboard was USS Bainbridge, nuclear power destroyer.
LAWRENCE: Wow. So what year were you born?
ERVIN: 1938.
LAWRENCE: My goodness, you look good (laughter).
ERVIN: I've been trying (laughter).
LAWRENCE: Wow.
ERVIN: And if I get rid of this beard - I keep telling myself I want to be better because I never want a beard this long.
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ERVIN: But it keeps the young women away from me.
LAWRENCE: Well, that's the main purpose here, right?
ERVIN: Yeah.
LAWRENCE: Do you mostly stay in your truck?
ERVIN: Right now, I'm in the truck. For the last two or three years, I've been dancing from hospital to hospital because I hurt my back and my hip. And I finally got out because they tried to keep me.
LAWRENCE: He says he's been bouncing between hospitals for years, that and his truck, and he honestly can't remember the last time he had a home. But Veronica Hood seems to have built a rapport, and Ervin says he'll be here tomorrow to go with her to the hospital and then get a roof over his head.
HOOD: OK. And tomorrow...
ERVIN: OK.
HOOD: ...She's going to follow me. You're going to follow in the truck. And you guys are going to meet me at the welcome center. We're going to park it there, and you're going to go to the hospital.
ERVIN: OK, sounds good.
HOOD: OK. I'll see you tomorrow.
ERVIN: OK.
HOOD: Right here?
ERVIN: Right here.
HOOD: OK.
LAWRENCE: Hey, it was great to meet you.
ERVIN: All right.
LAWRENCE: Good luck tomorrow.
ERVIN: OK.
LAWRENCE: All right. See you later.
ERVIN: All right.
JAUREGUI: Thank you. Oh, that's - he's been homeless for a long time, but he's new to this area, right?
LAWRENCE: Oh, yeah?
Driving back, Hood and Jauregui say they know some homeless people are a danger to themselves and maybe others. But for the most part, they wouldn't want to see vets forced into treatment.
HOOD: No, as you saw with Ervin, it could be both beneficial or it could be extremely traumatic.
JAUREGUI: That's - rather than make it something traumatic, where we're forcing you into it, let outreach workers like us build the relationship. Now he's saying, yeah, I'm going to meet you guys tomorrow, and we're going to go.
LAWRENCE: I called to ask, and Curtis Ervin came in the next day, and he's now in housing for the first time in who knows how many years.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News, Long Beach, California.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHABOOZEY'S "MY FAULT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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