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>As a member of the U.S. army National Guard, Nadine >Beckford patrolled New York City train stations after >Sept. 11, 2001 with a 9 mm pistol, then served a >treacherous year in Iraq. > >Now, six months after returning, Beckford lives in a >homeless shelter. > >"I'm just an ordinary person who served. I'm not >embarrassed about my homelessness because the >circumstances that created it were not my fault," said >Beckford, 30, who was a military-supply specialist at >a base in Iraq that was a sitting duck for >around-the-clock attacks. > >Thousands of U.S. veterans returning from Iraq and >Afghanistan are facing a new nightmare - the risk of >homelessness. The U.S. government estimates several >hundred vets who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are >homeless on any given night across the country, >although the exact number is unknown. > >The reasons that contribute to the new wave of >homelessness are many: some are unable to cope with >life after daily encounters with insurgent attacks and >roadside bombs; some can't navigate government red >tape; others simply don't have enough money to afford >a house or apartment. > >They are living on the edge in towns and cities big >and small from Washington state to Florida. But the >hardest hit are in New York, because housing costs >"can be very tough," said Peter Dougherty, head of the >Homeless Veterans Program at the Department of >Veterans Affairs. > >Former army Pte. 1st Class Herold Noel had nowhere to >call home after returning from Iraq last year. He >slept in his Jeep, parked anywhere in New York "where >I wouldn't get a ticket." > >"Then the nightmares would start," said the >26-year-old, who drove a military fuel truck in Iraq - >one of the war's most dangerous jobs. > >At one point, he saw a friend's leg blown off. > >"I saw a baby decapitated when it was run over by a >truck. I relived that every night," said Noel, who >walks with shrapnel in his knee and suffers from >severe post-traumatic stress syndrome. > >To help people like Noel, the VA gives grants to >non-profit, private housing organizations that offer >about 8,000 free beds across the country. The space >isn't always enough to accommodate everyone in >desperate need of shelter among the more than 500,000 >vets of Iraq and Afghanistan who have been discharged >from the military so far. > >When Noel returned, the shattered soldier couldn't >immediately find a job to support his wife and >children and all the housing programs for vets he knew >of "were overbooked," he said. > >The family ended up in a Bronx, N.Y., shelter "with >people who were just out of prison and with roaches," >he said. > >"I'm a young black man from the ghetto but this was >culture shock. This is not what I fought for, what I >almost died for." > >"This is not what I was supposed to come home to." > >Noel now attends a Brooklyn, N.Y., program to train >for a job in studio sound production. He also is the >protagonist of the documentary film When I Came Home, >which was named best New York-made documentary at the >Tribeca Film Festival this year.
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