[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16654]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HOMELESSNESS AMONG OUR VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick) for 4 minutes.
  Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, as we approach Veterans 
Day and we set aside time to recognize our Nation's veterans, also to 
address the problem of homelessness among those who have served our 
Nation.
  Homelessness is a problem facing many Americans today, but it is 
particularly acute in the veteran community. While less than 10 percent 
of the population of the United States are veterans, they comprise 25 
percent of the entire homeless population. All told, the Veterans 
Administration estimates that there are 107,000 homeless veterans 
nationwide. Among a population that have devoted themselves to the 
service of our Nation, these numbers are unacceptable.
  The National Cemetery at Washington Crossing is located in my 
congressional district in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and serves as a 
final resting place for many veterans. The location of the National 
Cemetery is in the heart of Pennsylvania's Eighth Congressional 
District and places the plight of all veterans, homeless or not, 
preeminently in the collective psyche of my community.
  Bucks County takes a solemn measure of pride in guarding both the 
mortal remains and the honor of veterans from across the Nation. And 
while Bucks County is honored and proud to provide a final resting 
place or final home to our Nation's veterans, our Nation must ensure 
all veterans are honored and sheltered while they are living as well. 
Today I would like to share one of their stories.
  This past Flag Day, I was handed a pouch containing spent shell 
casings from a memorial service at the National Cemetery. The casings 
were from the service of U.S. Army Veteran John Griffin, who was buried 
at the National Cemetery at Washington Crossing earlier this year. John 
served our Nation in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970. He passed away in 
February of this year at a nursing home in Pennsylvania, and for some 
period before John entered the nursing home, he was homeless.
  John's service was not attended by any relatives or friends. The 
National Cemetery holds monthly services for veterans who are laid to 
rest without the presence of their families. At this service, the flag 
that draped John's coffin was accepted by a group of women from the 
community who have undertaken this role to provide a measure of respect 
and recognition to those who have passed.
  Despite numerous inquiries, neither I nor my staff has been able to 
learn any more about the life, service, or death of John Griffin. We 
know that John was honorably discharged, but beyond that, his life and 
his service to our Nation have been lost for the next generation of 
soldiers who will serve.
  In his second inaugural address, President Lincoln, looking at the 
wounds that needed to be healed as the Civil War drew to a close, 
charged our Nation ``to care for him who shall have borne the battle.'' 
This we must do, but we must be ever mindful that homelessness, among 
veterans or among the population at large, is often a symptom of a 
deeper problem. Addiction, posttraumatic stress disorder, and strained 
family relations can collude to leave veterans without shelter. And 
while these factors may explain homelessness among veterans, they do 
not excuse us, as a Nation, from remedying it.
  I do not know with any certainty what, if any, root causes led to 
John Griffin's homelessness, but I'm certain that our Nation owed him 
better. We owed him more than a makeshift camp in a local woods. We 
must rededicate ourselves to the service of those who have served our 
Nation.
  The story of John Griffin is not rare, but we must work to make it 
so, because among the men and women who sacrificed and risked their 
lives in the service of our Nation, one homeless veteran is too many.

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