Into the Gap: Women Veterans Describe Homelessness [HuffingtonPost.com]

Army Reserve Maj. Jas Boothe had orders to Iraq — as well as a young son — when she lost everything she owned to Hurricane Katrina. A few months later, she found herself battling cancer, and cancer treatments meant no deployment, which meant no job, which meant no income.

When she was discharged after treatment at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, it was to what she describes as an unsympathetic VA system — and also to her aunt’s couch. Boothe was suddenly part of a hidden and often disconnected network of women veterans who are functionally homeless but uncounted — and therefore invisible — to the larger system.

She’s grateful that her aunt took her and her son in, but is careful to point out that “when you’re couch-surfing, you’re at the mercy of others. Sometimes it wears on the people who are helping you out, through no fault of their own,” she adds. “If you can’t get on your feet within what they might consider a reasonable amount of time, you can become a burden to them. And nobody wants to be in that position, where you feel like, you know, that you’re at their mercy.”