There are somewhere between 5,000 and 8,600 homeless veterans in Washington state, depending on which source you use.

These vets come from every walk of life.  They come from every age, ethnicity, education, and social background.  Some are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and others go back as far as the Vietnam War.  Some live in cars, and some live in remote areas.  Some of them are female, and they have children.

To help with this growing problem, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki (a retired general) created a program targeting homeless veterans across the United States.  His goal: to end homelessness for veterans in the next five years, said Mary Forbes, the special program coordinator for the veteran's services division of the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs.

"We are trying to get our community partners and individuals to latch on to the homeless veterans issue," said Forbes, a retired colonel in the Washington Army National Guard. "We want to find the resources to embrace this goal."

The WDVA homeless programs are divided into six areas of concentration. Education and outreach guide veterans to their education entitlements and helps them find the resources they need to become employable. Employment and income benefits help lead them to jobs. Treatment guides veterans to the resources they need to get necessary mental and physical treatments. Community partners, support services and housing get them into transitional housing and prevention.

Other programs include the Incarcerated Veterans Re-entry Services, or IVRS, that was implemented in King County in 1996, Pierce County in 2007, and Thurston County in 2009.  Veterans who are referred to this program get reduced sentences in exchange for drug and alcohol treatment and mental health services, housing and employment.

"This program's recidivism rate is currently less than 20 percent while those not in the program become repeat offenders at a rate of 57 percent," Forbes said.

Another program is the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Project, or HVRP, which provides services to homeless veterans in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton metropolitan area and King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Thurston counties.  Through this program, VA resources provide the needed outreach, treatment and counseling services, case management, and housing resources needed to ensure residential stability.

Each homeless veteran has a different story.  Some of the veterans have traumatic brain injuries; some have PTSD; some have substance abuse problems, and some just can't find a job.  There are people sleeping in cars and remote areas.  There are women who have alcohol problems who have gotten repeated DUIs, and now they live in a car with their children, Forbes said.

"They live in all sorts of environments," she said. "But we have a new and emerging challenge of homeless female veterans.  Many of them are divorced and have children. It is not just one thing that makes them homeless.  One thing happens; then another thing happens, then another and another, and they end up on the street. "

The WDVA helps these people try to find housing.

"These soldiers spend years in the military where they have housing, and they have food, and they have money, and then they get out, and they can't imagine not having those things," she said. "But they step out into the world, and they see that it is harder than they envisioned.  They no longer have that incredible team of leaders mentoring them.  In the military they are taught to do what they are told.  They have to learn to discover the power of self, and some of them don't."

In addition to guiding the soldiers to available resources, some of them are referred to transitional housing.  One example is Building 9 for Veterans, a transitional model located on the campus of the Washington Veterans Home in Port Orchard. It is designed to provide safe and stable housing for both male and female homeless veterans who are committed to returning to employment and/or independent living. Veterans receive respectful, clean and sober environments with individual and group chemical dependency counseling, employment services and life skills groups.

Currently there are 11 OIF/OEF veterans between the ages of 25 and 30 and about 29 soldiers from the Vietnam era to current times living in Building 9, said Ray Switzer, the Building 9 program manager.   

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