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Veterans Advisory Committee <br />Minutes May 25, 2021 <br />Page 3 <br />Chair Doolittle: that was one of the descriptions that came up a lot this morning in the <br />conference was emotional entanglements, between the traumas of childhood and <br />adulthood, combat and war and then trying to reestablish yourself in a society and trying <br />to find a career path that you could actually become, at least somewhat normal in society <br />if I could use that word. I think normal is kind of a varying set of degrees. I found the <br />discussion interesting and I'm anxious to continue the discussion and see where it leads. <br />How that integrates with the homeless problem because that's a big component of the <br />homeless problem. I don't know how were going to get control of any of that or <br />reestablish... we've been having a continual homeless problem at our housing site next to <br />the university. This has been an ongoing problem and as we've evicted and cleaned it up <br />a number of the people who have been in that homeless community were veterans. They <br />didn't really want to stay into the mix of trying to find ways out of being homeless. It just <br />seemed like they disappeared into the woods someplace else. That's kind of <br />disappointing. <br />Lewis: Michael, you touched on an issue I actually, as I get ready to take over the VFW <br />for the state, I was talking to someone who was also addressing homelessness today and <br />as Isaac and you touched on, it's a complex issue. You've got people that aren't looking <br />for but also could be on drugs and alcohol as a way to cope. They have a catch 22 <br />because you can't really put them in housing or the system and other states have faced <br />this so there are solutions, I'm just not sure who's working it as an integrated way <br />because these initiatives are wonderful. I had a great initiative in the Northwest, with <br />Pacific Institute and they handled everything from trauma to all kinds of dysfunction and <br />working with people using a lot of neurosciences that would help tag into the healthy <br />parts than the unhealthy parts. Because sometimes even obesity can be related to trauma <br />as a way of coping. It's not just drugs and alcohol and homelessness. There's a whole lot <br />of ways that it manifests itself. <br />Chair Doolittle: It's suggesting that a lifestyle that's forced upon them and not a lifestyle <br />that they choose. I know that drugs and alcohol, the only agency locally that's been <br />dealing with this issue in a legal sense is the Veterans Court. That's only after there's <br />been some kind of violation or arrest where the Veterans Court actually had a mentoring <br />system and these clients, the people who fall into this and the Veterans Court actually <br />accepts into the program to try and help them is a really intense mentoring program and it <br />was having a funding problem before the COVID thing, and I have not heard a word <br />about the Veterans Court since then. <br />Lewis: They pretty much integrated it into the drug court. The drug court that was <br />funded, veteran's treatment court was only funded for a short amount of time. But as you <br />suggest those kinds of comprehensive, holistic solutions require mentors and the <br />pathways to success. <br />Deputy Hiraishi: As an aside to that, I'm a mentor in Veterans Treatment Court, even <br />though funding has run out, whenever there's a veteran in the system Greyson sends out a <br />