For over two decades the phrase "homeless veteran" called to mind an image of a young – and now aging – male veteran from the Vietnam era.
"Years ago, women made up about two percent of our homeless population nationwide," says Marsha Four, program director for Homeless Veterans Service, a program through the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service and Education Center. "Now they make up at least five to six percent of the homeless veterans population."

The image of a homeless veteran is changing.

According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the total number of homeless veterans in the area is in excess of 2,600. Four said that a survey conducted by Philadelphia’s Office of Supportive Housing showed 430 homeless veterans in shelters between July ’06 and March ’07. Of that number, 14 percent were women.
"That’s just an astonishing number, even to us," Four said.
The Homeless Veterans Service has four components to its program, including one of the largest, if not the largest all-women programs in the country:

• LZ II, a 95-bed transitional housing program for male veterans,
• Mary E. Walker House, a 30-bed transitional housing program for female veterans,
• The Perimeter, a day service center that provides meals, showers, and other services on a daily basis, and
• A 30-unit subsidized housing program.

Four said all of the programs have a continuous waiting list.

Women now comprise 18 percent of veterans and Four said that 20 percent of all new recruits are women. Due to this increase Four said, "I think the number of women (veterans) in the homeless population will continue to grow."

In its 2-½ years of operation the Mary E. Walker House has serviced 90 women of all ages. Most women who have been helped served in the military from 1975 through the present.

Four said it is important that those women have a program that addresses their specific needs. "Many of these women are dealing with domestic abuse issues, as well as sexual assault issues – in the military and out," says Four. "They need a full program where they can learn life skills and recovery, as well as learn about themselves and learn to gather their strength."

The Mary E. Walker House provides a safe haven, as well as the gender-specific programs women veterans need to pull their lives back together. Since there aren’t many gender-specific programs anywhere in the country, Four says service women have come from outside of the greater Philadelphia area as well.

Four says she doesn’t think the number has peaked yet as many veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have yet to come home. Once home, veterans can go months or years before learning they are having problems assimilating back into society.

"I think the obvious thing is that there’s so many more troops to be discharged yet," says Four. "It takes awhile for them to find themselves in that homeless place."