Transitional Housing Facility for Homeless Female Veterans

March 8, 2010 - Tampa Crossroads, a social service agency working with the homeless, opened the Athena House on Columbus Avenue in Tampa just over a year ago. It is a transitional home for homeless female veterans. It was the first of its kind and has since become a model for similar programs all over the country. Every occupant here is a veteran of military service and every occupant is also unable to deal with civilian life due to one kind of trauma or another.  

Many women living at Athena House have one thing in common: they were sexually attacked while in the military and had their complaints ignored. The Athena House offers counseling for these issues and others because having a safe place to come home to is one of the first steps towards recovery and re-building a life after traumatic sexual abuse. 

In the Tampa Bay area alone there are approximately 400 homeless female veterans. The Athena house can house up to 16 at once and offers a number of essential treatment services concerning:  

• Substance abuse;
• Mental illness
• Domestic violence; and
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The program also offers job training programs and provides the female veterans with educational opportunities. The success rate speaks for itself: In its first year of operation, 36 women passed through the house and 85% of them are living on their own now. For some of the veterans this means being employed and for others it means receiving benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  

The Athena house also offers something unheard of in transitional housing programs, although most women only stay 8 months, Athena house allows women to stay for 2 years. While children are not currently allowed in to the program with the veterans, Tampa Crossroads is developing a transitional housing center for homeless female veterans that does allow children, but that is at least a year away from being operational. 

Of the estimated 200,000 homeless veterans in the U.S., approximately 6,000 - 8,000 are female. In response to the positive results at Athena house, the VA has approved 10 similar programs based on their model. 

The VA is currently on a very aggressive track to end veteran homelessness in the next 5 years. The VA's plan is to work with as many homeless veterans as possible as early on as possible and get them into long-term benefits if necessary to avoid a homeless situation. Female veterans represent a unique problem in that there are often sexual-trauma, family, and child issues that are rare with male veterans returning from duty. Places like the Athena House are critical elements in meeting the VA's goal.