Indiana Veterans Struggle To Find Jobs As State Reopens To Full Capacity

Indiana Veterans Struggle To Find Jobs As State Reopens To Full Capacity

By Carolina Puga Mendoza

INDIANAPOLIS—As Indiana has announced the termination of federally funded unemployment benefits and society returns to a level of normalcy, veterans continue to face challenges as they seek jobs and resources.

John Zeigler says veterans sometimes have issues with fully explaining their abilities on their resumes so it’s hard for them to find jobs. He is an employment transition manager at Operation: Job Ready Veterans, an organization working with veterans to transition into civilian lives, connecting them with potential employers, helping them with their resumes and more.

Zeigler worked for 21 years in active duty as an artillery officer and retired in 2014; now he helps others to have an easier transition after their service.

“If someone comes to me and they haven’t addressed all their transitional issues, you know, about their living situation, about transportation, about kids or whatever, if they don’t address all of those things, then it doesn’t matter what kind of work you put them in, then they’re not going to be successful,” Zeigler said.

As of April 2021, the unemployment rate for veterans increased to 5.3% from 4.2%, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Due to COVID-19, the general unemployment rate went from 3.5% in 2019 to 14.7% in 2020, affecting veterans as well.

Emmy Hildebrand works as vice president of strategic initiatives at HVAF-Helping Veterans and Families, an organization that houses and supports homeless veterans throughout Indiana, providing food and hygiene products as well as helping veterans to get back on their feet.

Hildebrand said the HVAF has an outreach specialist who goes throughout Indiana looking for homeless veterans and offering them housing and help. It also has a therapist on the team to provide them more clinically intensive services.

Common problems among the homeless veteran population involve substance use, mental and physical health conditions, and the unemployment rate.

“We can’t force anyone to accept the help that they’re not ready to accept. What we can do, though, is build relationships and build, you know, a trustworthy situation so that when they’re ready, they know where to go for help,” Hildebrand said.

The HVAF’s workload increased during COVID-19 as veterans were laid off from their jobs like many other people. The organization expanded its employment team and got more funding to help veterans attend training programs to earn degrees or certificates so they have a higher chance of getting a job.

Indiana’s services for veterans range from individual to family support. According to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, as of 2019, Indiana has 572 veterans who were homeless while nationally there were up to 37,085 homeless veterans.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, for every 10,000 veterans, there are 21 who are homeless. Veterans of color are at a higher risk of facing homelessness; for every 10,000 veterans, there are 106 homeless Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander veterans, 88 Native American veterans and 56 Black veterans.

As of 2020, the HVAF served 1,453 veterans and distributed over 45,000 pounds of food to veterans and their families.

Due to poverty and lack of support from organizations, veterans are 50% more likely to face homelessness, according to Greendoors, an organization that prevents and helps to end homelessness and poverty housing.

Finding a job as a veteran has proven to be challenging due to problems with translating their experience into civilian jobs.

“I was an artilleryman, so cannons, rockets, missiles. I jumped out of airplanes. You know, there are not a lot of job openings in the civilian market for what I’ve done,” Zeigler said. “But it’s all those other skills, it’s leading people, management, it’s writing policies, training, you know, customer service, all of those things translate directly into a successful professional.”

A Franklin, Indiana, veteran who wished to remain anonymous reached out from a veterans’ networking Facebook group and talked about what it’s like being a veteran parent of special needs children. The challenges of accessing resources started while they were on active duty, and their family has learned how to navigate the system of moving to another state by themselves.

“There’s no [help], not in a way that’s accessible and practical. The military said, ‘Oh, the civilians will help you.’ The civilian said, ‘You’re the military, they’ll help you on base.’ So they would just toss the ball between them until I finally gave up,” the veteran said.

They said that resources for veterans families with special-needs children are scarce and they haven’t had much luck finding them. They join community Facebook groups that connect them with other veterans for support and learn about services that could help them.

According to the American Legion, in Indiana, there are more than 550,000 veterans, but only 52,000 collect disability compensation or pension payments.

“We believe very strongly that for those people who volunteer to serve our country, which are very few and far between, when they fall on the hardest of times, that are facing homelessness, we feel like we owe it to them to be here to support them through that crisis,” Hildebrand said.

FOOTNOTE: Carolina Puga Mendoza is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. This article has been changed to correct the names of HVAF-Helping Veterans and Families and Emmy Hildebrand.