Illinois has been trying to assist veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. On December 14^{th<\/sup>, \u00a02011, Governor Quinn signed into law the \u201cWelcome Home Heroes\u201d program<\/a> to assist veterans with first-time home purchases. The state also offers the Illinois Veterans Grant (IVG), which pays for up to four years of higher education. The state has also added the \u201cIllinois Warrior Assistance Program\u201d to assist veterans with PTSD<\/a>.<\/p>\n}

Unfortunately, the largest portion of Illinois\u2019 veteran spending goes to programs that benefit older veterans, and current state budget deficits are a constant issue with existing program funding.<\/p>\n

The \u201cWelcome Home Heroes\u201d program just signed into law will make available $10,000 as a down payment for veterans purchasing a home for the first time. This comes in the form of a loan, which is forgivable over two years. This has already been put into use<\/a>, but it is important to note that there was no new funding for the program from the state; funds are instead reallocated from existing programs.<\/p>\n

Illinois has been struggling to maintain benefits for returning veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The number of veterans has \u00a0ballooned in the last decade\u2014from \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0100,000 in the 2000 census to 190,000 currently<\/a>. This trend will likely continue as more veterans reenter the community, as the war in Afghanistan continues.<\/p>\n

A key resource that is important to the returning veteran is education. Many of the problems that veterans struggle with can be ameliorated through higher education. Veterans have higher rates of unemployment (four times the national average) and homelessness. The Illinois Veterans Grant<\/a> (IVG) h pays for up to 4 years of higher education. It is little known that the funding<\/a> for the program relies on state-financed universities granting free tuition to Illinois veterans. This is currently working, but should the financial problems afflicting universities become acute, the program would have no way of continuing.<\/p>\n

The \u201cIllinois Warriors Assistance Program\u201d assists veterans with issues related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It provides a help line, counseling and referals to other services. Once again, funding is an issue. The state has provided only $274,000 to fund the program. In many ways, the state is in a better position to offer assistance to veterans in need of help with the \u201cinvisible wounds\u201d associated with service. This is especially true for those in smaller towns and rural areas, where access to Federal resources like VA hospitals is problematic. It is difficult to imagine how much the state program will be able to accomplish with a paltry budget of a quarter million dollars.<\/p>\n

Illinois is currently spending $82.86 million for the four veterans\u2019 homes that serve the state\u2019s veterans of WWII, Korea and are just starting to see Vietnam veterans. Between 900 and \u00a01,000 veterans receive help from this program. By comparison, the remainder of the state\u2019s spending on veterans comes to $15 million. This represents a huge discrepancy, and while it can be argued that Illinois is doing a better job than many states in helping veterans, much remains to be done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illinois has been trying to assist veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. On December 14th, \u00a02011, Governor Quinn signed into law the \u201cWelcome Home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1061,1100],"tags":[1398,1397],"yoast_head":"\n