ORDEAL OF HOMELESS IRAQ VET IN B'KLYN

May 20, 2006 -- When the single mother from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, was discharged in April, after her second tour in Iraq, she was 24 and had little money and no place to live. She slept in her son's day-care center.

"They put me in this roach-infested hotel. I was there for 10 days," Gamboa said. "Then they said I wasn't eligible to stay in a shelter because I could stay with my sister . . . and I haven't spoken to her in six years."

Gamboa is part of a small but growing trend among U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - homelessness. On any given night, the Department of Veterans Affairs helps 200 to 250 of them, and more go uncounted. They are among nearly 200,000 homeless veterans in America, largely from the Vietnam War.


Homeless veterans have remained in the shadows of the national debate about Iraq, although the issue may gain traction from the film "When I Came Home," which won an award this month for best New York-made documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The documentary tells the story of Iraq war veteran Herold Noel as he lived in his car in Brooklyn.