Now is the time for Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas Collins to show true leadership — not as a spokesperson for a political administration but as a steadfast advocate for veterans.
The recent executive order undermining “housing first” principles is a dangerous step backward. It ignores years of evidence-based practice and the tireless work of VA staff and community providers who have helped significantly reduce the homelessness of veterans. To deny those accomplishments is not just disingenuous — it’s also deeply irresponsible.
“Housing first” is grounded in five well-established principles:
- Immediate access to permanent housing without preconditions.
- Choice and self-determination.
- A recovery-oriented approach.
- Individualized, client-driven supports.
- Social and community integration.
This model does not require people to be “housing-ready.” It recognizes that safe, stable housing is the foundation from which individuals can address mental health, substance use, employment and other challenges. It works — and it saves lives.
Harm reduction is an essential part of this model. It recognizes that people make change incrementally and that punitive approaches only increase isolation and dishonesty. When we create systems based on dignity, respect and personal agency, people engage. Veterans heal.
While powerful figures can navigate hardship from the comfort of their own homes, the poor are too often expected to suffer in silence, behind institutional walls and under strict controls. This is not justice. It is not health care. And it is not policy based in evidence.
Collins and others in leadership must take a stand. If they truly support veterans, they must reject policies that abandon harm reduction and “housing first.” The time for passive complicity is over. Real leadership means protecting what works — even when it’s politically inconvenient.
— Aimee Potter, licensed clinical social worker, Veteran Affairs, Chicago
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Harming most vulnerable
President Donald Trump’s new executive order targeting unhoused people is a grotesque assault on civil liberties and an unmistakable echo of history’s darkest chapters. By green-lighting mass institutionalization and criminalizing poverty, addiction and mental illness, Trump is dusting off the fascist playbook.
This policy dehumanizes society’s most vulnerable and uses “public safety” as cover for authoritarian control. Civil commitment without consent? Crackdowns on outdoor sleeping and “urban loitering”? This is not compassion; it’s calculated cruelty.
People who are homeless are not criminals. They are neighbors, veterans, seniors and citizens with disabilities who have been failed by a rigged system. If we do not speak now, this government-sanctioned purge of the poor will expand into something even more sinister.
This is not “law and order.” It’s state terror disguised as policy. And history will damn the silence of those who let it happen again.
— Christopher Larkin, Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Not mutually exclusive
Elizabeth Shackelford demonizes U.S. military spending and the elimination of waste and redundancies in the State Department (“Burning down America’s best tool for peace and prosperity,” July 25).
Newsflash: A strong, enhanced military and a lean, efficient State Department are not mutually exclusive.
They can coexist and function simultaneously. It’s called peace through strength.
— David N. Simon, Chicago
Empathy matters now?
There seems to a great deal of earnest concern about empathy, cooperation and compromise being desperately needed in our political environment. I find it amusing that such demands are heard when a Republican is in office — and particularly with Donald Trump in the White House. When Democrats held the White House, Senate and House, “empathy” and “compromise” were hardly ever heard as the Republican viewpoint was brushed aside routinely and ignored.
Now, the shoe is on the other foot, and the Democrats and their supportive media are suddenly seeking something they have no concern for when the Democrats are in power.
— David Howard, Rockford
Ties to immigrants
Our president is using our plane to visit Scotland, the birthplace of his mother and home to two of his golf courses.
Trump is the son of a Scottish immigrant. He is the grandson of German immigrants. He is married to a Slovenian immigrant. All of them were allowed to stay in our country before obtaining citizenship.
The president must have some serious issues to hate immigrants so much.
— Tom Witte, Batavia
Cuts create pressure
I never believed in trickle-down economics. Until now.
Trickle-down economics insist that tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses eventually “trickle down” to those who are less fortunate. It sounds good in theory, but in practice, it doesn’t create jobs or increase consumer spending. It only widens income inequality. That’s why I’m skeptical.
But here’s the perverse way that trickle-down is true. Republicans are out selling the new budget reconciliation bill. But it will be a disaster for Illinois, which is projected to lose at least $48 billion in Medicaid funding over 10 years. You can’t cut that kind of money without affecting the entire Medicaid system.
My intellectually disabled son David requires 24/7 support. He lives in a Medicaid-funded group home and attends a Medicaid-funded day activity center, both in Elgin. Republican officials have said that no funding will be cut from his services. That may be true in terms of direct cuts. (Or not. In 2012, the last time something like this happened, disability programs were paid 3.5% less.)
But indirectly, there will be cuts. Taking at least $48 billion out of Medicaid in Illinois will have a ripple effect on all programs under the Medicaid umbrella — including David’s disability supports, which are already underfunded. Optional services such as dental care and physical therapy may be the first to go.
Beyond David, no one in the state is exempt. This massive cut will force Illinois to make up the shortfall. How? By kicking people off benefits. By making hospitals provide more uncompensated care — which raises everyone’s insurance premiums. By decreasing spending on other priorities such as education, transportation and public safety. These hard choices will hurt everyone. But especially the most vulnerable.
That’s the trickle-down effect of less money. A cut anywhere puts pressure everywhere.
— James B. Gould, Carpentersville
Before they’re gone
I read with interest the piece in Saturday’s Tribune by Tom Montgomery Fate (“Bears, oh my! Why national parks are our country’s treasures“). He writes about our national parks. He talks about his visits and how important they are and that visitors there bring in billions of dollars to our economy,
My 12-year-old grandson, Sid, lives in California with his mom. They like to visit the parks. They visit the ranger stations, and he gets “sworn in” and receives a Junior Ranger badge. His mom texted about their visit this month to Pinnacles National Park. Everything was closed: the visitor center, the interpretive center that kids enjoy. They didn’t see one ranger, not even at the security gate. With zero cell reception, it’s easy to imagine how dangerous this could be.
The trails, climbing routes and caves were closed. There is no one to maintain these things. The website was not updated. They met a family coming from Yosemite who said they felt unsafe there with their children because of the lack of staff.
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Sid said to his mom that all the protests, calling of and writing to representatives, and volunteering (all of which they’ve done) didn’t do anything.
Sid’s solution: “We should visit every place before it is closed or destroyed, like soon. And try to get someone on YouTube to tell everyone how great these places are so they can vote and save them.”
His mom made him a Junior Ranger badge with paper and marker.
— Debbie Goddard, Plainfield
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