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Pres. candidate Joe Sestak talks homelessness

By ADAM URQUHART - Staff Writer | Oct 12, 2019

NASHUA – While some of the city’s homeless population carry around hefty backpacks filled with clothing and camping supplies, others also carry an invisible burden weighing heavy on their hearts and minds, that being mental health issues.

For Democratic presidential candidate Joe Sestak, chronic homelessness is an issue driven by mental health challenges, such as post traumatic stress disorder, for example, something some veterans know all too well. As a veteran himself with 31 years of naval service, Sestak understands that the real need is to get homeless veterans and people in general off the streets. The former Navy admiral, former Pennslyvania congressman and former White House director of defense policy will be spending time in the Granite State from now through Oct. 20.

Iin terms of those homeless veterans, he said people and organizations cannot address their situation through programs that make clients come in clean from drugs and alcohol before taking them into a shelter.

“It has to be one where you get them in, and the comfortableness of getting a safe, secure place with social workers or others that address mental health issues is the biggest,” Sestak said.

Often times substance use disorder goes hand in hand with mental health issues. He said when police respond to an incident, citing the example of someone caught for an open container offense, he offers an idea, similar to other programs, in that a mental health worker might also show up. That person would be in plain clothes, and establish some comfort for that person while talking with them to prevent them from going to jail and offer them a chance to get off of the street and into a situation that could help them.

In some cases, especially those where one is facing chronic homelessness, he said establishing a connection can be key. Sestak did just that at the Main Street United Methodist Church Friday morning while shaking hands and talking with homeless people while they were served breakfast.

“That chronic problem is often driven, not just by a disruption in life, you lost your job or something, it is driven by mental health to a large extent,” Sestak said. “So, you got to address it as a public health issue, and that’s where you need people, and you need the VA to be integrated more with the VFW’s who know where the vets are that are homeless, like I found out, and they need to be working with communities.”

He also met a Nashuan Friday morning who is one of those homeless veterans facing the issue on a chronic basis.

Benjamin Wynn served the country in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2010. He has been unable to find work, and has been homeless since 2013.

“I came back, I went to school for two years and then after I graduated, that’s sort of when I ended up on the street,” Wynn said.

He studied paralegal at Nashua Community College, and after being unable to find work, has been going to the VA every once in a while, as well as jail every now and again. Other than that, Wynn said he is not the only homeless veteran left out on the streets in Nashua. He said there is probably another half a dozen other homeless veterans living on city streets that he knows.

Whether it be issues at home such as addressing homelessness, or navigating complex challenges abroad, Sestak said if the country is not unified, the nation will not be able to meet these defining challenges.

“I’m running primarily because I belive that this nation most wants, most needs and most yearns for someone who can unify it again, I really do,” Sestak said. “We can’t afford another president that can just do executive orders and the next one rips them out.”

Moreover, he said if the nation has to use its military forces, it has to be understood that doing so will not fix the problem. He also said the country needs someone who understands the world in terms of using force as well as in addressing climate change. In addition, Sestak belives in health care, and that mental health is the biggest disease in America today. He also is a strong believer that education is the nation’s homeland defense, and is for a national apprentice program.

“This should be a public-private venture since one third of all small businesses said they can’t find a skilled workforce,” Sestak said. “This will be a win-win for everybody, training and retraining, it’s what we do in the military.”

Sestak will be taking his message of unity across New Hampshire with a 105-mile walk from Chesterfield on the border of Vermont to Portsmouth on the border of Maine. In 2015, he walked 422 miles across the entire breadth of his home state of Pennsylvania, and will now begin his New Hampshire venture on Sunday. Information on his walk can be found on his website at https://www.joesestak.com.

Adam Urquhart may be contacted at 594-1206 or aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.

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