Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families (2014)

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Page 1-1 It Takes a Community Our country is winding down from recent wars. Formal con�lict has ended in Iraq, and military leaders are drawing down troops from Afghanistan. What does this mean for community transportation? It means that thousands of active duty service members will be returning to their home communities, many of which are rural towns and smaller cities. It means that recently separated service members will be re-integrating into civilian life, re-connecting with their families, looking for jobs or, for those who suffered injuries, continuing to recuperate. They will need transportation in their communities. Veterans, Young and Older, and Their Families These younger veterans will join older veterans from the country’s past con�licts—World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Gulf War I/Desert Storm. While the younger veterans may be focused on �inding employment or going back to school for college, many of the older veterans are retired and facing the challenges that older age brings. They need transportation in their communities. For all these veterans, regardless of when they served our country, a ful�illing life requires transportation to get where they need to go, or where they’d like to go. Many have their own private vehicles, but others lack transportation, for a variety of reasons. Veterans from the Korean War and World War II are now in their 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s and may have given up the car keys. For those still driving, the trip to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center for healthcare needs may be too long and arduous. Some will have family members who can drive their veteran, though the spouse may also be older and unable to drive the distance. Introduction: Why This Resource with “Community Tools?” Chapter 1 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families

Page 1-2 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 1 Introduction: Why This Resource with “Community Tools?” Some veterans from the more recent wars, particularly if they have not yet found employment, cannot afford their own vehicle. Or, if the veteran has a vehicle, it may need repairs, but the veteran cannot pay for those repairs without a job. Labor data from 2013 shows that the unemployment rate for veterans has improved from 2012: for post 9/11 veterans, the unemployment rate decreased from 8.9% in 2012 to 7.7% in 2013. For non-veterans, the 2013 unemployment rate is 7.3% (1). Even as employment opportunities improve, however, there are still many new veterans whose income after military service is very tight. Owning a car may not yet be feasible. They need transportation in their communities. Military Service Members and Their Families Our focus on veterans turns to their comrades still serving our country. Approximately 1.4 M service members are on active duty. When stateside, these individuals may have a car to commute to their duty site on base, but what about their family members who may be left without a car? And active duty service members may be sent on temporary training assignments to a different base, far from their “home” base, without their own vehicle. At the end of the training week, how do these service members get to the nearby community for some R and R? Or how do they access the intercity bus service that might take them home when they have leave? They need community transportation. These are among the reasons why this resource has been developed. Community transportation has an important role in providing local mobility for veterans, military service members, and their families. Objectives and Background The overall objective of this resource is to assist communities improve transportation options for veterans, military service members, and their families. The more speci�ic objectives of the resource build on the concepts of transportation coordination and mobility management to improve community transportation options. Development of this report has been guided by a Project Panel that requested that the report be written for communities, providing “tools” and guidance to help communities assess transportation needs of veterans, service members, and families, and to support communities in improving public transit, specialized transportation, volunteer services, and other local transportation options to meet those needs.

Page 1-3 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 1 Introduction: Why This Resource with “Community Tools?” Research Behind This Resource This document results from TCRP Research Project B-42, organized in two phases. Phase 1 involved research to better identify the transportation needs of veterans and military service members. The research was multi-faceted, involving: A review of relevant literature. Review of almost 60 grants awarded in 2011 and 2012 through the Federal government’s Veterans Transportation and Community Living Initiative (VTCLI). A survey of programs of the VA Volunteer Transportation Network (VTN) and the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), a major supporter of the Network, with 99 responses. An online survey of Department of Labor employment specialists who work with veterans through the Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program (DVOP) and Local Veterans’ Employment Representatives Program (LVER), with 404 responses from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Review of the Veterans Transportation Service (VTS) program, which is a 2010 Veterans Health Administration (VHA) initiative to improve transportation to VA Medical Centers. This included interviews with staff at four VTS sites, two of which were held on-site. Assessment of progress gained at four VTCLI-grant funded project sites. Review of community transportation services to seven military installations, highlighting issues that communities face in trying to improve transportation for military service members and families. Review of other efforts to improve transportation for veterans and service members, including services for wounded warriors, Native American veterans, and homeless veterans, as well as state efforts to improve transportation.Building on the Phase 1 research, Phase 2 of the project developed this report. Organization of the Report This report is organized into ten chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the objectives of the research project and provides a brief summary of the transportation needs of veterans, service members, and families identi�ied through the research. Chapter 2 presents information on community transportation services and initiatives currently available for veterans, service members, and their families (Chapter 2, Current Transportation for Veterans and Service

Page 1-4 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 1 Introduction: Why This Resource with “Community Tools?” Chapter 10 Evaluaon: “How Are We Doing?” Chapter 3 Leadership: “Who’s In Charge?” Chapter 5 Planning: “What Do We Do Now?” Chapter 6 Coordinaon and Mobility Management: “Start With What You Have” Chapter 7 Services: “We’re On the Road Now!” Chapter 8 Business Pracces: “Let’s Make a Deal” Chapter 9 Communicaon: Can You Hear Me Now?” Chapter 2 Current Transportaon for Veterans and Service Members: “What’s There Now?” Chapter 4 Outreach: “Ge˜ng the Right People to the Table” “ Members). Readers familiar with their community’s transportation services for veterans and service members may want to skip directly to Chapter 3. Chapters 3 through 10 guide readers through an organized process of improving transportation, which builds on the framework of coordination. Using this framework, transportation coordination starts typically once a lead agency or person “takes charge” (Chapter 3, Leadership), followed by outreach into the community to  ind partners (Chapter 4, Outreach) and planning to assess the needs and identify gaps in meeting those needs (Chapter 5, Planning). The community can then consider how existing transportation resources can be used or enhanced to meet needs (Chapter 6, Coordination and Mobility Management) and what types of new transportation services might be needed (Chapter 7, Services). Efforts to coordinate and implement new service may require the community to consider new funding sources, to formalize a transfer policy with a neighboring transit agency, or to develop an agreement to share vehicles (Chapter 8, Business Practices). Communication is critically important throughout, with different activities and media needed along the way (Chapter 9, Communication). Finally, once there are transportation improvements in place, the community should assess whether the improvements increase mobility options for veterans, service members, and families to understand what is working and what might need more work (Chapter 10, Evaluation). Chapters 2 through 10 also include a list of additional resources at the end of each chapter, suggesting reports and websites that offer more information. And Chapters 4 through 10 include “tools,” also provided at the end of the chapter. The tools vary depending on the chapter. For example, in Chapter 5, Planning, the tools include examples of survey instruments to help identify transportation needs and, in Chapter 9, Communication, tools include examples of messages to communicate as well as suggested media, from the more traditional print media to more current social media. Transportaon Needs of Veterans, Service Members, and Families and Why Those Needs Are Different Transportaon Needs of Veterans and Their Families Veterans live throughout the country, in communities of all sizes and in all states. Their mobility needs overlap with those of the general public and may stem from advanced age and frailty, disability, lower income, unemployment or underemployment, homelessness, or other factors that limit their mobility within the community. While some of these factors may be in luenced by the

Page 1-5 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 1 Introduction: Why This Resource with “Community Tools?” veterans’ time in service, these are also factors that may limit mobility for other individuals in communities. One distinguishing factor for veterans’ transportation relates to use of VA medical services, which close to 40% of veterans use and which may require long distance trips depending on where the veteran lives and the type of medical service needed. This is an issue particularly for those veterans who live in rural areas. Research shows that the recent veterans, those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, disproportionately live in rural areas. The VA’s Of�ice of Rural Health reports that veterans from geographically rural areas comprise about 31% of the enrolled Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans (2). Navigating the long distances from rural areas can be particularly hard for veterans without private transportation. Public transit may be available, but because the trips often cross jurisdictions, they may require complicated transfers with long waits to connect from one jurisdiction’s transit system to the neighboring jurisdiction’s transit system. And in some rural areas, there may be no public transit. Volunteer drivers may be available through the VA’s Volunteer Transportation Network and the DAV but there may be capacity constraints, and very few of the vehicles are accessible to those veterans who use wheelchairs. Morever, these services are not able to transport a spouse who may want to visit their hospitilized veteran. For newly returning veterans, there are other complexities. Transportation needs are usually not at the top of the list. Finding employment, perhaps �inding affordable housing or maintaining housing, paying utility bills or securing information about bene�its are often the needs that present �irst. But transportation, while appearing to be a secondary need, is critical to attaining other life goals. The needs of family members of veterans vary according to a number of factors; in particular, they relate to the speci�ic transportation needs of their veteran and whether the veteran can independently travel. The literature focuses on family members who are caregivers of veterans whose illness, injury, or condition is service-connected. One study found that more than eight in ten caregivers help their veteran with transportation and such help increases with the age of the veteran (3). Among a range of assistance that would help caregivers is improved transportation service for their veteran’s medical appointments (4). It is estimated that there are more than 10 M people caring for veterans and almost 7 M of those are themselves veterans (5).

Page 1-6 Transportation Needs of Military Service Members and Their Families The transportation needs of military service members may also overlap with those of the general public for some trips, but there are others relevant only for active military. And, notably, only certain communities have military installations, the number of which has decreased signi�icantly through the BRAC process. (BRAC is the commonly used acronym for the formal name of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.) For active military, a key transportation distinction is whether service members live on the base or “outside the gate,” that is, in the local or nearby community or in farther away communities that offer suitable housing. But on average, only 30% of military families live on base and not all bases provide transportation. The transportation needs for active military include those for service members commuting in urban areas where congestion and air quality are problems and for remote installations where off-base housing may be many miles from the actual military post; for service members who are stationed temporarily at a base other than their “home” base for training purposes and do not have their private vehicles; and for family members of active military living on or off base who may not have access to the family car. There are also needs for wounded warriors, which relate to where they are recovering, the nature of their injuries, and availability of community transportation options. This project’s research found transportation needs particularly among junior enlisted ranks. While these service members are better paid today than in the past, if married, they may be able to afford only a single automobile, which leaves the spouse without a car to meet trip needs when the service member drives to the assigned duty site. Additionally, being lower in time-in-service, among other factors, such enlisted service members are less likely to live in on-base housing, forcing them into the off-base, civilian housing market. Being off-base accentuates the transportation problems of a single-auto household because they are outside the informal family-support network that exists within the military community on-base. Some communities have worked with their local military base to provide local transportation, though security concerns regarding access “through the gate” Chapter 1 Introduction: Why This Resource with “Community Tools?” Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families

Page 1-7 are now critically important post 9/11 and impact transportation service options. The needs of family members of active duty military also vary. It is estimated that about half of service members have spouses and about one-quarter have children (6) . For military families that have only one vehicle and if that vehicle is used by the service member to get to work, family members are left without private transportation and will have a variety of trip needs, including the work trip if the spouse is employed outside the home. Other trip needs may include, for example, access to activities for the children, or access to college classes for the spouse. At one large military base in Southern California, needs for transportation back to the base from evening classes at the local community college prompted the community’s transit provider to extend its weekday operating hours to accommodate those trips. It is important to note that communities that do not have a military installation nearby may still be home to military families. Sometimes, military spouses decide to live near their families for support while their service member is deployed. Their transportation needs will depend on whether they have a vehicle and the availability of local public transportation resources. Transportaon Needs Reflect Individuals’ Daily Lives And, not surprisingly, the speci„ic transportation needs of veterans, service members, and families in any given community will re„lect the daily lives of those individuals and the places they need to and want to go, as well as the local transportation resources within the community. For those communities that want to improve and expand their local transportation resources, this report provides guidance, with an organized process to identify unmet and undermet transportation needs and to consider options—among a wide range of possibilities provided—to better meet those needs. Communities may „ind signi„icant needs for local improvements, but it is important not to let the scale of those needs limit action. Improvements can be initiated and implemented as plans and funding allow, and even small steps that improve community transportation will help increase local mobility for veterans, service members, and families. Coordinaon Among Transit, Military, and Community Organizaons It is also important to point out how the intersection of organizations involved in improving transportation for veterans and service members impacts transportation coordination—an objective of the project. The coordination process requires different groups to work together towards common goals. Just as the coordination planning processes of recent years encouraged the human services sector and public transit operators to set goals and seek Chapter 1 Introduction: Why This Resource with “Community Tools?” Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families

Page 1-8 Community Tools to Improve Transportation Options for Veterans, Military Service Members, and Their Families Chapter 1 Introduction: Why This Resource with “Community Tools?” strategies to improve mobility of shared constituencies, improving transportation for veterans and service members requires communities and military organizations to work together. Military groups, whether it is the VA, base personnel, or veterans service organizations, come from a culture of self-reliance. This can translate into “going-it-alone,” expecting to solve problems without considering community- based resources. Part of the challenge of improving transportation for veterans and service members through coordination is to improve communication about the resources available within different systems— whether those are military or veteran-based, or public transit, or human service organizations. And with greater understanding of what’s available, the next challenge is determining how and where those resources can work together to improve community mobility for veterans, service members, and families. Providing tools to improve and enhance coordinated solutions to the transportation needs of veterans, active military, and their families is a central goal of this report. For additional details on transportation needs of veterans, service members, and families, please refer to Appendix A at the end of the report.