Vietnam veteran Donald Beale told Region about his ordeal of trying to find a home when the mainstream system failed him. Photo: Shri Gayathirie Rajen.
A disabled Riverina-based Vietnam War veteran says he feels abandoned by the institutions and country he served and was “left alone” to pick up the pieces of his life after returning home.
Donald (Don) Beale served in the Australian Defence Force from 1967 to 1973. He hails from an Aboriginal military lineage of five generations of service.
He is now disabled, missing a leg and said he never imagined his greatest struggle would come decades after hanging up his uniform.
“What the freaking hell did I go to war for, when you return later on in life and get nothing,” Mr Beale said.
“We gave five generations of military service … when you’re told once, ‘We can’t help you’, you don’t bother trying again.
“My dad told me, ‘Mate, they promise you the world before you go, and you’ll fight the rest of your life to try and get it.”
Battles with bureaucracy when facing homelessness
Mr Beale said he had been frustrated with the Returned Service League (RSL) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), which he claimed failed to help him when he was facing homelessness in Lockhart.
In July 2023, the then 76-year-old had to sell his house, faced imminent eviction and had nowhere else to go.
He claimed the Wagga Wagga RSL sub-Branch told him it could only arrange a truck to pick up his belongings, which he still had to pay for. Afterwards, he turned to DVA and found it offered no provision to support him.
The now 78-year-old said his salvation came through Pro Patria Centre (PPC), a holistic health support service for veterans and first responders. He reached out to them for help just days before facing police-enforced eviction.
The Wagga-based veteran said that on the day a volunteer came to help, he was in deep distress, sitting on his kitchen floor, trying to pack what little he had left, while most of his belongings had already been thrown into a skip bin outside his home.
He claimed that PPC volunteers contacted the local RSL sub-Branch for emergency support, but were told it didn’t assist in such cases and were referred to RSL LifeCare, a specialist veteran support service.
Region understands that a PPC volunteer contacted RSL LifeCare, explained the urgency, but was told Mr Beale would need to attend in person to register. He was unable to do so, being wheelchair-bound, 70 km away and in significant distress.
Mr Beale said LifeCare informed the PPC volunteer that, even if he registered, it could take weeks for support to be approved, and that he was ineligible for a housing support package program due to his age. He also claimed LifeCare then recommended reaching out to other services for assistance.
The Vietnam war veteran said Integrated Servicepeople’s Association of Australia (ISAA) president Robert Bak stepped in to assist with his relocation, along with Lockhart RSL sub-Branch and found a property, organised lease arrangements, moved his belongings, and handled his financial affairs.
Donald Beale joined the ADF as a 20-year-old. Photo: Shri Gayathirie Rajen.
When asked about these claims, RSL LifeCare said it takes the individual circumstances of every veteran who seeks its support very seriously, including Mr Beale’s case.
“While we are unable to comment on the specific assistance provided to Mr Beale due to privacy reasons, we can confirm that he received support from RSL LifeCare over several years, including between 2020 to 2022,” a spokesperson said.
“As a not-for-profit organisation with over 110 years of continuous service and support, RSL LifeCare is deeply committed to supporting veterans and their families,
“Our services are highly individualised — tailored to each veteran’s unique needs — and delivered personally and locally to reflect the specific priorities of their communities.”
The spokesperson said LifeCare had provided 4900 nights of safe housing for homeless veterans, delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial assistance to more than 350 veterans, and helped lodge more than 3390 DVA claims last year.
RSL NSW also highlights its commitment towards veterans when contacted by Region.
“RSL NSW has a network of more than 310 volunteer-led sub-Branches state-wide that offer vital grassroots services to current and former serving Australian Defence Force personnel and their families,” a spokesperson said.
“The Wagga Wagga RSL sub-Branch has been supporting veterans and their families in the Riverina Region since 1919. Its focus is on providing care, charitable support, and camaraderie for local veterans in need – and commemoration of service and sacrifice, particularly in the lead up to ANZAC Day. The sub-Branch’s Wellbeing and Compensation Team is equipped with an Advocacy Training and Development Program-qualified advocate and currently offers compensation and wellbeing support for local veterans. Sub-Branch volunteers play an integral role in connecting veterans in crisis with the support services they need.”
The DVA also told Region it couldn’t comment on individual cases for privacy reasons.
Problems with veteran support services
In 2022, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide found that even though multiple agencies supposedly help veterans, the service is often fragmented and inaccessible.
The commission found this contributes to high rates of veteran homelessness.
Mr Beale’s experience echoes the commission’s finding that veterans often felt “used and thrown away after service – describing a sense of loss, abandonment and rejection …”.
The commission aims to address similar challenges faced with recommendations to establish a national peak body for ex-service organisations due to the lack of a unified approach, clear obligations, and good coordination between services.
Donald Beale claims he was turned away by veteran organisations when he was days away from being evicted. Photo: Shri Gayathirie Rajen.
Pro Patria board member Jacqui Van de Velde said agencies funded to deliver homelessness services often provided no or an inadequate response when veterans in crisis were referred.
“How do you walk away from someone who’s in distress and has physical and mental challenges? These situations show that these people are under great duress,” Jacqui said.
“We have volunteers step in to help these individuals find secure housing, and it’s not easy because we don’t have the resources to do that.
“Other agencies may say there’s no resources to help them … you can’t turn your back on them.”
Ms Van de Velde said that in an attempt to address veterans’ homelessness, PPC had pushed for an acute housing program; however, it failed to gain the support it had hoped for from other veterans’ agencies to form a consortium.
“We didn’t get the support from other agencies that we hoped would come in behind us to form a consortium,” she said.
“We haven’t taken it completely off the table. While that pot of funding is no longer available … there’s still the need to provide veterans with short-term housing and accommodation while we work towards more permanent solutions.”
Veteran now in a better place
After two years, Mr Beale has finally moved into a property suited to his needs.
Despite feeling “terrible” during his ordeal, he said he had no regrets serving in the armed forces.
“There are things you do in war that you would normally never do, but it’s all about staying alive,” he said.
“I got no regrets. It’s a useless emotion.
“I probably would change a few things, but I don’t regret it – because when I did it it was fun … I enjoyed it.
He said the support from PPC was a “bloody blessing”.
“I’m in a good spot and I’ve had top support from Pro Patria,” he said.
