The Veterans Legal Clinic at the University of Illinois College of Law has been awarded a seed grant of $15,000 from the Military Service Knowledge Collaborative (MSKC) to examine the associations of housing instability and access to legal services among previously incarcerated veterans. The mission of the MSKC is to advance research that positively impacts well-being and quality of life during and after military service for service members, veterans, and their families.

Yulanda Curtis, director of the Veterans Legal Clinic at Illinois, recently spoke with the News-Gazette about the grant and her plans for how the funding will be utilized.

"What we really want to do in terms of research is focus on veteran homelessness that results after incarceration. Some of the research will be specifically about Veterans Affairs disability benefits, and another part of that research is about child support and addressing some of the financial insecurity that formerly incarcerated veterans face when they get out of prison.

"That tends to relate to why they end up homeless afterward. So, they don't have money and they also have difficulties finding a place to live because landlords can legally discriminate against them for their criminal past."

Read the full news-gazette interview.