U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen heard concerns from Bloomington-Normal’s veterans during a recent stop on his Hearts for Heroes tour. The Democrat from Moline has been delivering valentines throughout his Central Illinois district.
Sorensen recruited help from teachers across the district to complete the project.
“We gave them, the teachers, the homework, to have their kids make valentines for who they thought were heroes,” Sorensen said Tuesday at VFW Post 454 in Bloomington. “It’s police, it’s fire, it’s veterans.”
The campaign also includes health care workers, which Sorensen met with Monday at OSF HealthCare in Peoria.
Sorensen, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the chance to meet with veterans orients his priorities in Washington.
Housing is one issue on Sorensen’s radar. According to a 2024 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development study, the number of homeless veterans on any given night is about 32, 882. That’s an 8% drop since 2023, but the proportion of young veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan is on the rise. The department said access to affordable housing, steady income and access to health care re contributing factors.
Sorensen said he’s working to enact $25,000 federal grants for wounded and disabled veterans to make their homes accessible.
When those veterans come home, “there isn’t the funding available to make their homes livable,” Sorensen said.
Access to services
The group shared challenges local veterans face receiving services, including transportation access to the VA clinic in Bloomington, which is one of two in the country without bus access.
McLean County Veterans Assistance Commission chair Art Rodriguez said some specialty services like x-rays require travel outside of Bloomington-Normal.
“We used to be able to go to local x-ray techs, but now the VA comes out, if you’re within an hour’s drive, we now go to Peoria,” Rodriguez said. “And if you have less than 30% disability, you don’t get reimbursed for your mileage.”
Rodriguez called it a “new nightmare,” requiring veterans to change providers or processes every time a rule change gets handed down.
That’s something McLean County Veteran's Service Officer Conan Calhoun is anxious to talk to Sorensen about. He said only a third of veterans are receiving healthcare benefits they’re entitled to, because it's on the veteran to prove their injuries are related to time in the service.
Calhoun said that’s digging up trauma for veterans, who have to continually relive combat experiences.
“You are opening up Pandora’s Box, because there’s no trauma-informed folks that are taking the information, relying on records—and then be told at the end of that experience, no, that’s not service-connected.”
Calhoun said he watches congressional hearings and notices veteran’s voices are missing from the policy making that has a direct impact on their lives.
“The decisions are made; where’s the veteran?” he said. “The veterans’ service orgs, a lot of them are so out of tune and out of touch… with today’s veterans and some of the younger generations. Who’s going to be following behind that? There’s a lot bigger conversation to be had.”
Sorensen agreed that “something has to change” and said he looked forward to partnering with Calhoun to have a more in-depth conversation.
“These men and women—they sign on the dotted line to serve our country,” he said. “So, the country should serve them back.”
