One In Three American Homeless Men Is A Military Veteran

The US Department of Veterans Affairs reveals: "On any given day, as many as 250,000 veterans (male and female) are living on the streets or in shelters, and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year." Thats an awful lot, and the situation is even bleaker when you look at the percentages. (www.va.gov)

Veterans comprise 6 percent of the overall population, but they're 23 percent of the homeless. Of all homeless men, one-third are vets.

Fourty-six percent of homeless vets are 45 or older, compared to 20 percent of the civilian homeless.

The VA says that "the number of homeless male and female vietnam era veterans is greater than the number of service persons who deid during that war."

Though almost half of homeless vets (47 percent) served during 'Nam, they've also served in WW2 and every war since, not to mention during peacetime. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans cites federal figures: "more than 67 percent served our country for at least three years and 33 percent were stationed in a war zone."

Peter Dougherty, Director of Homeless Veterans Programs at the VA, candidly told the Los Angeles Times (29 May 2004): "Traditionally, what happens to you after you leave has not been a concern of the service."

To give some credit, the VA and Defense Department are doing a little to change that, but they still reach only 20 to 25 percent of the homeless vets. Many nonprofits are trying to fill the gap, from the above-mentioned National Coalition for Homeless Veterans (www.nchv.org) to local efforts, such as the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans in Boston.

this is one of john edwards biggest concerns, as he runs for the presidency.

it really is a sad thing to see those who served our country out on the street with nowhere to go.

It is a terrible thing to see, I have personally seen this myself. I see this happening every day. One part of the problem is that the military does little to nothing to retrain vets to reenter normal society.

Many typical vets do not have the necessary skills anymore to go back into society. They have a hard time gaining employment and keeping employment. A lot of this is due to PTSD which many vets secretly have and refuse to acknowledge.

It is heart wrenching to see someone that has fought to defend this nation and our values thrown away.

reply to post by whatukno


yeah, adjusting back to normal life is a terribly hard thing to do, so ive heard.

a friend of mine said his grandpa's been out of service for almost 40 years, and it took him about 20 to start to become 'normal' in society again. it took him forever to start trusting people again. he isnt homeless though, that's a good thing.

The scariest question (to me) that this brings up is this: What does this say about the current 'war on terror'? What is going to be the future of homelessness?