One Third of Homeless Men are Veterans

Posted on February 28, 2005

Well, here's a nice fact for those of you who have had the annoyance of stepping over homeless people on the way to work or shopping. According to the Associated Press, United States veterans now comprise 33% of all homeless men in America, although as a group they only comprise 13% of adult males in American society. This disturbing article describes the problem. Apparently, nearly 500,000 of our veterans will become homeless this year.

Pete Dougherty, the VA's director of homeless programs in Washington, says there are two kinds of homeless people: Some are short-timers, driven to the streets by pure economics. Others have psychiatric or substance abuse problems that contribute to chronic homelessness, meaning they are homeless for more than a year or four times within three years.
Veterans are twice as likely as other people to be chronically homeless.

Many of the vets have problems going back to a normal life after spending 18 months killing or being killed. Funding for veterans continues to be cut, and health benefits for Guardsmen are laughable. These people are putting their lives on the line every day for our country. They deserve better than what we give them in return.