The good news is that the number of homeless veterans in America is down significantly since 2010. According to HUD and the VA the number is 47% overall and some states are even better than that. Minnesota reports homelessness is down 57% for veterans there.
HUD’s annual Point-in-Time (PIT) estimate of America’s homeless population, communities across the country reported that there were fewer than 40,000 homeless veterans on a given night in January 2016. This change is the result of the partnership among HUD, VA, USICH, and other federal, state and local partners sparked by the 2010 launch of Opening Doors, the first-ever strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.
American Veterans Aid
This kind of American Veterans aid goes a long way towards addressing the problems our soldiers encounter when they come home. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) says the nation’s homeless veterans are mostly males (four percent are females). The vast majority is single, most come from poor, disadvantaged communities, 45 percent suffer from mental illness, and half have substance abuse problems. So there is much more to deal with than just being homeless.
President Obama hailed this statistic in a speech in Atlanta yesterday. “We have just about cut veterans homelessness in half. We’ve helped bring tens of thousands of veterans off the streets, but we’re not slowing down,” he said. “We will not stop until every veteran who fought for America has a home in America.”
Michelle Obama plans to hold an event this fall to celebrate this progress and establish additional milestones in the fight to end veteran homelessness. The president expressed his commitment to helping and serving the country’s veterans. “Every single veteran matters,” he said.
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