Obama Commits to Ending Veteran Homelessness

by Shannon Moriarty · 2009-06-06 04:26:00 UTC
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Ending homelessness for over 160,000 veterans in five years is no small task. But the Obama administration has pledged to do just that. And with the recent creation of a new office, the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs' National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans, the administration is certainly moving in the right direction.

Although just one half of one percent of the VA budget is currently directed towards combatting veteran homelessness, perhaps this new office will change things up a bit. In the meantime, take a peek at their snazzy new website, it contains a lot of eye-opening information. Case in point: here are six figures that jumped out at me (all stats are from this page):

  1. About one-third of the adult homeless population have served their country in the Armed Services.

  2. Current population estimates suggest that about 154,000 Veterans (male and female) are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year.

  3. Right now, the number of homeless male and female Vietnam era Veterans is greater than the number of service persons who died during that war.

  4. Almost all homeless Veterans are male (about three percent are women), the vast majority are single, and most come from poor, disadvantaged backgrounds.

  5. About 45% of homeless Veterans suffer from mental illness and (with considerable overlap) slightly more than 70% suffer from alcohol or other drug abuse problems.

  6. Roughly 56% of homeless veterans are African American or Hispanic.

Ending veteran homelessness in five years will take a serious infusion of resources, coordination of services, and overhaul of the way we treat our vets after their service. But there's no question that we can achieve this goal with the right leadership and support.

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
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