From OpEdNews
By Stu Steinberg

According to many contemporaneous media sources, there are almost 300,000 homeless veterans in the United States who are living on the streets or in shelters. The Department of Veterans Affairs has estimated that more than 299,000 veterans are homeless on any given night; more than 500,000 experience homelessness over the course of a year. In 2004, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that there were 24.9 million veterans in America. If accurate, this seems to imply that five of every 249 veterans will experience homelessness in the next year. The Bureau also estimated that there were 8.2 million Vietnam and Vietnam Era veterans, making them the largest group of veterans from any period of service.

In February 2005, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that, according to the VA, There are 93,000 homeless Vietnam veterans. In the same article, the Sun-Times noted that, Already about 100 soldiers from Iraq have turned up at homeless shelters around the country. In December 2005, a veterans’ self-help agency in Brooklyn noted that they had seen approximately 60 [veterans from the War on Terror] with serious housing needs, at least six of whom spent time in homeless shelters. One of the program’s directors stated that,

With Vietnam, you did not see homeless veterans during the conflict– What’s alarming [now] is the conflict is still in progress and you’re already seeing reported cases of homelessness. This is something new.

The VA reports that almost half of all homeless veterans are Vietnam and Vietnam Era veterans. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans notes that,

Conservatively, one of every three homeless adult males sleeping in a doorway, alley, boxcar, barn or other location not fit for human habitation in our urban, suburban and rural communities, has served our nation in the Armed Forces.

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