Vets Make Up Large Share of Homeless Population
WASHINGTON — Every night, hundreds of thousands of veterans are without a home.
Konrad Fiedler
The organizer of Veterans of Modern Warfare’s Staten Island chapter and Gulf War veteran, Keith Schafer, with his father, William Schafer, a Vietnam War veteran.
Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report released yesterday by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit group. And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-aged and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.
The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars.
