Is it true, one in four homeless people in America are honorable discharged veterans with medical needs?

Question

Are the streets of America full of homeless veterans who have medical diseases and mental problems from active duty to this nation? I was told one in four homeless Americans are U.S. honorably discharged veterans! Surely this cannot be true! Such a situation would be a national shame! Perhaps one in 50 or one in a hundred homeless people could be veterans, but one in four would be a monumental U.S. tragedy!!!!

The person who told me one in four homeless Americans are veterans is quoting Kimberly Hefling's article. She is a writer for the Associated Press and according to this article, it is true! I have not seen or read the article, maybe some of you have seen or heard of it?

Answer 1

Homeless veterans are growing every day. I myself find it hard to deal with the rules and red tape handed down by the government. As for the percentage of homeless, its getting much higher. I been fighting for VA comp. for 30 years, done everything possible. But I cant even get a lawyer like with your Medical from a normal on the job injury. With the VA Comp. you cant use a lawyer until it is denied form the BVA, of course this is depending on if the State Va Admin. releases to the BVA. There are a series of catch 22's that a vet finds them self in. I am staying with my Mom at 53 years old, I cant afford a place of my own, but yet I file for food stamps and get 10.00 for the month. Set on a corner and watch illegal aliens go in and out of the stores with truck loads of food, bought with food stamps. Never believe what you hear, get the facts. The fact is the US Government is killing war hero's, by prolonging the medical needs and finical support. Now I speek for want is happening to me and with other vets I speak to. Newspapers report only what makes them money.

Answer 2

I highly doubt this statistic. The total percentage of veterans in the population is not very large. If your source is going by the signs that say, "Veteran - need help," keep in mind that panhandlers have an excellent grasp of marketing. While segments of the homeless likely have some sort of mental illness, I think you'll find that they have suffered from the disorder for most of their adult lives. I'm not sure where you could find a harder statistic - perhaps the VFW or American Legion?

To add to the post below, there's a famous story about a panhandler in Chicago who was dropped off and picked up by a limo every day. He lived in a condo on the lakefront. When he died, his estate was worth millions. Panhandling was his profession.

Answer 3

She polled every homeless person? I doubt her figures very much. I worked at a homeless shelter. Lots of old boys claim it, but just can't seem to remember when, where and what they were in. NO honorably discharged vet has medical needs. The Vet hospitals get a bad rap but they do a good job.
With a well constructed poll and engineered results I can prove that one in four people in the U.S. saw Elvis driving Steve McQueen around the Pentagon on 911.

Answer 4

Vets comprise 11% of the population. I would want to check out these guys' DD-214 forms first. I did a year as a VISTA volunteer two decades ago dealing with the homeless in my community. Found out a lot of the "homeless vets" were as phony as a three dollar bill. They didn't know what unit they were with, didn't know the slightest bit of military jargon or were (in the case of those who did serve) had been thrown out of service in less than a year for having some condition which should have disqualfied them in the first place. Sure, they had honorable discharges. But, their mental problems started way before they ever donned a uniform.
Whenever the media starts up this topic I'm reminded of an award-winning documentary called "The Wall Within" which was on CBS in 1988 and was hosted by Dan Rather. It told the story of a half dozen men whose lives and health had been screwed up by their combat service in Vietnam. Trouble was none of these guys had ever been in 'Nam! One had spent most of his two years in the Navy in the brig at Subic Bay.

Answer 5

I doubt that number is correct, I am sure there are some, but one in four?... No. I believe you take the signs the homeless hold up begging for money to be honest. I have seen many programs on the homeless problem, investigator followed many of these people, and after a day of begging, many shed off their costumes in a near by gas station and got into their late model cars, including Lexus's and when home to their residents.

Answer 6

There is no direct correlation between homelessness and veteran status. There's a segment of the population who have served at some point in their life, usually only for a couple of years - just one term of enlistment. Their entire life is no more defined by their brief military service than it is by the leisure suit they wore in the eighties, or the third car they owned, or their pet ferret in 1997. Having been in the military is just a part of their history NOT the determining factor in all they'll ever do.

Answer 7

From the Heritage Foundation:
"Second, the majority of homeless are severely impaired by either mental illness, long-term drug and alcohol abuse, or a combination of the two. Third a homeless person typically suffers frdm a lack of education and, in more than half of all cases, has a criminal record. And fourth the relatively small share of those homeless because of economic factors are more likely to be victims of local than of national policies."

Based on the above information, I fail to see any significant parallel between military service and homelessness.

Answer 8

Not true.

Don't trust the 'newspapers'
One night, probably in 1880, John Swinton, then the preeminent New York journalist, was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.
There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
"The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread.
You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."

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Answer 9

1 and 4 may clam to be but that is a far cry from the truth.

Answer 10

no