Homeless Veterans in the United States

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Homeless veterans is an important and still a large topic. Historically, the homeless include a large number of veterans from every conflict the U.S. has been involved in. You may want to start with current veterans or do a simple history on the issue and address what's being done. There are a number of things to consider including age of the veteran, if they are male or female, where they are living - for example there tends to be better services in major cities and on the West Coast than East Coast for veterans as well as why they may be homeless. Currently there is a growing number of younger veterans who are homeless due to both the state of the economy as well as lack of resources available to them. Plus instead of providing appropriate medical care, most veterans are given pharmaceuticals for mental health issues but no real therapy, which contributes to the homelessness as the drugs are a partial 'fix' for what they are dealing with.

Remember that gender and race matters (in addition to age and the veteran's individual experience). Most men who are homeless are because of not being able to find a job as well as the impact serving in the military or the war had on them. For older veterans (meaning before the first Gulf War), there was a huge stigma to asking for assistance for mental health issues and/or for unemployment (this still exists but it is changing). Many homeless individuals have problems with substance use but this is caused by something - often the impact of serving in the military and/or in combat or due to loss of job. Most older male veterans have been able to get assistance from government agencies like the Veterans Administration (VA) but quality of assistance and availability is dependent upon when someone served, whether or not they have an honorable discharge and where they live. ...