Homeless Veterans Analysis

An epidemic is raging through the country: one that is a war on its own. It is the homeless veteran scourge. Homeless veterans have become a common occurrence in today’s society; they can be seen sitting in the street of nearly every metropolitan area of the United States. The men and women who so bravely defend the nation have been abandoned and left unprotected on the streets. This tragedy must be put to an end. While some believe that creating local housing programs that aim to assist the veterans who have lost their homes is the only solution to the homeless veteran problem, the only logical answer is to create federal programs to sponsor and financially support service members when they get home. The number of homeless veterans in the

Department of Veteran Affairs to form the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program for homeless veterans. This program was started on the initiative of President Barack Obama to end the homeless veteran epidemic by the end of 2015 (Montgomery et al. 506). The program aims to “move Veterans and their families out of homelessness and into permanent housing” by helping them rent privately owned homes (Department of Veteran Affairs). The dauntless task is divided between the two federal departments; the Department of Housing and Urban Development provides funding to local housing authorities so that they may provide vouchers to eligible veterans while the Department of Veteran Affairs assigns case managers to veterans to help them obtain the available housing. The program also provides medical care and psychological support for veterans with mental and physical disabilities (Department of Veteran Affairs). Over 79,000 vouchers have been awarded, drastically decreasing the number of homeless veterans (Department of Housing). However, in order to eliminate the issue, the program must substantially increase funding, allowing for more vouchers and case managers to be created. While the number of homeless veterans has dropped from nearly 150,000 in 2009 to close to 50,000 in 2014, an increase in funding would finally resolve the nation-wide problem (Department of Veteran Affairs). In 2011, fifty million dollars was allocated to the housing program, which provided vouchers to nearly seven thousand veterans and their families; that is approximately seven thousand dollars for each family that year (Department of Housing). An increase in ten million dollars could boost the number of vouchers to 8400 a year. A minimal increase in federal taxes or a slight decrease in senseless congressional spending would easily account for an increase in funding to