Homeless Veterans In America

In America, we pride ourselves to be the best in everything we do. Such as our school systems, advance technological breakthroughs and helping people around the world. Yet people around the world knows us best for our military strength. As Americans, we have prided ourselves for taking care of our military members. We build memorials, have parades and holidays just for our troops. Most people tend to agree that we have the best care for our troops, which is correct to a certain extent. In America, most people are unaware that we have a large homeless veteran’s population across the country. Some people might agree with this statement because they might feel though the government is not doing its job. Therefore, it leads to an increase in homeless

It makes some people believe that the government is not caring about the veterans and are focusing on some other issue. There are multiple factors that can lead a veteran to become homeless. One of the biggest issues is “The psychic wounds caused by combat will reverberate over the coming years and in some cases lead to homelessness.”(Peck). In Peck view, the main cause of veterans becoming homeless is because of the injuries the troops might have received during combat. In his eyes, the brave men and women are not receiving the best quality treatment and support. Therefore, veterans have to suffer in the end. I somewhat agree with Peck statement because if a veteran has any type of permanent injury, then he or she cannot really function back into normal society. The veterans might need more help and guidance to really fit back into society. Some people might blame for the increase in the veterans homeless population because the lack of attention towards the increasing problem. The government officials did a poor job to track the number of veterans in the street. The “Officials said they failed to take into account how fast new veterans were landing on the streets.” (Holland). I personally think this general quote shows that the government barely cares about their troops and don’t think it’s a major issue.

Some places around the country are trying to combat this issue in an effective way. For example the city of New Orleans found a better way to help the veterans. The mayor made a program in which they “identify and locate each homeless veteran living in our city.’(Landrieu). The city “organized a special push … about 150 active duty military personnel and veterans joined the effort to systematically seek and engage every homeless veteran.”(Landrieu) It’s an interesting approach what did the city New Orleans to combat this issue. I think it was a smart move to check around to see the homeless population in the city. Therefore the city can create a better budget to tackle this issue. Also I think the mayor did a great job by bringing active military members to help fight this problem. The soldiers bring valuable help because they understand the struggles a veteran that might go through when returning home. While the city of New Orleans is approaching an effective system of surveying and building relationships with veterans to combat this issue. Other places are finding better methods. New York City is of one of the few cities is that effectively solving this issue. The “officials now say there are 760 homeless veterans in the city, down from 3,689 six years ago.”(Stewart). That is a major drop in the homeless veterans’ population in the city. In “2015 alone, the city