With all the recent talk about more refugees entering the country in the near future, I see more and more people complaining that we cannot accept refugees as long as we have homeless American citizens-- specifically veterans. First of all these are two (or three) separate issues to tackle. Second, I’m not writing this to advocate for refugee admittance or denounce our involvement in any war. As far as I’m concerned, my opinion on war does not matter when it comes to the topic of veterans becoming homeless when they return home. Regardless of reasons for being at war in the first place, the fact remains that veterans make up roughly 10% of the homeless population in America-- about 48,000 (according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development). These numbers vary drastically depending on the source. According to the advocacy group, Justice for Vets, the estimate is considerably higher: 30% of the homeless population-- 67,000 at any given time. Either way, we can’t deny this problem any longer. So why is this happening and what can we do to solve this? The problem first seems to stem from the inside out. The military strives to create dependence and loyalty in order to function properly as a larger unit. From the moment someone enters the military everything is essentially pre …show more content…
Well we have to address the issue of homeless veterans two different ways: stop it from happening in the first place while fixing the problem that already exists. Stopping veterans from becoming homeless in the first place would require an entire re-working of the military’s daily operations to create more independence before a member leaves the service. Sadly, considering that we are currently involved in war more and more each day, this does not seem to be a realistic solution at all. In fact it is safe to assume more and more veterans will be becoming homeless as they return from war in the following