Informative Essay On Homeless Veterans

Why can society spend countless, pointless dollars on meaningless objects, but cringe thinking about donating a dollar to someone in need? By definition from the McKinney Act of 1987, a homeless person is one who does not have a fixed residence to sleep at or who has a fixed residence that is a supervised shelter (Homeless Needs para 1). During the winter of 2014, there were 49,933 homeless veterans living in the United States. Forty-nine thousand, nine hundred and thirty-three people struggling to live on a day to day basis that deserve to live in luxury and honor (Fact para 1). Approximately one out of every three homeless men is a veteran (Homeless National 1). The races and genders of all veterans are different, while the population of veterans is predominantly male. Each veteran has fought in a different war, and each veteran individually goes through different battles within themselves. Although true, there are programs to help stop and prevent veteran homelessness. Every year, the number of veterans is declining. …show more content…
Homeless veterans are usually older and more educated than a non-veteran, but 45 percent of homeless veterans have a mental illness and more than 70 percent struggle with an alcohol or drug problem (Homeless Needs para 2). These veterans come home to warm welcomes, yet those welcomes quickly fade when society realizes what kind of problems some veterans may face. These strong, honorable people may not have the ability to control what problems they are going through, so why does society run to thank the ones that have a better life, opposed to a veteran that does not? What about that scares society so much? In fact, “veterans are more likely than civilians to experience homelessness” due to having a low social and economic status, a mental disorder, or maybe even drug or alcohol problem (Fact para 4). Basically, some veterans may not be able to help their