highly noticeable within the community, and that is the issue of homelessness. Homelessness has been
something that has predated even the awareness that has risen over the past two decades. This is
especially true for American veterans, but it is not confined to veterans alone.
There are as many as 400,000 Vietnam war era veterans that are homeless during a period of
time within every year, and 200,000 veterans from post Vietnam service periods that end up homeless
as well. Most of these homeless veterans are men with women being at just a little over 3 percent of
these guesstimated numbers, and the majority of these people that …show more content…
The number of Vietnam veterans
alone actually far surpasses the number of veterans that died in that tragic war.
“The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that 62,619 veterans
are homeless on a given night over the course of a year, and more than twice that number are at risk of
homelessness.” (wsws.org) Albeit that veterans make up only 11 percent of the adult populace, they are
in the majority when it comes to the homeless population with one out of four homeless people being
of veteran status. There are claims that these numbers have dropped by 25 percent since the Obama
administration initiated actions to end veteran homelessness in 2010. They are working towards
eradicating veteran homelessness altogether by the year …show more content…
To shed more light on some of the even darker things that homeless people face, is the abuse
factors that many of them face and/ or go through. There have been alarming rates of domestic violence
victims that have had to flee on short notice, and they have no idea where to even begin to look for
help. More often than not, then have their children in tow as well, and this can be a very hard situation
to face for them and their children.
There have been several national surveys that have shown that 80 percent of women have
reported being abused by a husband, boyfriend, or lover somewhere in their past, and those that claim
that the violence was the firsthand cause of their homelessness are up to 57 percent. The majority of the
help that is readily available to these victims is usually focused towards more short-term help, and there
is a vast need of reform within these systems as these victims are in need of overall long-term
placements and help.
There have even been documented cases of abuse at places that are supposed to be 'safe havens”
from the streets; the shelters themselves are not always the best places for people to go in the time