Why Help Veterans?

There are currently 23 million veterans in the United States. Estimates from the VA  have shown a significant decrease in homelessness among veterans since 2003 from 313,000 on any given day to 107,000 in 2009. While this reduction is promising, the needs of veterans struggling with homelessness, unemployment, and other barriers to reintegration still exist.

Of the veterans living in America today, 63,000 are chronically homeless. Additionally, 1.5 million vets are living in poverty and 634,000 live in extreme poverty and are at-risk of becoming homeless. Nearly 13,000 of these at-risk vets are women.

Although vets are a relatively small percentage of the general population, veterans make up nearly one-fifth of the homeless population. About 45% of these vets need help finding a job and 37% percent need assistance to obtain housing according to a Department of Housing and Urban Development study.

Some 2 million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and 200,000 are women. Then consider that 30-35,000 of those women are single with children.  What we are seeing is that there is a growing new generation of veterans with new challenges to face.

These struggling veterans, young and old,  are our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers and our brothers and sisters. All of them served our country. We share both the pride and problems of our military servicemen and women. At U.S.VETS we believe we have an obligation to help protect and serve those who have served and protected us. This is why we are committed to helping veterans. Find out more about our programs and services, here.