Are we doing enough? Ending veteran homelessness: How cities around the US are doing

Please dont let these stats fool you. There are plenty of homeless vets that do not seek assistance or self identify as veterans when seeking help. Many have been out there too long and hust wont under any circumstances seek or want help. NYC was reported to have been shipping their homeless outside of the city to other communities. The stats just do not reflect the real number of homeless veterans or homeless people accurately.

Amazing how US aiding other country but, can't aide our own veterans, this is unacceptable.

COL Mikel J. Burroughs - Colonel; Let's try something a bit different.

When a city has property which is abandoned, that property can usually be rehabilitated and made fit for use (except that the city cannot afford the cost of the labor involved).

Why not give that property to the homeless veterans who are willing to provide the labor needed to rehabilitate the property and to live in it afterwards. and then use the funds that are currently going to provide "shelter for the homeless" to pay for the materials needed to rehabilitate the buildings. (Actually, the first couple of years you'd have to provide additional funding, but after that the funding could come from the amount which is no longer needed to provide "shelter for the homeless".)

If you started with some of the inner city properties and made sure that the veterans knew that they would be allowed to defend their property against outside gangs, the "ink spot effect" might well result in those inner city residents who did NOT want to live in a gang infested society clustering around the veterans areas and developing a mutual aid type of society.