Homeless veterans expected to increase

With more women serving in combat zones, the current wars are already resulting in a higher share of homeless women as well. They have an added risk factor: roughly 40 percent of the hundreds of homeless female veterans of recent wars have said they were sexually assaulted by U.S. soldiers while in the military, officials said.

"Sexual abuse is a risk factor for homelessness," said Pete Dougherty, director of homeless programs for the veterans' department.

Aid workers expect rise in homeless U.S. veterans
By Erik Eckholm Published: November 8, 2007

WASHINGTON: More than 400 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have turned up homeless, and the Veterans Affairs Department and aid groups say they are bracing for a new surge in homeless U.S. veterans in years to come.

Experts who work with veterans say it often takes several years after leaving military service for veterans' accumulating problems to push them into the streets.

But some aid workers say the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans appear to be turning up sooner than the Vietnam veterans did.

"We're beginning to see, across the country, the first trickle of this generation of warriors in homeless shelters," said Phil Landis, chairman of Veterans Village of San Diego, a residence and counseling center.

"But we anticipate that it's going to be a tsunami," Landis said.

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Veterans Make Up 1 in 4 Homeless in US
By KIMBERLY HEFLING – 11 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.

And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.

The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.
The Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.

In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.

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