Australia reports on War veterans homeless in America

You know it is really bad with Australia has to do a report on our shame. Homeless veterans have nothing to be ashamed of but we have plenty because these men and women end up this way.

War veterans homeless in America
Updated November 14, 2011 23:35:00

An estimated 200,000 American war veterans are homeless, and unemployment among recently returned veterans is 3 per cent higher than the national average.

Jane Cowan

ALI MOORE, PRESENTER: They're meant to be war heroes, but having risked their lives for their country, they're homeless in the land of the free.

An estimated 200,000 American war veterans are living on the streets or in shelters, a state of affairs likely to be exacerbated when another 1 million servicemen and women stream home from Iraq and Afghanistan over the next five years.

With unemployment among recently returned veterans 3 per cent higher than the national average, the US president has managed to push through Congress new measures to help ex-soldiers find work, one of the few elements of Barack Obama's stalled jobs plan which has found bi-partisan support.

North America correspondent Jane Cowan has this special report from Dallas, Texas for Lateline.

JANE COWAN, REPORTER: This isn't how Larry imagined his life would turn out. Having graduated with a degree in sociology and served his country as a sniper in Vietnam, he's living beneath a freeway overpass.

LARRY, WAR VETERAN: I, 64 years old, I seven months looking for a job. Ha ha. I went to every job for - imaginable here in Dallas, Texas. I did not get one call back. No, nothing, nothing. I have degrees, you know. I have experience, you know. So, I mean, who's going to hire an old man? (Laughs).

JANE COWAN: Drugs and the death of his wife began a downward spiral.

LARRY: One day I just didn't go home. I just didn't go home. I can't - to this day, I cannot explain to you what just - I thought about going home that night and it was drugs.

JANE COWAN: Now this patch of dirt is home.

How do you ever get any rest here with the noise from the highway?


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