St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Many American veterans wind up on the streets

[deadparrot]

They enlist because it's their only opportunity for a better life. Some to escape poverty, others to escape abuse. But they leave facing even bigger challenges.

They are America's soldiers. They are America's homeless.

One out of every three men stopping you for spare change or sleeping on a park bench has served our country, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and a national survey. A 2002 Washington University study found the same percentage of homeless veterans in St. Louis.

The estimated number of homeless veterans in the metro area is 1,200 to 1,500 over the course of a year.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/9982A012C52E4B3D862571580072E2F1?OpenDocument