It all started a few weeks ago when Presidential Candidate John Edwards said, “Tonight, 200,000 men and women who wore our uniform proudly and served this country courageously as veterans will go to sleep under bridges and on grates.”
Edwards’ statement is backed up by the Department of Veterans Affairs: “About one-third of the adult homeless population have served their country in the Armed Services. Current population estimates suggest that about 195,000 veterans (male and female) are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year.”
Edwards’ statement is true. In Montana you can easily find a homeless veteran. I’m glad he brought it up so more folks in the United States will see that things are not peachy for veterans.
Then, Fox News talk show host Bill O’Reilly got into the fray when he claimed there were homeless veterans out there, but not many.
No Bill, not many – just around 200,000. Of all the homeless people in America, one in four are veterans, 25%.
The problem with O’Reilly is he dislikes Edwards so much that he lost the meaning of what Edwards was talking about. O’Reilly says one thing and when he finds out it is not exactly correct, he then adds a word or two later to make it “more true.” After his initial remarks, he tried to say Edwards was talking about the economy. Of course, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s Countdown, managed to land a few head shots on O’Reilly for his comments. O’Reilly deserved it.
The fact is that many veterans are homeless because they served this country. Something they did, injuries they received, or something they saw or experienced while serving our country changed them mentally and/or physically.
Would some of these veterans be homeless if they never served in the military? Maybe a very small percentage, but not hardly as many.
Nobody in their right mind wants to be homeless. So it’s the duty of the United States of America to do all it can to help these folks be self sufficient. The VA does help, but caring for veterans is a problem that needs full-time attention, not just during election time.
The Western Word 
I couldn’t agree with you more when you say:“many vets are homeless BECAUSE they served”. Statistically it’s true too.O’reilly was blaming them for mental illness and addiction without admitting that combat PTSD is a mental illness and addictions are often the results of self-medication to treat the symptoms of PTSD. Certainly in the early 70’s with the Vietnam veterans coming home,the VA didn’t recognize PTSD and veterans suffered incredibly. Many would start their eventually lead to the streets by the early 80’s. Life on the streets had to compund PTSD. A soldier back in survival mode.And today – with the waiting time to get a decision on a PTSD claim for an Iraq / Afghanistan vet now at 188 days – and 1,500 ( a VA statistic) homeless Iraq or Afghanistan veterans, O’reilly blames them. How do we expect these soldiers to walk away unchanged? There are those who will not be able to work, and if we fail to provide benefits, and they have no family resources – how do they NOT become homeless?Check out this ocumentary about homeless vets (WHEN I CAME HOME):http://www.whenicamehome.com