Five years ago, President Barack Obama announced an ambitious plan to house all of the nation’s homeless veterans by the end of 2015. The country has made steady progress since then, with more than 26,000 veterans moved off the streets and into stable housing, but considerable work lies ahead. As the president’s deadline approaches, Stars and Stripes will examine efforts by cities across the country to bring the remaining homeless veterans home.
-
The VA will open a transitional housing facility for veterans and soon start a planning process for the redevelopment of its 387-acre campus.
-
Living with fellow veterans in permanent supportive housing offers a healing camaraderie, an oasis of shared experience and empathy. “For some of them, being here is the first time they’ve felt connected to anyone since they got out of the military.”
-
Since 2010, when President Barack Obama launched a five-year national campaign to end homelessness among veterans, the number of former servicemembers living on the streets has dropped from over 76,000 to below 50,000. Here’s a look at efforts in a handful of U.S. cities' progress, based on figures provided by federal, state and local agencies.
-
As thousands of troops leave the military each month without jobs or a plan for permanent housing, a new text messaging program will link vets to peers who can connect them to the services and support they need.
-
-
FEATURE REPORT
-
FEATURE REPORT
-
“Being homeless in Pueblo is 10 times better than living in Oklahoma,” said Mike Tiger, who is having trouble finding work after losing his photo ID. “I like it here. Most of the people are friendly.”
-
David Williams spent 14 years living in the woods, where his lone friend was a raccoon he named Creeper. Struggling with bipolar disorder, Williams — a veteran — once couldn’t function in society. Today, he’s an ambassador helping other homeless people on the streets of Orlando.
-
Veterans are taking their own lives on VA hospital campuses, a desperate form of protest against a system that they feel hasn’t helped them. "My son served his country well," said Greg Miller, his voice breaking. "But they didn't serve him well. He had a gun in his truck the whole time."
-
Started in 2011, Student Veterans of LSU offers services to more than 900 students who are veterans or are using federal veteran benefits passed to them by a parent or spouse, and also has philanthropic outreaches to off-campus veterans. Roughly 100 students participate in the chapter.
-
To bring attention to the case of Joaquin Antonio Sotelo Tarin, various advocates, veterans and community members plan to march Thursday morning in the Central California city of Fresno.
-
When he joined the Navy in the late 1980s, Gerard Piper was an 18-year-old who wanted to get an education and learn a trade. Along the way, he got into alcohol and drugs. It's only now, decades later, that the veteran from Baton Rouge – who spent nights on the streets – is finding a new path.
-
The NYPD officer caught on viral video fending off a band of subway vagrants without reaching for his gun has handled himself well under pressure before — he’s a U.S. Army veteran who’s served in Iraq and Afghanistan, police said.
-
Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., led the House Veterans' Affairs Committee for two years, during which time he successfully garnered bipartisan support to follow through on numerous, weighty goals. However, it appeared likely Friday that he would fall short on one.
-
Christopher and Yuko Nesbitt founded Help Oki in 2014, collecting thousands of pounds of food and hundreds of toys each year for Okinawans who would otherwise go without during the holidays.
-
Paul Henderson, a former Stars and Stripes reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize at The Seattle Times for a series of meticulously researched stories that kept an innocent man from prison, has died. He was 79.
-
Help is available for veterans who ask, said Mark Hollandsworth, who manages veterans support services for HopeSource, an organization that aims to help 250 veterans per year in Kittitas, Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan, Grant and Adams counties.
-
Vietnam veteran Louis Langston has been preparing to open a store that will send a portion of the proceeds to help veterans groups such as the Wounded Warrior Project.
-
A vocational rehabilitation counselor at the VA Regional Office in Waco, Texas, is Craig Colton's friendly, gregarious nature quickly puts the people he meets at ease, the kind of guy most people would want to have a beer with. That's what makes Colton good at his job and why he so easily earns the trust of those he is trying to help.
-
MILITARY UPDATE
At a hearing this month on GI Bill claim delays, lawmakers criticized VA leaders and legacy computer systems that seem to defy modernization despite Congress year after year allocating hundreds of millions of dollars for VA information technology upgrades.
-
More than 500 veterans receive services at annual 'Stand Down' event
November 17, 2018
-
Program focuses on history of women in the military
November 13, 2018
-
His son died on Veterans Day. Now he's trying to help Coast vets transition to civilian life.
November 12, 2018
-
For many women who deciphered top-secret intelligence during WWII, their own code proved the hardest to break.
November 12, 2018
-
He served in Vietnam and lived in US for decades. Now he's a citizen thanks to veterans home
November 11, 2018
-
VA wants to build veterans cemetery in Illinois — but neighbors worry about rifle salutes, property values
November 9, 2018
-
Tales of service and sacrifice
November 9, 2018
-
Voices of veterans: New museum in Ohio is a salute to stories, not war
November 9, 2018
-
Report: California counties exceed US average in reducing veteran homelessness
November 2, 2018
-
This Marine veteran found a road out of homelessness and a path to hope
November 2, 2018
-
HUD reports drop to 37,878 homeless veterans in 2018
November 1, 2018
-
Whistleblower: Revoke tax-exempt status for embattled veterans nonprofits
October 26, 2018
-
VA's Wilkie promises permanent grave markers, other benefits for Alaska
October 21, 2018
-
Twin Cities prosecutors, defenders push to expand Minnesota veteran courts
October 14, 2018
-
Vets twice as likely to overdose fatally — what the Dayton VA is doing about it
October 7, 2018
